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above Augusta, the people supplied much of the high country with 

 sewing silk, during the war of the Revolution.* 



In the year 1771, the cultivation of silk began in Pennsylvania 

 and New Jersey, and continued with spirit for several years. The 

 subject had been frequently mentioned in the American Philosophical 

 Society, as one of those useful designs which it was proper for them to 

 promote; but they were induced to enter into a final resolution on it 

 in consequence of a letter being laid before them on the 5th January, 

 1770, from Doctor Franklin, who was then in London as Agent of 

 the Colony, and in answer to one which had been written to him on 

 the same subject by the late Doctor Cadwallader Evans. In this letter 

 from Doctor Franklin, he recommended the culture of silk to his 

 countrymen, and advised the establishment of a public filature in 

 Philadelphia, for winding the cocoons. He also sent to the Society a 

 copy of the work by the Abbe Sauvage, on the rearing of silkworms. 

 A committee having been appointed by the Society to frame a plan 

 for promoting the culture of silk, and to prepare an address to the 

 Legislature, praying for public encouragement of the design, they 

 proposed to raise a fund, by subscription, for the purchase of cocoons, 

 to establish a filature, and to ofier for public sale all the silk pur- 

 chased and wound off at the filature; the produce thereof to be duly 

 accounted for, and to remain in the stock for carrying on the design. 

 A subscription among the citizens was immediately set on foot, and 

 the sum of £875 I4s. obtained the first year;t eggs and white mulber- 

 ry trees were imported, and a digest of instructions composed, pub- 

 lished, and distributed. Until the white mulberry trees were fit to 

 allow of their leaves being plucked, the worms were fed upon the 

 leaves from the native trees, and were found to agree perfectly well 

 with them, and to yield excellent silk. It is believed that all the silk 

 produced during the continuance of the Society, was from food fur- 

 nished by native trees. A spirit for the silk culture was excited 

 among the citizens, and many garments are still possessed by fami- 

 lies which were made from silk raised by their forefathers. The 

 war of the Revolution put an end to the patriotic association, and sus- 

 pended, in a great measure, the silk culture — there being no longer a 

 sale for cocoons; but many persons continued their attention to it, 

 and others resumed it after the termination of the war. 



The knowledge of the proper mode of rearing silkworms, and of 

 winding the silk, was greatly promoted by the publication of a paper 

 on those subjects, in the 2d volume of Transactions of the American 

 Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, which the late Doctor John 

 Morgan procured from Italy, through a silk mercantile house in Lon- 



* Thomas McCall, Esquire: answer to the silk circular. 



fThe loss of tiie minutes of the Society prevents our knowing the amount subscribed 

 in subsequent years. Itisaproof of the anxiety of the British Government, in respect to 

 the silk culture in the Colonies, that, in the year 1769, an act was passed for the* further' 

 encouragement of the growth of silk in North America, granting 25/. for every 100/. 

 valae of raw silk raised for the next seven years, and smaller bounties during the two 

 following periods of seven years. But no mention is made of this act by Doctor 

 Franklin in his letter, nor does it appear that any premium was claimed by the Society 

 in consequence of it. 



