No. 85. J 523 



four weeks in advance of me in their feeding operations. Late feed- 

 ing is so hazardous that it is hardly worth while to attempt it, and 

 therefore my crop has been again a diminished one. Hence I am led 

 strongly to caution silk growers against planting mulberry orchards 

 upon any localities subject to untimely frosts. Get upon the highest 

 hills you can find. Our summers in the northern States are short at 

 the best, and to lose one-third, and that the best third of the season, as 

 I have done now for three years in succession, amounts to a very se- 

 rious drawback. At the same time every year's experience and obser- 

 vation augments my confidence in the entire practicability of the silk 

 enterprise in this country. The elementary questions upon which 

 the business, as a permanent branch of rural industry, is based, appear 

 to me to be definitively settled, and nothing is now wanting but the 

 capital and enterprise of our business men to push the enterprise 

 vigorously forward, and secure the great results aimed at. 



