No. 124.J 185 



these, and the silk culturist asked no more for the successful working 

 of his efforts, (Great cheering.) 



Mr. B. then alluded to the great number of letters, corroborating 

 these statements, which the convention had received from all parts 

 of the country ; and named them in the following order : " Arkan- 

 sas, Mississippi, North-Carolina, Maryland, 'The Far West,' Wis- 

 consin, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Con- 

 necticut, Rhode-Island, and Maine. Yes, ' down east,' with all its 

 chilling breezes, can grow silk, said he : I have here the fullest and 

 most satisfactory documentary evidence to prove it. I do not mean 

 to say that Maine can compete with the Middle and Southern States 

 in the culture of the article." He would make no such comparisons, 

 but this he would say, silk could be successfully cultivated, wherever 

 corn could be cultivated ! — (Protracted applause.) 



Mr. B. then expressed the thanks of the convention to the Ame- 

 rican Institute, for the vigorous measures they had adopted to promote 

 the interests of the silk business, and expressed the hope that the 

 silk specimens in the horticultural room, would be carefully examin- 

 ed by all. He then adverted (in a strain of quiet humor) to the 

 fact that he wore a velvet vest and cravat, grown and manufactured 

 among the green stumps of Ohio: that he should be happy to tell 

 his audience something about them, only his good mother always 

 taught him never to talk about his own clothes, especially when he 

 happened to have something rather nice — rather above the common 

 run of things. (Laughter and cheers.) But if his audience would 

 come and shake hands with him, he should be very happy to show 

 them his jacket! (Roars of laughter, and cries of go on.) He then 

 bespoke the kind regards of the auditory for the cause of silk cul- 

 ture — an enterprise that was yet, in his opinion, to clothe millions 

 now not born, in this happy land, bequeathed to us by our fathers. 

 (Loud applause.) A word before we part. Here I present to your 

 inspection a manuscript copy of a w'ork on silk, written by the pen 

 of that good man, Dr. Styles, of Yale College. It is a full, detailed 

 account of the culture of silk from 1763 to 1790, during which in- 

 terval he was zealously engaged in philosophical experiments in feed- 

 ing the silk-worm. All the great facts which the Doctor here re- 

 cords, are now found to be true; for the same sun shines, and the 

 same winds blow. The volume is prepared with the utmost care, 

 and belongs as a bequest to the library of Yale College. It is ex- 

 actly in the state in which the worthy Doctor left it, bound with the 

 very string which his own hands had tied, and surrounded with all 

 the veneration with which respect for the honored dead can invest it. 

 Here it is, (holding up an old, thick, marble-covered volume, of let- 

 ter paper size, bound with a great silk cord — a relique of days gone 

 by. The audience evinced their respect in a general, but suppressed 

 buzz of welome greeting.) My friends, I would pass it round, but 

 it has been left in my charge, with sacred orders to preserve it safe 

 and sound, and I cannot run any risks with a volume so precious • 

 but if any of you desire to see it, come to my rooms, and there you 

 shall have a full and sufficient examination of its contents. (Cheers, 

 [Senate No. 124.J Y 



