20 THE HISTORY OF THE 



Then came the disastrous winter of 1834, which utterly 

 destroyed many orchards of tender fruit trees and did 

 great injury to the young mulberries. Rust and scab and 

 other diseases completed the work of ruin. The industry 

 was checked at once. Many cut down their nurseries or 

 allowed them to run to waste, and there was a general 

 belief that the climate rendered the culture impossible. 

 But Mr. Perry and a few other enthusiasts still had 

 faith. 



Temple Cutler of Hamilton made a detailed statement 

 of his success with the Morus Multicaulis or Perotted 

 Mulberry, a hardier variety than the Morus Alba or 

 White Mulberry. His confidence knew no bounds. 



Should silk one day rival all our other staple commodi- 

 ties, it would not excite my surprise. . . . Is it to 

 be credited that a people so renowned for enterprise and 

 industry as those of New England would shrink back 

 from even a trial of their skill to raise silk? . . . 

 Should we make the trial and should we succeed in intro- 

 ducing an employment that would tend to keep our young 

 men from wandering away, leaving the tombs of their 

 fathers, often to find an early grave among the infected 

 prairies of the West; and our young women from flying 

 to the manufacturing towns to be immured in loathsome 

 prisons, where all improvements in household concerns 

 with them must cease, a great and philanthropic pur- 

 pose will be accomplished. 



The industry made a brief recovery with the introduc- 

 tion of the new variety of mulberry. Mr. Cutler, report- 

 ing for the committee in 1843, remarked with much 

 severity upon the multicaulis speculation, which had 

 dealt the industry a well nigh fatal blow. Unprincipled 

 agents had hawked the trees around and caught the un- 

 wary with dreams of extravagant profit. The tree itself 

 was brought into disrepute and odium cast on silk cul- 

 ture, so that it became a subject of ridicule. Many aban- 

 doned it for this reason alone. Morus Multicaulis became 

 a by-word and a jest, and silk culture took its place be- 



