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An importation ol ten millions of dollars of silk — an export of live 

 millions of bread stuffs! The facts speak the importance of the subject, 

 and indicate the necessity that exists of awakening the slumbering agri- 

 cultural resources of our country, by introducing new and profitable 

 articles of production. Knowledge is power, in agriculture, no less 

 than in politics; information is capital, and the means of valuable im- 

 provement. The Committee conceive that the first and most import- 

 ant measure to be taken, is to acquire and circulate clear, distinct, and 

 precise information on these points: the relative value of the cultiva- 

 tion of the mulberry, and the production of silk, compared with other 

 agricultural productions in the different sections of the Union, capital 

 and labor being considered. The kind of mulberry best suited to the 

 object; the most advantageous mode of cultivation; the most approved 

 manner of managing the silkworm, and an explanation of the process 

 till the article is ready for market. The Committee incline to the opin- 

 ion that the best mode of raising silk will be for every farmer and plant- 

 er to appropriate a small portion of ground, as for a fruit orchard, for 

 raising the mulberry tree, calculating to produce as many worms as his 

 own family will enable him to manage without increasing his expenses, 

 and without permitting it, until the experiment shall have been fully 

 tried, to interfere with the regular course of his usual pursuits. A sin- 

 gle acre planted with the mulberry will produce from 500 to 600 

 pounds raw silk, the value of which to the individual would richly 

 compensate for the capital and labor employed, and the aggregate to 

 the country be of great importance. 



The fact is worthy of notice, that, notwithstanding the high price of 

 land in Ireland, where a year's rent of land exceeds the price of the 

 soil in many parts of our country, yet so valuable is the mulberry con- 

 sidered, that importations of trees from the Mediterranean have been 

 made during the last year, for the purpose of producing silk. Your 

 Committee addressed inquiries to several intelligent gentlemen who 

 were presumed competent to give them information upon the subject ; 

 and among the papers received in reply, they beg leave to ])rcsent to 

 the particular attention of the House a valuable memoir, replete with 

 interesting facts and useful information, from Edmund C. Genet, Esq. 

 and also several communications from other gentlemen, to whose at- 

 tention the Committee acknowledge their obligations. As the result 

 of these inquiries, believing that knowledge on the subject is of the 

 first importance, the Committee submit the following resolution: 



Resolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury cause to be prepared 

 a well-digested Manual, containing the best practical information that 

 can be collected on the growth and manufacture of silk, adapted to the 

 different parts of the Union, containing such factsand observations in re- 

 lation to the growth and manufacture of silk, in other countries, as may 

 be useful, and that the same be laid before Congress at the commence- 

 ment of their next session. 



