VI PREFACE. 



cotton, or of silk and worsted, are included in this amount. Dur- 

 ing this period, only $486,562 worth of this great amount was 

 exported ; leaving $16,111,418 for consumption. But the actual 

 amount of silks, without mixture, which are consumed by the 

 American people, or the whole cost at retail to the actual consumer, 

 may be fairly estimated at more than $22,000,000 for the year. 

 It must be even greater in this day. And the demand, which is 

 now so great, is continually increasing. Not half this amount of 

 silk was consumed eight years ago ; and since 1821, and during 

 seventeen years, the amount of silks consumed has doubled twice. 

 Asia, and the country from whence originally we derived the 

 silk-worm, has also given to America the new plant, so surpass- 

 ing in beauty, and which, from the superior nutritive quality of 

 the leaf, and the promptitude with which it is renewed, will afford 

 the abundant and continued succession of nourishment for a 

 double harvest a plant, which, from the extraordinary quality 

 and size of the leaf, will give to this new and great interest a 

 new and decisive impulse, by producing the most decided saving 

 of time in the cultivation, and an all-important saving of labor in 

 gathering the food. In this reference 1 may moreover include 

 that other new Chinese mulberry, so lately introduced from China, 

 and described at page 30; and which is also of high character, and 

 eminently splendid. Many trees of this variety, received by John 

 P. Gushing, Esq., of Belmont, Watertown, direct from his Chinese 

 friend at Canton, have been liberally disseminated by him. 



Our advantages are indeed very great; to be duly appreciated 

 they must be estimated singly and individually. How much greater 

 and more striking will they then appear, if considered collective- 

 ly. Our innumerable rivers and rapid streams, our immense 

 forests and mines, the exhaustless treasures of fuel and of flame, 

 the combined elements of water, earth, and of fire, offer resources 

 of mighty power, unknown and immeasurable, and willing aids 

 in abridging the labors of man. 



History will record to endless remembrance, the names of those 

 illustrious individuals who have persevered as the faithful guides 

 and pioneers in this great work those who, by their example or 

 writings, have served as lights to illumine our way, and to cheer 

 us through the long, dark and dreary night. 



The decisive impulse is already given already are its mighty 

 influences extending throughout our country, far and wide. The 

 Americans are awake ! Hope dawns auspicious the day and its 

 brightness will be ours. Endowed, as are our people, with forti- 

 tude, with energy, and with intellectual resources unsurpassed 

 is there one American who can doubt ? 



Most of all, might I desire to be useful, by aiding in the intro- 

 duction of a culture, which may make rich the people, even of 

 the less fertile districts, and open to our country the resources of 

 unceasing wealth. WILLIAM KENRICK. 



Jfonantum Hill, Newton, Mass., 1839. 



