rilE FA 



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ElliS' KEGISTEK. 



Vol. V. 



JUNE 1, 1837. 



No. 2. 



EDMUNO RUFFIN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. 



REPOUT TO THE ROUSE OF nEPRESEiVTATIVES 

 OF THE UNITED STATES 0-\ SILK. 



JRcad, aiul laid upon the table, February 25, 1837. 



Mr. Ailams, ofMassaclnifCtts, from the Commilfcc 

 oil 3riuuil;ictiire;=, to which the subject hud been 

 releneil, iiuule the Ibllowing repoii: 



The Committee on AlanufhctureP, to whom, at the 

 last ^^ession orConiiress, was reierred a resolution 

 ol'the house, iiistruclinij: them to inquire into the 

 expediency of proniotinir the cuhure and manu- 

 lacture of silk in the United States, respectfully 

 report: 



That, in fulfilment of the ins'ruction of the house, 

 JNIr. Andrew T. Judson, of Coiuiecticut, then a 

 tuemher of the house, and of I he committee, was 

 iiulhori'/ied and requested by the committee to con- 

 tiime and pursue the inquiries which, for some lime 

 before, lie had already commenced, to obtain from 

 various parts of the United States the inlbrmation 

 resnectiui? the actual condiiion and j-jrospecfs of 

 those important articles of cultivation which might 

 most eiiectively promote the purposes of the reso- 

 lution of the house; that those inquiries were ac- 

 corilingiy pursued with equal perseverance and 

 infelliinMice bv Mr. Judson, but without his beinn; 

 able to couipfete them belbre the close of that ses- 

 sion of Congress; that, previous to that time, his 

 services being required in another department, he 

 resi.<xned his seat as a member of the house. 



But Mr. Judson did not, on that account, inter- 

 mit or relax the researches upon which he had de- 

 voted his time and attention in relation to the cul- 

 tivation and manufacture of silk. He obtained the 

 assistance and co-operation, in the prosecution of 

 his inquiries, of F. G. Comstock, secretary of the 

 Harttbrd County Silk Society, and editor of the Silk 

 Culturist, a periodic.ui journal published at Ilart- 

 fl )rd, and especially devoted to this interesting cul- 

 tivation. Twenty-two numbers of this valuable 

 work have been transmitted by Mr. Comstock to 

 the committee, together with a practical treatise 

 by him on the culture of silk, adapted to the soil 

 and climate of ihe United States. 



A letter from Mr. Judson of the 21sf of January 

 last, to the chairman of the Committee on Manu- 

 factures, contains a concise summary of the infor- 

 mation collected by him pursuant to the charjie of 

 the committee, and in furtherance of the views in- 

 dicated by the resolution of the house. The chair- 

 man is instructed, by the committee, to present that 

 letter to the house, and to move that it be received 

 as a part of their report. 



Jonx QuTNCv Adams. 

 House of Representatives U. S., Feb. 25, 1837. 



Canterbury, C)n., January 2\, 1837. 



Sir — Having had the honor to be a member of 



ihp Committee on Manufactures, at the last session 



of Conirress, when that committee was instructed, 



bv a resolution of the house, '-to inquire into the 



' Vol. V— 9 



culture and manufiu-.ture of silk in the United 

 Slates," and having been directed by the commit- 

 tee to make the re|iort, I have devoted that atten- 

 tion to the subject which its nature, and my other 

 duties, would allow; and now have the honor of 

 conuiiunicating to you the result of my investiga- 

 tions, that it may be submitted to the members 

 now composing the committee on manufactures. 



It was my intention to have prepared a report at 

 the last session, but the time intervening between 

 the assignment of the duty to me, and the close of 

 the session, rendered it utterly im[)racticable. The 

 gentlemen who had engaged, and were engagins, 

 in the business, were scattered throughout the 

 whole extent of the country, and it was impossi- 

 ble to ascertain what progress they had iimde, in 

 the short tinte allotted me. The want of this in- 

 formation, and the suggestion of a gentleman 

 whose time is exclusively devoted to the introduc- 

 tion of the business, atid who kindly prortijred me 

 the use of his extensive correspondence, and the 

 aid of his personal services, in collecting the facta 

 during the recess, induced n^e to defer it till the 

 present session. Under these circumstances, 1 

 have thought the subsequent resignation of my 

 seat in congress, would not exonerate me from 

 the discharge of the duty thus imposed, or furnish 

 an apology for neglecting it. In addition to this, f 

 was aware the brief jieriod prescribed by the con- 

 stitution for the present session would be inade- 

 quate to a thorough investigation, should the duty 

 of preparing a report be assigned to another mem- 

 ber of the committee, and the expectations of the 

 house and the public must, at least for a time, be 

 disappointed. This explanation will, I trust, ex- 

 empt me fiom what otherwise might appear to be 

 an officious interference with the business and du- 

 ties of the committee. 



It is already kmown to the committee, that the 

 culture of silk has been attempted in this country 

 at different periods of time; the principal, how- 

 ever, of" which, fill within the last century. It 

 would be interestinrr, and probably useful, to trace 

 the history of this branch of rural economy from 

 the firsi attentpt to introduce it in Virginia, in 1623, 

 by James J. to the present time; but, as it iias been 

 compiled and embodied in a manual prepared un- 

 der the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, in 

 pursuance of a resolution of the house passed on 

 the llih of May, 1836, I have deemed it advisa- 

 ble to confine my inquiries to the present state of 

 the culture and manuflicture of silk, and the more 

 immediate causes which have produced it. 



The present slate of these branches of Ameri- 

 can industry, and the interest which is so exten- 

 sively felt in relation to them, owe their origin 

 principall}' to the efforts of a few patriotic gentle- 

 men of the county of Hartford, in Connecticut. In 

 the year 1834, they formed an associotion under 

 the name of the "IlartfbrdCounty Silk Society," for 

 the purpose of collecting and disseminating practi- 

 cal information relating to the best methods of cul- 

 tivating the various species and varieties of the 

 mulberry, and rearing the silkworm. To facilitate 

 their operations, and open a channel of cojnmu- 



