572 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



ceive how the aid which the stale miglit afford, 

 and ouijjht to give, to bring into action the (ior- 

 niant industry of her own ppople, cnn fairly htj 

 placed upon the same ground vvilli the national ta- 

 riH' policy. 



The difficulties I have referred (o, have no 

 doubt fallen under your own observation. Take 

 for example the p pulaiion around and within 

 reach of llie cities and towns — many of them are 

 to be seen either in the markets with melons or 

 scanty supplies of ill-cultivated vegetables, or 

 driving about a small load of wood for sale. On in- 

 quiry it will generally be found that nine-tenths 

 of them are small landholders, have lamilies, and, 

 with the usual fortune of the cabin, pretty iarcre 

 ones too. In regard to the venders of wood, that 

 the father of the family derives their sole support 

 of his family (and a scanty one it is) from the 

 %vood cart, that his father, and grand-father, if he 

 had one, did the same thing, having neither in 

 the present or past generation the remotest idea 

 of improved agriculture. That each one has at 

 home a larger or smaller number of hail" grown 

 boys and girls ; three or four of whom 0)ay occa- 

 Bioiially be seen accompanying the cart (o town. 

 The necessities of the father? leave the children 

 to grow up in ignorance, olien in idleness ; he Imp 

 not the means to educate them, nor time to attend 

 to their habits or morals. How much labor is loFt 

 in these cases which might be most prolirably and 

 happily employed in producing eilk-^-how niurh 

 idleness and vice are lefl. to keep out industry and 

 virtue, by leaving these poor people to drudge 

 through life, generation alter generation, wiihout 

 one effort to help them ! Talk to the father — tell 

 him of the advantages he mijj-ht derive by direct- 

 ing his attention and employing his children in silk 

 growing, which in a few months will produce him 

 more than years of his present drudgery, at the 

 same time that it will render them all more com- 

 fortable, and enable him to impart to his children 

 the blessings of education — and in a very large ma- 

 jority of cases he will be found willino; and anx- 

 ious to make the trial. But the daily bread of his 

 family which he has got all his life by the market 

 or the wood cart, Vt'here is that to come fi-om whihi 

 he is learning to produce silk and encountering the 

 first difficulties of a new occupation? And the 

 question is a natural and reasonable one. But ifa 

 helping hand be held out to him ; if he can be sure 

 of his subsistence until he can rely upon the new 

 occupation lor it ; every industrious and temperate 

 man of them will readily become a silk ijrower. 

 JHow strong an appeal is here, to the wealth and 

 intelligence which every county and town of the 

 B:ate contains! Could the wealth and the time of 

 those who have both at command, be more nobly 

 employed than in such a cause as this 1 



I have mentioned one description only of our 

 people; but there are thousands of the same de- 

 Bcription, though subsisting differently according 

 to circumstances, all over the state; and it is in- 

 cumbent upon those who are in better circum- 

 stances, to do what ihey can to improve their con- 

 dition. In time of war, if the man of wealth be 

 drafted for service, he can hire a substitute ; but if 

 the lot falls upon his poorer nein;hbor, whose fami- 

 ly depends upon his labor for support, and on his 

 presence for protection, he must shoulder his mus- 

 ket and take the field, for he has no means to hire 

 a substitute. There have been many such cases ; 



ihey are inseparable from the various circum- 

 stances m life ; and 1 do not speak of them in the 

 dptesiab!e spirit which seeks, for unworthy pur- 

 poses, to array the poor against the rich, as you 

 will do me the justice to bflicve. The hardships 

 incident to poverty claim, and they have, the sym- 

 pathies of those in comfortable circumstances. 

 But this is not enough. Cannot and ought not 

 the wealth and intelligence of Virginia to asso- 

 ciate lor the purpose ol' encourasinsr the produc- 

 tion of silk by the poorer class cf our people? 

 And how can this be best efl'ectedl Is it not 

 practicable to form a society in every county east 

 of the mountains, who might raise a lurid by ue- 

 ncral subscription according to the ability of i's 

 individual members, to be applied not as a <?ra- 

 tuity, but as a premium to the industrious poor, 

 upon their labors in the silk culture. To the col- 

 lection and dillueion among them of the requisite 

 information in reirard to the whole process of feed- 

 ing the worm, reeling and preparing sewing silk, 

 &c. ; in short, every thing which might be neces- 

 sary to enable them to derive the largest profit 

 upon their industry. If but one family in a neigh- 

 borhood could be got successiiilly under way, 

 others would soon follow, until in all probability 

 thousands of females and children who are now 

 unable to earn a subsistence, would be rendered 

 cotnloitable aiul happy. 



] say nothing of the useless portion of our co- 

 lored population, some of whom are to be found 

 upon almost every farm in Vir<xinia. If thfir 

 owners are content to maintain them in idleness, 

 that i- their affair; and thouifh considerable profit 

 might no doubt be drawn fi-om the em[)loyment of 

 elderly and youn<.' slaves in this business, the im- 

 portant benefits of employing them, would be no- 

 thing in com[)aiifon with that which would flow 

 from a general diffusion of this branch of industry 

 among the class of our white population I have 

 mentioned. 



While in Philadelphia, about 12 m.onths ago, a 

 gentleman of that place, who has travelled all over 

 Europe, is a man of accurate observation and ex- 

 tensive infirmation, remarked to me in substance, 

 "that Viriiinia ouifht to be a great silk growing 

 state. You have," said he, "greatly the advan- 

 tage, especially as regards climate and labor; yet 

 the norihern people will beat you at it, under all 

 tl.'e disadvantages of a worse climate and dear la- 

 bor ; and so far from employing that |)oriion of 

 your slaves who now do nothing, in this most pro- 

 fitable branch of indiisiry, I doubt not that in two 

 or three years the Yankees will be going over 

 your stale, and wherever a plantation of mulber- 

 ries is to be fifund, feeding the silk-worm in shares 

 wiih the proprietors, by means of the same uselcts 

 negroes that you ought to employ in it yourselves. 

 And it will be better for you than the present stale 

 of things, though not so well as if you would do 

 it for yourselves." He remarked that the specu- 

 lation in morus muliicaulis was at an end ; that 

 with many, neglect and indifference to the proper 

 use of the plant, would for a while succeed it; but 

 that depressing causes would alter a while disap- 

 pear, and ours become a silk growing country — 

 the most important results of which vvouldJ|not 

 consist in the establishment of great companies 

 and cocooneries, but in its more general diffusion 

 as a branch of household industry. 

 I wish I could give you his observations in full, 



