REELING SILK. 89 



steps in the process of manufacture. The culture 

 and manufacture of silk in all countries, has been 

 kept distinct and prosecuted by men of different situ- 

 ations and pursuits the former being growers of the 

 raw material, and the latter manufacturers of the al- 

 most infinite variety of fabrics, of which silk forms 

 the whole or a component part. 



The imaginary impossibility of manufacturing silk 

 in this country, especially the finer and more delicate 

 fabrics, has hitherto prevented skilful and enterpris- 

 ing agriculturists from engaging in its cultivation on a 

 large and profitable scale. It has been supposed 

 that American ingenuity was inadequate to the pro- 

 duction of those fanciful and beautiful textures, which 

 are considered so essential to the elegance and per- 

 fection of female dress, and that we must forever be 

 dependent on the skill arid ingenuity of India and 

 Europe for their fabrication. Though the inventive 

 genius of American Manufacturers, and particularly 

 the Yankees, has long been proverbial, yet they have 

 hitherto, by common consent, accorded to their for- 

 eign brethren a decided superiority in the manufac- 

 ture of silk. It has also been supposed that European 

 and India fabrics were constructed by aid of expen- 

 sive and complex machinery without which they 

 could not be manufactured. It is true European in- 

 genuity has invented labor saving machines, by which 

 her manufacturers are enabled to compete with the 

 native skill of China : but after all, the patient and 

 persevering Indian succeeds in the manufacture of 

 fabrics, which, for delicacy of texture, cannot be ri- 

 valled by tho European, aided by the labors of the 

 most scientific machinist. 



Silk looms in Europe, are of the most simple con- 



*8 



