ON MULBERRY TREES AND SILK. 47 



year's publication. There are many manuals extant, 

 but they cannot be depended upon for correctness. 



My method of managing the silk after the cocoon 

 was formed, I have given the committee in the ap- 

 plication for a premium. The reeling and manufac- 

 turing was performed by my wife and the females of 

 my family, as handling silk can best be done by 

 female hands. Indeed, I consider nearly all the 

 labor of raising silk, after gathering the leaves from 

 the field, most appropriate for females. And here I 

 would state my views, that one great advantage in 

 the silk culture, is to be derived from the circum- 

 stance, that pursued as a collateral branch of agri- 

 culture, it will give profitable employment to the 

 female part of the farmer's family; since the music 

 of the spinning-wheel and the sound of the shuttle 

 is no longer heard in our dwellings; and almost every 

 farmer has more or less help that is inefficient at the 

 more laborious parts of his business, such as infirm 

 persons, females, and children; and who could cul- 

 tivate and reel silk as well as more efficient hands. 

 It would, moreover, form a delightful task for females 

 and youths, whose inquiring minds would be thereby 

 cultivated and enlarged by viewing the operations 

 of nature in the formation and various changes of the 

 silkworm. It may be out of place here for me to 

 speak of the moral tendency of the silk culture, but 

 I must assure those who have never viewed the 

 wonderful operations referred to, that if "an unde- 

 vout astronomer is mad," an undevout silk grower, 

 must be no less insane. 



I am constrained to say, that I felt strong doubts 

 as to the practicabii ty of the silk culture here, be- 

 fore I attempted an} experiments, and was carried 

 along with the tide of opposition that seemed to set 

 so strongly against this enterprize. But being de- 

 termined to satisfy myself by actual experience, I 

 commenced experiments on the first introduction of 

 the improved varieties of the mulberry; and having 

 watched with deep interest the progress of this cul- 



