150 



SECTION XLV. 

 CLIMATE OF AMERICA; SILK ESTABLISHMENTS, &c. 



THE amount of silk which is imported into the United 

 States, and left for annual consumption, has at this day 

 become very great. The fabrics of silk, so surpassing, 

 will take the precedence of others, so far as they excel 

 them all in delicacy and in softness, in eminent beauty 

 and in strength, and the demand and consumption of 

 silk will go on, and that continually, augmenting more 

 and more. 



The silk of America is found to contain a fibre, 

 stronger, and of a quality superior to that of almost any 

 other country. This appears to be a point which has 

 been established by incontrovertible evidence. Speci- 

 mens have been examined by the Chamber of Commerce 

 at Lyons, at a very late date. Other intelligent French- 

 men, both here and in that country, had before exam- 

 ined and compared, and attested to the truth of this im- 

 portant fact. 



The causes of this superiority may be traced either 

 to soil, or what is more probable, to our fine and serene 

 climate during summer. 



The climate of America, on the side of the Atlantic, 

 is more constant and invariable in the States of the 

 North, than in those of the South. In those of the 

 North, the destructive vernal frosts are unknown, or but 

 of rare occurrence : for in these States the frozen earth 

 is for the most part protected during winter at the freez- 

 ing point by the usual covering of snow ; this covering 

 is preserved from dissolution by the piercing cold winds 

 of the north. During our winters so intensely cold, and 

 so fortunately prolonged, vegetation slumbers, nor 

 awakes till the summer has come, and the danger is past. 

 During winter, the silk-worms exists but in embryo, and 



