PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 255 



he does it for the profit, and never gets angry. The men who 

 supply New York with flour might combine and lock up the 

 bread stuffs — and some of you might be hungry for a while. The 

 distillers might refuse to sell their whisky, and a great many 

 voters would suffer dreadfully for a time — but the commission 

 men would soon find ways of unlocking these storehouses for a 

 profit. The idea of any one agricultural product ruling the 

 political concerns of the world, is a delusion, and the merchant 

 knows it. Cotton is an important product undoubtedly; so is 

 wool; but where does silk stand in this connection ? For thou- 

 sands of years, millions of people have been cultivating silk 

 worms in Asia, 800,000 people in what was ancient Media, now 

 Eastern Russia, find happy employment in the same pursuit. In 

 Italy, France, and even in England, thousands upon thousands 

 would have to change their employment or have nothing to do, 

 if it w^ere not for the silk worms. In 1840, it was ascertained 

 that the city of Lyons alone, consumed in her manufactories 

 2,205,714 lbs. of raw silk. It takes four cocoons to the grain, 

 making 4,292,400,000 caterpillars necessary to make it; and if 

 all these threads were united in one and reeled on the earth at 

 the equator, it would form a silken cable round the Avorld of 

 52,505 strans. The annual value of the trade of Europe in silk, 

 is £55,605,000 sterling, or about two hundred sixty millions of 

 dollars in our currency. 



Suppose some calamity should happen to the caterpillars and 

 there would be no more in the world, some people w^ould con- 

 gratulate themselves that there were no more of the " great ugly 

 Avorms," and the foliage of some of our trees would be more 

 beautiful ; soon, however, we should begin to miss the butterfly ; 

 then we should wonder what had become of the singing birds of 

 summer ; then we should read about suff"erings in the manufactur- 

 ing districts of England and France — and then of starvation 

 amongst millions of people in the far East. Then commerce would 

 be greatly deranged; then this great city of yours, "the resort 

 and mart of all the earth," would be fearfully disturbed. Stew- 

 art's would cease to be the centre of so much attraction ; Flora 

 McFlimsey would be utterly disconsolate, and would have a right 

 to complain that she had "nothing to wear." Young men's 

 hearts would cease to bang against their ribs at the rustling of 

 approaching silk ; and then what would we do when wedding 

 dresses were w^anted ? No ; the cotton States might go out and 



