600 



F A k M.JE !{;&' REGISTER. 



[JSo. 10 



new western slates to allempt to produce these 

 leaves at that price, on even their richest soils. 

 The new soulU-vveHterri stales luive an equality in 

 climate with the old souihrrn elates it is true, bul. 

 while they i)ave an e;xcess o(" the most productive 

 poils lor siiirar auJ coLlon, and a deficiency and 

 dearness ol' laborers to culiivate then), 'hey will 

 not surely be tempted to divert any portion of their 

 capital and labor to the production oi' mulberry 

 leaves at 25 cerits per 100 ibs. Yet even at this 

 low valuation, their proiluction vvill be profitable, 

 politic, and highly desirable in a national view. 

 Jn all the new states the public sales of <Tovern- 

 menial lands have throw;i into private hands much 

 more rich soil than can be cultivated in twenty 

 years! From llie commencement of the system 

 in 17S7, to 1834 inclusive, or uv48 years, the whole 

 amounted to upwards of thirty-seven mi lions of 

 acres; while h'oin 1835, to 30ili June 1837, or in 

 2^ years, the sales amounted also to u[)Wards of 

 tl\irty-t:even nnllions of acres 1 ! Until these are 

 settled, it will be unprofitable and mexpedient lor 

 the new slates, either western or south-western, 

 to engage in the rival production of silk with the 

 old southern slates. 



Under our free trade conffderation, every staple 

 of agriculture will be produced the most in those- 

 states where it can be most cheaply raised. The 

 coilon-arowiiiix districts have hence been constantly 

 travelling lurther south and west ; and hence the 

 silk-growing districts will finally be clusiered in 

 the old southern stales. But let tlie southern 

 p'aniers "first be sure they are right, and then go 

 ahead."' Let them iioi pi"op;igate the Manilla n)ul 

 beiryon any soil which will yield iliem in other 

 staples more than .^ 4 net profit per acre per an- 

 num; and let them be content with selling the 

 leaves at 12^ cents per 100 lb., if at that rate the 

 morus nsulticaulis will yield iheni a net profit of 

 $4 per annum for every acre of their poorest soils. 

 Let both the propagator of the jjlant and the leed- 

 ers of the worm cousiiler the silk culture to be only 

 a collateral branch of larming, like the rearing of 

 poultry. Let them consider it only as a means ol 

 employing poor| lamls, and leeble hands, which 

 would be otherwise idle and unproductive; and 

 ihey may then challenge the world to rival them 

 in the production of raw silk 11 Let them also 

 consider its importance as a means of attracting 

 an emigram population of small cultivators to oc- 

 cupy their hitherto worthless soils, and the mere 

 value ol the silk itself will shrink into comparative 

 insignificance when taken into the estimate of the 

 vast additions which will thus be made to iheir 

 power, prosperity and tranquillity, in a thousand 

 channels. 



After all the noise which has been raised by 

 speculators, the reflecting stalesihan may be sur- 

 prised at the very small surface of ground, and "he 

 comparatively small number of laborers, which, 

 with only one crop of cocoons per year, are really 

 requisite to supply the United States — Europe — 

 the whole world — with raw silk 1 ! Take "the 

 certainly not loo high" estimate of the national 

 silk convention of Baliimore; i. e. 51 lbs. raw silk 

 per acre! One hundred thousand acres would 

 then yield 5,100,000 lbs. raw silk, a quantify aul- 

 ficient to supply (at the very least) twice the ave- 

 rage annutil consumption of the United States of 

 manufactured silk in all its (brms ! ! Yet 100,000 

 acres would be scarcely missed, if struck oil the 



I map, or separated from the jurisdiction, of old Vir- 

 ginia! 



> To raise that ?ilk the highest estimates would 

 I employ only 500,000 (eeble persons only six weeks 

 in eacli year, equivalent to the steady employment 

 of only 60,000 (lersons a year ; that is, if we al- 

 low four days' labor to be requisite t<i produce one 

 I pound ol' reeled silk. Yet, if 1 have understood 

 'the calculations of G. B. Smith, esq. the highest 

 authority in the United States, he does nor make 

 the average labor to exceed two days to each 

 pound of silk ; and at that rale the number of la- 

 borers for six weeks would be reduced to less than 

 250,000 fjersons! But take myesiiniaie of 25 lbs. 

 r'cled silk per acre, and tlien 5,000,000 lbs. reeled 

 silk vvill require l)ut 200,000 acres of the poorest 

 SLiiis of the somhern states, or about \he half oC 

 one per cent of the superficies of Virginia! How 

 does this agree wiih the assumption of Judge 

 Comstock, that 35,000,000 of morus mullicauhs 

 will not suflice to supply the litt'e state of Coimec- 

 ticul ! when tested by the doctrine of G. B. Smith, 

 that lor a permanent plantation to make silk there 

 should be only 2420 trees upon an acre? But as 

 the latter signed the estimate of the convention of 

 51 lbs. reeleil silk per acre, less than 25,000,000 of 

 morus multicaulis would sufiice to plant the 100,000 

 acres requisite to produce the 5,100,000 lbs. of raw 

 silk. Hence let the speculators' cry of deficiency 

 in this year's plaming be ever so loud, 1 am satis- 

 fied that by the Is* of November there will be a 

 greater nitmber ol' buds of the morus multicaulis 

 in the Uniieil Slates than will be requisite in the 

 year 1840 to grow all the leaves necessary to make 

 5,000,000 lbs. of raw silk ; and I hence congratu- 

 late tlie old southern states on the liict that the 

 epoch Ims arrived for the bona fide culture of silk. 

 Now, sir, although you believe my '^estimates pf 

 profits and products lobe generally too low'? let us 

 see whetiier they do not present sufficient encour- 

 agement to the extension of silk culture throuirh- 

 out the old southern states. Aithoimli you be- 

 lieve that I have allowed too much (5000 pounds 

 of leaves) as the product to lie expected from the 

 ''poorest soils,'^ yei your belief that 1 have allowed 

 too little in all the steps of their conversion into 

 silk, induce me to believe that you do not consider 

 too hiifh mv final estimate of 25 lbs. of raw silk 

 per acre. In either way, the proportionate value 

 of the leaves, on the trees, \v\\\ be one-sixih, or at 

 the cocoonery one-third, of the price of the reeled 

 silk ; and hence with reeled silk, at S3 per pound, 

 the leaves on the trees (be they more or less) will 

 always be worth .f 12 50 cents ; "and every culti- 

 vator in Virginia knows that thin is a much better 

 profit than is obtained, not only from the poores', 

 but Irom those much belter than the poorest soils; 

 perhaps from half of all the land now cultivated in 

 grain." The very great encouragement that [ 

 then offer to the southern states may be summed 

 up in the sim/?/e/(2C/s that with the lowest estimate 

 of 25 lbs. ol silk per acre, at the lowest price of $3" 

 per lb., or .^75 per acre, I deduce the fact that 

 the value of the leaves on the trees will amount to 

 .^12 50 cents per acre per annum on the ^'poorest 

 sofZs." The same lowest esiimafes also afford the 

 highest rational encouragement to the conversion 

 of those leaves into silk by the fijeblest and other- 

 wise least productive laborers. Deduct 50 cents 

 li)r the cost of the leaves on the trees, and ^2 50 

 cents remain to compensate the laborer lor trans- 



