162 



SILK MANUAL, AND 



fiinii.sliingofmiilben7 leaves for feedingsilk worms, 

 is as much the business of t]ie fanner, ns the rais- 

 ing of corn and potatoes. We have many thou- 

 sands of acres in this commonwealth, which are 

 thought to be almost totally unfit for any agricul- 

 tural purpose, but O'ould [)rove very valuable for 

 the raising of mulberry trees. Dry, stony soils, 

 descending to the south produce mulberry leaves 

 of a better quality than rich levels or lands with a 

 northern aspect. I hope the timo will come, in 

 which the sides and the summits of every one of 

 the thousand hilis of old Massachut^itts will be 

 decorated and crowned with mulberry trees. In 

 that case, if silk manufactures flr-urish, whether 

 they belong to the fire side and firni buildings of 

 cultivators, or to incorporated companies, mul- 

 berry leaves, as well as nmlberry seeds, seedlings, 

 cocoons, &c. will be articles in as regular demand 

 in market as beef, flour, or any article consumed 

 in a family. 



Dr Lardner states, that in many parts of France 

 and Italy mulberry leaves are commonly sold in 

 market by weight, and that persons, who rear silk 

 worms are often wholly dependent on this source 

 for a supply. In other places nmlberry trees are 

 hired for the season, and from four to six francs, 

 (about 75 to 110 cts.) are paid for the use of each 

 tree. 



Some have objected to incorporating silk com- 

 panies, with the right to grow as well as to manu- 

 facture silk, lest the corporators should raise the 

 leaves ii> such quantities as to prevent their sale 

 by farmers in the neighborhood. But if the man- 

 ufacturing part of silk culture succeeds, there will 

 always be good encouragement for the agricultu- 

 ral part ; and silk companies might as well at- 

 tempt to monopolize air or sunshine as the grow- 

 ing of mulberry leaves. If silk factories flourish, 

 (and I think they will flourish, if we give them a 

 little encouragement at their commencement) 

 those factories will require mulberry leaves, co- 

 coons and raw silk to some hundred times the 

 amount of all that the owners of such factories or 

 persons engaged in their business can ever think 

 of ra sing or reeling themselves, Th(? demand 

 for mulberry leaves and cocoons, for which they 

 must be almost wholly dependent on the farmers, 

 will increase with the supply ; but without a com- 



petent supply to conunence with, there never cart 

 be much demand for those articles. Silk compa- 

 nies and their workmen will have their own ap- 

 jjropriate avocations to attend to. Artists who 

 h.ave served apprenticeships to'the riiaking of dif- 

 ferent sorts of si'k fabrics of nice texture and high 

 price, engineers capable of constructing and snjaer- 

 intending the employment of those efiicieiit and 

 gigantic laSiorers, power looms ^ and steam engines, 

 would be foolishly set to v/ork in gathering mul- 

 berry leaves ; usurping the places and occupations 

 of the farmer's women and children. This would 

 be worse than j)utting Ilercnlcs to the distaff. It 

 would lie an a!)surdity equal to the employing of 

 steam eitgines of forty horse power to pare apples, 

 or to give motion to a straw cutter ; or to use a 

 railroad car to drive cows to pasture. " It is a 

 truth'tliat the agricultural part of producing silk 

 ma}» usefully employ the fiands of a cripple, a 

 child or an idiot, and some branches of the me- 

 chanical and manufacturing ])art may task the 

 mental powers of a Bacon, a Newton, an Ark- 

 wright, or a Fulton. The Farmer who refuses to 

 patronize, or wlio uses his influence in this hon- 

 orable body to prevent legislative encouragement 

 to the culture of silk, acts a |>ai-t in as direct oppo- 

 sition to his own interest as if he were to oppose 

 the franchise of a market in Boston, or to head a 

 mob to inflict Lynch law on n)arket men. 



A strong argument in favor of the culture of 

 si'k is that it will neithwr interfere with, nor super- 

 sede, any other kind of domestic manufac- 

 ture. And some branches of silk culture can 

 never be taken out of the hands of the husbandman 

 and his family by the great wholesale manufac- 

 turers. Tiiis, however, is not the case with regard 

 to cotton and woollen manufactures. I can re- 

 member when nearly all the cotton and woollen 

 goods used in the country were of domestic man- 

 ufacture, products of the spinning wheel and of 

 the hand loom. Cotton as well as wool was cai-d- 

 ed, spun and woven by the farmei's daughters 

 and fe'male hired help; and for a farmer, or his 

 family to wear any apparel not manufactured 

 wholly, or in part by the females of his household, 

 would be held very disreputable extravagance. 



We, however, incorporate, and I am willing 

 that we should continue to incorporate, compatiies 



