162 



portion of which specie only is paid, makes a formidable item 

 in our national expenditures. If then, without reference to the 

 production of raw silk for exportation, upon which many san- 

 guine persons have calculated with a confidence much more 

 reasonable than is generally allowed, by the employment of la- 

 bor at present not available we can to any considerable extent 

 prevent this expenditure or supply this want, the pecuniary gain 

 will be great, but it will not equal the moral gain. To all the 

 arguments of the utter impracticability of doing any thing to 

 advantage, and to the sneers with which many persons always 

 meet the subject, it is enough to point to the little town of 

 Mansfield, in Connecticut, where, under very ordinary and Inn- 

 ited facilities and against many disadvantages, the culture of 

 silk, for more than half a century, has been a source of large 

 and substantial income and a full remuneration of the labor em- 

 ployed in its production. 



In Charlemont, the silk culture has been prosecuted by Jo- 

 seph Field with moderate but with uniform success. For feed- 

 ing, he has cultivated only the white mulberry ; and it is well 

 known how much this tree may be improved by culture. James 

 Deane, of Greenfield, has continued his experiments with great 

 intelligence and zeal, and has produced to a fair profit as beau- 

 tiful an article of raw silk as any market can show.* 



XIX. Flax. — Flax has been sometimes cultivated to con- 

 siderable advantage in Sunderland and Gill. In Sunderland, 

 500 lbs. and from twelve to fifteen bushels of seed have been 

 obtained to an acre. In Gill, upon four acres of land 1600 lbs. 

 of flax and 50 bushels of seed have been produced. Flax un- 

 doubtedly might be cultivated in many places to advantage. It 

 has generally been considered an exhausting crop, and that it 

 would not bear repetition on the same land oftener than once in 

 five or seven years. In some towns in New York, where it is 

 largely cultivated, the farmers repeat it once in three years, as 

 they think without disadvantage. This practice is compara- 



* Appendix, D. 



