PREFACE. 



The culture and manufacture of silk is becoming a subject 

 of much interest in this country, and it requires no spirit of 

 prophecy to foresee that it will ultimately become one of its 

 staple productions. These branches of national industry and 

 economy have long engaged the attention of older countries, 

 whose soils and climates admit of the cultivation of the Mul- 

 berry and the rearing of the Silk Worm and even in coun- 

 tries whose atmospheres are too humid for the delicate con- 

 stitution of the Worm, the manufacture of silk has been 

 prosecuted as a fruitful source of national and individual 

 wealth. As the subject is exciting much attention and in- 

 terest in this country, a very brief history of its discovery 

 may be both useful and interesting. 



The Silk Worm was originally a native of China, and the 

 adjacent parts of Asia, where it makes its cocoons upon the 

 tree on which it feeds. It was there also fed and domesti- 

 cated long before it was known elsewhere. It was first car- 

 ried into Persia. In the year 552, two monks, at the instance 

 of the Emperor Justinian, succeeded in carrying anumbero^ 

 the eggs, concealed in hollow canes, to the isle of Cos. In 

 the same century, Justinian caused the Silk \Vorm to be 

 introduced into Constantinople. They were thence carried 

 to Greece, where, and in the Greek Empire, they were con- 

 fined for six hundred years, In the twelfth century, they 

 were introduced into the island of Sicily by the King, whence 

 they spread into Arabia, Spain, Italy, France, and other Eu- 

 ropean countries. From Italy the manufacture of silk was 

 iatroduced into Derby, in England, in 1718, by a Mr. John 

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