48 ON MULBERRY TREES AND SILK. 



ture, and been engaged with some assiduity in ex- 

 perimenting on the subject, I have come decidedly 

 to the conclusion that it will become a great and 

 profitable branch of agriculture, a business of im- 

 mense importance to us as a nation, and as individu- 

 als. And should silk one day rival all our other 

 staple commodities, it would not excite my surprise. 

 But the business is yet in its infancy, although far 

 more has been done the present season than its most 

 sanguine friends contemplated. After encountering 

 all the opposition generally attendant on any new 

 enterprize, the silk growers have thus far succeeded 

 in establishing the fact, if nothing more, that the 

 business is practicable and profitable in this country. 

 The sound of " humbug," of " merino sheep mania," 

 and of " multicaulis mania," which we have heard, 

 has been found to be a mere phantom, and has no- 

 thing to do with practical silk growing. The fact 

 is, we shall never succeed in raising silk, unless we 

 try. 



Is it to be credited that a people so renowned for 

 enterprize and industry as those of New England, 

 would shrink back from even a trial of their skill to 

 raise silk? Inhabiting a climate, equalled by no 

 other in the world, except that of China, as to the 

 great desideratum, (dryness,) excelling all the humid 

 climates of Europe, where only one half the worms 

 hatched are calculated to come to maturity, and 

 where the execrable siroc winds often prevail to 

 the destruction of whole broods of silk- worms, and 

 where also, in many of the silk growing kingdoms 

 the heavy tax of thirty three cents is paid for every 

 pound of silk raised, and sixteen cents for every 

 mulberry tree. Favored, as we are, with a free 

 government, where industry is never taxed, shall we 

 fear to enter into competition with those foreign 

 vassals? Should we make the trial, and should we 

 succeed in introducing an employment that would 

 tend to keep our young men from wandering away, 

 leaving the tombs of their fathers, often to find an 



