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HANDBOOK OF CONNECTICUT AGRICULTURE. 



Flax, wool, and leather, home grown and literally home 

 manufactured, served for clothing till the last century when 

 factories sprang up, and cotton supplanted flax, and silk was 

 added to our home grown products then the town of Mans- 

 field was celebrated for raising silkworms. The roadside 

 and many fields were planted with the white mulberry, and 

 this became the chief industry of the town ; some of these 

 trees remain as a testimony to the patience and skill of those 



MILFORD MEMORIAL BRIDGE. 



Conn. Monthly 



early days. The war of 1812 gave great impetus to silk pro- 

 duction, and fancy work was laid aside even in our cities to 

 give place to this attractive industry, the production and 

 manufacture of silk. In my boyhood I obtained eggs 

 from where a few were still reared as a productive industry, 

 and I raised the cocoons from which a member of my family, 

 familiar with the work, prepared a quantity of nice sewing silk. 

 The city boy sees wheels and engines and hammers that 

 make things, the country boy sees what God makes from the 

 seed, the bud and the flower ; " first the blade, then the ear, 

 and then the full corn in the ear." 



