94 FACTS RELATING TO GROTON, MASSACHUSETTS. 



MULBERRY TREES. 



More than eighty years ago during my early boyhood, a 

 craze struck our good old Commonwealth, in favor of the 

 mulberry tree. It was thought then that the cultivation of 

 this tree would encourage the care and growth of the silk- 

 worm, and thus indirectly be the means of adding another 

 industry to the occupations of our people. To such an ex- 

 tent did this feeling go, that the State took part in the move- 

 ment, and at different times published several manuals under 

 a Resolve of the Commonwealth. In fact a new word came 

 into use, now rarely or never heard — seri-culture, the culture 

 of the silk-worm. Several men in Groton set out on their 

 farms a large number of mulberry trees, in which they hoped 

 to enrich themselves as well as the town. I remember that 

 George Farnsworth on Farmers' Row had one or two fields 

 of this tree on his land. There was another field nearer the 

 corner of the road to the Red Bridge ; and one near the 

 Champney house. There were also a few other specimens in 

 scattered places that enthusiastic men hoped would be the 

 source of gain and profit to the owners of land. Perhaps 

 even now some of these trees, or those grown from their seed, 

 may be still living. 



I am told that the silk industry in the neighborhood of 

 Northampton is a survival of the attempt made fourscore 

 years ago to introduce the mulberry tree into this Common- 

 wealth. 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 



The following certificates are printed, with other similar 

 ones, in the " Boston Patriot and Daily Chronicle," June 13, 

 1818, and were given at the instance of General Henry A. S. 

 Dearborn, who had written " An Account of the Battle of 

 Bunker Hill." The Account was first published in " The 



