CONGRESS ACTS 143 



the culture of silk. This Manual was prepared under 

 the direction of Secretary Richard Rush, and submitted 

 to the Speaker on the 5th of February, 1828. It com- 

 prises an illustrated volume of 220 pages. 



Silk culture was now agitated everywhere. Congress 

 took it up time and again. The Senate published a 

 treatise on the subject in August, 1828, by De Hazzi, 

 Counsellor of State, Germany, who had been attracted 

 by the resolutions of the House of Representatives. 

 State legislatures considered the culture of silk. Public 

 meetings of all sorts took up the refrain, and it was 

 echoed from housetop to housetop from Maine to the 

 Gulf. The House of Representatives of Massachusetts 

 had the question up in 1831, and it passed a resolution 

 that "his Excellency the Governor be requested to 

 cause to be compiled a concise Manual, to contain the 

 best information respecting the growth of the Mulberry 

 tree, with suitable directions for the culture of Silk, 

 and that this manual be distributed in suitable numbers 

 in the city of Boston, and to every town in the Com- 

 monwealth. That to defray the expense thus incurred, 

 he be authorized to draw his warrant on the treasury 

 for a sum not exceeding six hundred dollars." Jonathan 

 H. Cobb, of Dedham, who had had considerable success 

 in making silk, was chosen to write the manual. 

 The book quickly went to second and third editions. 

 In the second edition, 1833, the author makes this 

 explanation: "Since the publication of the former 

 edition of this little work, the Legislature of Massa- 

 chusets having further noticed it by ordering an addi- 

 tional number of copies to be purchased for further 

 distribution in the different towns of this Common- 

 wealth; and the Congress of the United States hav- 



