AMERICAN EDITION. 7 



It has been ascertained, by laying before silk worms at the same time 

 various kinds of mulberry leaves, they will eat first the white, next the 

 red, and lastly the black, in the order of the tenderness of the leaves. 

 The tartarian holds a high place in their esteem. The red mulberry, 

 morus rubra, the second in the order of preference, is indigenous to the 

 Middle and Southern States, and is remarked by botanists, as growing 

 from Virginia to Louisiana. Abundant experiments have demonstrated 

 that the white mulberry may be successfully cultivated still farther North 

 in the United States. The Chinese assert " that their mulberries grow in 

 all soils, and with every aspect ;" which, from the extreme industry and 

 sedulous care of that people, is not to be doubted. Early efforts were 

 made to naturalize the silk worms in the American Colonies by the British 

 Crown and chartered companies, in Virginia in 1662, and in Georgia and 

 South- Carolina in 1732. They failed, after some partial success. The 

 failure has been ascribed to various causes, such as the more profitable 

 culture of cotton and tobacco, the sparseness of population, the distant 

 market ; but in no instance that we have seen, has it been charged to 

 climate, ill success of the mulberry, or atmospherical influences, which 

 oppose so fatally the extension of the culture in Western Europe. From 

 a careful review of those early experiments, we are satisfied that the mea- 

 gerness of the population, and the distant market for their raw material, 

 were the effective checks to the prosecution of the silk culture in Virginia, 

 South-Carolina, and Georgia. The aspect of things is materially chang- 

 ed within the last century ; the wilderness is now a populous country 

 the fifteen or twenty thousand inhabitants are many millions the raw, 

 thrown, or manufactured silk would now find a ready purchaser or con- 

 sumer without crossing the Atlantic and speedy remuneration be the con- 

 sequence to the grower. 



At the hazard of prolonging these prefatory remarks to an inordinate 

 length, we think it not irrelevant here to give, in the briefest form possi- 

 ble, some general facts upon this subject. The value of silk imported 

 into the United States in 1836 was $22,862,177. The annual value of 

 silk manufactured in England is 14,000,000, or about $62,000,000. 

 Four million pounds of raw and thrown silks are annually imported, at 

 about 1 5s per pound. France exported in 1824 manufactured silks to 

 the value of 100,000,000 francs, or about $19,000,000. Raw silk is sold 

 in France at twenty-two francs per pound, or about four dollars eighteen 

 cents. One pound of raw or reeled silk may be manufactured into six- 



