PREFACE 



TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



THE favorable reception by the public, of the first and a large 

 edition of this work, has induced me to offer a new volume, with 

 extensive additions and improvements from the new and abun- 

 dant materials which have come to hand. 



Particularly have I noticed many of the improvements which 

 have been adopted in some of the silk establishments and manu- 

 factories which have so lately arisen into existence in the various 

 sections of our country, as well also as those very important im- 

 provements which have so recently been adopted in France. For 

 here chiefly it was, and with reason, that I expected to find, ex- 

 emplified in practice, some of those improvements, the most sig- 

 nal and decisive, of the latest day. 



The system of raising silk, which 1 have more especially recom- 

 mended for America, is, in many respects, another and separate 

 system from that which is usually practised in the less favored 

 sections of Europe. It is the system particularly adapted to our 

 own highly favored climate to our more serene atmosphere, and 

 almost perpetual sunshine during summer, and to the peculiar 

 requirements of our people. 



Silk is believed to be eminently adapted to the soil and climate 

 of every division of the Great Republic. Our serene atmosphere 

 is peculiarly favorable to its growth, and the prolonged and vigor- 

 ous state of vegetation during our summers. The genial climate 

 for silk is ours, and the highly favored soil of one whole continent 

 of the great western world, which, by an especial providence, 

 with the exception only of Mexico, has fallen to our share, and is 

 ours exclusively. 



The annual imports of Britain are four million pounds of raw 

 and thrown silk, at a cost of about l 5s. sterling ($5 55) per 

 pound. But the annual value of the silk manufactured in Eng- 

 land is 14,000,000 sterling, or more than $62,000,000. The 

 manufactures and exports of France also, as I have elsewhere 

 stated, are enormous. The value of silks imported into the 

 United States, in the year ending in September, 1836, was 

 $22,862,177 ; besides more than $6,000,000 in value, of goods 

 composed of part silk, and part cotton or worsted ; but this was 

 a year of excessive importation, and is not stated as a just average. 

 But the value of silks imported into the United States during the 

 previous year, or the year ending in September, 1835, amounted 

 to $16,497,980 ; this being the original or first cost in the foreign 

 country. Neither the articles of raw silk, nor any of those nume- 

 rous and elegant fabrics, which are composed of part silk and part 



