V iilTE-FRUITED MULBERRY-TREE. 453 
wine and the production of silk. His samples of wine and silk, which were 
transmi ted to England, were thought deserving of notice by the Patriotic Sod 
ety for the Encouragements of Arts, who awarded him a gold medal accompa 
nied with a premium of fifty pounds. In January, 1772, the SSl 
the silk manufacture, at Charleston, shipped for England, four hunXd and fifty- 
five pounds of raw silk, of more than an ordinary quality of the growth of Pel 
rysburgh, in that province Notwithstanding this stimulus to further efforts, the 
quantities afterwards raised by the colonists were very small, and the cost of pro- 
duction proved too great for successful competition with the silk of other conn- 
tries. 
In the year 1769, on the recommendation of Dr. Franklin, through the American 
I iiilosophical [society, a filature of raw silk was established, by private subscrip- 
tion, in Seventh street, between Market and Arch streets, Philadelphia It was 
placed under the direction of an intelligent and skilful Frenchman, who it is 
said, produced samples of reeled silk, "not inferior in goodness to the best'from 
h ranee and Italy. Between the 25th of June and the 15th of August, 1771 
there were bought by the managers, two thousand three hundred pounds of 
cocoons, all the products of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. Nothing 
further, of importance, appears to have followed from this undertaking, having 
been put to an end by the American revolution. A similar enterprise was again 
attempted in Philadelphia, in 1830, under the direction of M. J. D'Homergue, and 
cocoons were brought in abundance to the establishment, from all parts of the 
union, and so continued for some time afterwards; but, for the want of capital 
the undertaking failed. 
In Connecticut, attention was first directed to the rearing of silkworms, in 1760. 
Dr. Aspinwall, of Mansfield, urged on by patriotism, used his best exertions, to 
introduce this important branch of rural economy. He succeeded in forming 
extensive nurseries of the mulberry at New Haven, Long Island, Pennsylvania, 
and other places, with the aid of a warm and zealous coadjutor, the Rev. Dr. 
Stiles, at that time president of Yale College. One half of an ounce of mulberry 
seeds was sent to every parish in the colony, with such directions as their knowl- 
edge of the business enabled them to impart. Through the exertions of these 
gentlemen, the legislature of Connecticut, in 1783, was induced to grant a bounty 
on mulberry-trees and raw silk. From some cause or other, in a few years, the 
bounty was withdrawn, the business languished, and in 1793, the town of Mans- 
field produced only two hundred and sixty-five pounds of silk. It may be said, 
however, to the honour of Connecticut, that she is the only state in the union, 
which has continued the business, without suspension, and probably produced 
more silk from the time of her commencement, up to the year 1S30, than all the 
rest of the states together. 
In about the year 1830, the project of rearing silkworms, and establishing fila- 
tures of silk, was renewed in various parts of the union, and the subject was 
deemed to be of so much importance, that it not only attracted the attention of 
congress, but has since received encouragement from the legislatures of several 
states, by offering bounties for all the raw silk produced within their limits, for 
certain periods of time. But, instead of tracing the progress of this branch of 
industry, for the last fifteen years, in the United States, and entering into the 
subject in detail, we are compelled for the want of space, to refer the reader to a 
work entitled "The Silk Question Settled;" containing the testimony of one 
hundred and fifty witnesses, being the Report of the Proceedings of the National 
Convention of Silk-growers and Manufacturers, held at the American Institute, 
in the city of New York, in October, 1843. According to the Report of the com- 
missioner of the United States Patent Office, however, for the year 1844, the 
amount of silk cocoons produced in that year, in the several states in the union, 
