PRACTICAL FARMER, 



163 



to manufacture woolleu ami cotton goods by 

 . water and by steam power. We thus sanction 

 the use of, and lend a liand in establishing cer- 

 tain agents and machines whioli have rendered 

 some branches of domestic industry entirely obso- 

 lete, and caused family spinning wheels and looms 

 to be as mtich out of fashion as high heeled shoes 

 and hoop petticoats. This .js the less to be re- 

 gretted because substitutes for such wheels and 

 looms may perhaps, be found in the mulberry 

 hedge, the farmer's cocoonery and the domestic 

 siik spinner. 



Many persons are of opinion that largo factories 

 are greatly and permanently injurious to domestic 

 industry, and tq the greatest good of the greatest 

 number. To such erroneous notions I beg leave 

 to ojjpose the facts and the reasons contained in a 

 "Report of a Committee of the House of Com- 

 mons in Great Britain on the Woollen Trade." 



" You*!- committee have the satisfaction of see- 

 ing that the apprehensions entertained of factories 

 are not only vicious in princi|jle, but they are 

 practically erroneous, in such a degree that even 

 the very opposite principles ought to be reasona- 

 bly entertained. Nor w-onld it be difficult to 

 prove that the factories, to a certain extent at least, 

 iuid in the present day, seem absolutely necessary 

 to the well being of the domestic system ; supply- 

 ing those very particulars wherein tjne dotnestic 

 system must be acknowledged to be inherently 

 defective ; for it is obvious that the little master 

 manufacturers cannot afford, like the nsan who 

 possesses considerable capital, to try the exi)eri- 

 ments which are requisite, and incur the risks, 

 and even losses, which almost always occur, in 

 inventing and perfecting new articles of manufac- 

 ture, or in carrying to a state of greater perfection 

 articles already established. He cannot learn, by 

 personal inspection, the wants and Irabits, the arts, 

 iind improvements of foreign countries; diligence, 

 economy and prudence, are the requisites of his 

 character, not invention,- taste and enterprise; nor 

 would he be warranted in hazarding any pai't 

 of his small capital. He walks in a sure road as 

 long as he treads in the beaten track ; but he 

 must not deviate into the paths of speculation. 

 The owner of a factory, on the contrary, being 

 commonly possessed of a large capital and having 



all his workmen enjployed under his own imme- 

 diate superintL-ridenco may make experiments haz- 

 ard speculation, invent shorter or better modes of 

 performing old processes, may introduce new arti- 

 cles, and improve and |)erfect old ones, thus giv- 

 ing the range to his taste and fancy, and thereby 

 .alone, enabling our manufactures to stand the 

 competition with their rivals in other countries. 

 Meanwhile, as is well worthy of remark, (and ex- 

 perience abundantly warrants the assertion,) many 

 of the new fobrics and inventions, when their suc- 

 cess is once established, become general among 

 the whole body of manufacturers; the domestic 

 manufacturers themselves thus, benefitting hi the 

 end from those very factories wliich had been at 

 first the objects of their jealousy. The history of 

 almost all other manufactures in which great im- 

 provements have been made of late years, in some 

 cases at an immense expense and after numbers of 

 unsuccessful experiments, strikingly illustrates and 

 enforces the above remarks. It is besides an ac- 

 knowledged fact that the owners of Victories are 

 often among the most extensive purchasers at the 

 halls, where they biiy from the domestic clothier 

 the established articles of manufacture, or are able 

 at once to answer a great and sudden order; 

 while, at home, and under tlieir own supgrintend- 

 ance, they make their fancy goods, and any arti- 

 cle^ of a newer, more costl}', or more delicate 

 quality, to which they are enabled by the domes- 

 tic system to apply a much larger proportion of 

 their capital. Thus the two systems, instead of 

 rivalling ai-e mutual aids to each other; each sup- 

 plying the other's defects, and promoting the oth- 

 er's prosperity.'' 



When I first began to turn my attention ta 

 siik culture, I was apprehensive that th^ climate- 

 of New England was not favorable to that branch, 

 of industry. I thought that the Southern States 

 would have greatly the advantage of the Northern 

 by reason of their warmer and longer summers ; 

 and that, by obtaining several crops of cocoons ia 

 a season, our brethren in that part of the ud.soq 

 would possess such superiority as to render alj 

 competition of the .inhabitants of New Englaad 

 unprofitable if not impossible. But readin<' tbe 

 following passage in Dr Lardner's Treatise on the 

 Culture of Silk, together with some other coositi.. 



