128 THE EVOLUTION OF OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



trace the history of the attempts to raise silk in the 

 New World, we should find that it is intimately asso- 

 ciated with the efforts to grow the European types of 

 grapes and to make wine. But the experiments in 

 silk culture were even more persistent, and they were 

 frequently the subjects of legislative encouragement 

 and regulation. The very early efforts in Virginia 

 were largely instigated by James I., whose insistence 

 upon the feasibility of raising silk in England is as 

 well known as his strenuous efforts to discourage the 

 cultivation of tobacco in Virginia. The earliest writ- 

 ing directed to any special crop in the New World 

 was devoted to the raising of silk, and independent 

 books and monographs have continued to appear until 

 our own time. Justin Winsor's "Narrative and Criti- 

 cal History" records that "The King addressed a letter 

 to the Earl of Southampton with a review of Bonceil's 

 treatise on the making of silk, and this was pub- 

 lished by the Company in 1622. * * * 

 The Company also published, in 1629, Observations 

 * of Fit Rooms to keepe silk wormes in." 

 In 1650, Edward Williams, under the signature of 

 "E. W. Gent.," wrote an essay on Virginia, in which 

 is an account of "The Discovery of Silk -worms, with 

 their benefit. And Implanting of Mulberry Trees. 

 Also the Dressing of Vines, for the rich Trade of 

 making Wines in Virginia." After painting a vivid 

 picture of the profit of silk -growing in China, Persia 

 and other countries, he rises to Virginia and its mar- 

 vellous great wild silk- worms, "a Countrey which Nature 

 hath no lesse particularly assigned for the production, 

 food and perfection of this Creature then Persia or 

 China, stored naturally with infinities of Mulberry- 



