HISTORY OF SILK. IB 



24,157,563 Ibs.; worth $120,787,580. Of this amount 

 659,881,283 came from Italy alone. 



At the present day, the silks which were consumed in 

 Great Britain alone, so late as 1835, amounted to the 

 enormous sum of $28,282,582 annually, at the whole* 

 sale prices, besides the whole amount of all they ex* 

 ported. 



The sudden and extraordinary extension of the silk 

 manufactures, both in Prance and in England, during 

 the last 18 years, has been mainly ascribed to the ma- 

 chine invented in France by M. Jacquard; and the 

 powerful impulse thus given, has been assigned to the 

 Jacquard Loom. This loom is stated to perform all 

 those labors which had heretofore been exclusively con- 

 fined to the most skilful hands, with important economy 

 of time, and of labor in the preliminary steps, and is so 

 decidedly superior to all other looms, for all the curi- 

 ous varieties of figure-silk weaving, that it has super- 

 seded them all, both throughout France and England. 



Yet in our own country, so highly favored in all res- 

 pects by nature, the successful introduction of the silk 

 culture, is mainly due to individual exertion. One day, 

 the cultivation of the mulberry, and the growth and 

 manufacture of silk, in the United States, will become 

 a very important resource of wealth to the nation. Un- 

 supported and alone, the work has wonderfully begun, 

 and is now taking deep and permanent root in the soil 

 of our country. 



I have before stated, that, according to the report of 

 the Secretary of the Treasury, the value of silks 

 imported into the United States during the year ending 

 30th September, 1835, amounted to $16,597,980: 

 this being the original or first cost in the foreign coun- 

 tries. During this period, only $486,562 worth of this 

 great amount was exported : and the actual cost of the 

 above to the American people, or the whole, retail cost 

 to the actual consumer, may be estimated at more than 

 $22,000,000 for the year. Most of all this was imported 

 from Italy, Switzerland and from France. Formerly, 



