CLIMATE OF AMERICA. 153 



consideration, as to a subject of vital interest and im- 

 portance. 



The culture of silk was introduced into America at a 

 very early date. James I. of England, more than two 

 hundred years ago, not only sent over to Virginia the 

 mulberry trees and the silk-worms, but he also composed 

 a book of instruction on its culture, and endeavored by 

 every mode to encourage its growth, as much as he 

 hated and endeavored to discourage the growth and use 

 of tobacco. Aided by the encouragement thus afford- 

 ed, and by legislative enactments, the cultivation of silk 

 flourished for a time both there and in Georgia, even 

 when opposed to the lucrative culture of tobacco, of 

 rice, and of indigo, these last being annual productions, 

 and yielding a profit both sudden and more immediate : 

 and a king and a queen, and of England too, might 

 well be proud of the garments of silk which they once 

 wore these being the productions of their own colo- 

 nial country, even of America. One day they may 

 wear them again. 



In other States, too, the silk culture was making hope- 

 ful progress ; and at Philadelphia, Dr. Franklin had al- 

 ready established a filature, when the war of the revolu- 

 tion commenced. 



For seventy years the raising of silk has been the reg- 

 ular profitable employment of many of the farmers of 

 Connecticut during the early part of the summer. 

 Theirs, however, seems to have been a primitive system, 

 not altogether perhaps unlike the system which was 

 practised in China 4000 years ago. The common reel, 

 and common spinning wheel and loom, constituted the 

 chief amount of the machinery which was known to 

 them, until very lately; the silk-worms being fed in 

 dwelling houses, or sheds, or barns, no fires being af- 

 forded to them at at any time, nor indeed was it ever 

 supposed to be needed by them in that favored climate, 



The introduction of the wonderful machines for spin- 

 ning wool and cotton, and the power looms, which are 

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