72 



III. Silk Culture. No claim has been made the present year 

 from Essex for any portion of the State's Bounty, for raising or 

 reeling Silk. The Morus Multicaulis on which great dependence 

 was placed, has failed through the severity of the winters. A small 

 but beautiful example of cocoons and raw silk were shown to me in 

 Amesbury ; and some silk handkerchiefs of a fine description were 

 produced and manufactured in Lynn, under the care of Edward S. 

 Davis. 



The silk culture is destined to become a great source of wealth 

 to New England ; and there is no reason why Essex County should 

 not fully share in its benefits. 



IV. Milk Weed. Experiments have been made with the stalk 

 of the conmion milk weed, in procuring from it a thread or fibre, 

 capable, as was represented, of making a fabric as fine and slrong 

 as flax or silk. A patent was secured for the discovery, but it has 

 not been pursued. 



V. Manufactures. There are various manufactures pursued 

 in the county intimately connected with its agriculture ; but for these 

 I refer to the Statistical Tables of the Manufactures of Massachu- 

 setts. 



The Linen Thread Factory at Andover, where flax is spun by 

 machinery like cotton, is confined to the making of twine for sail- 

 makers. The flax employed is almost wholly obtained from the 

 state of New York. They consume 150,000 lbs. per year. They 

 pay for it ten cents per pound in Troy. The farmers there obtain 

 300 lbs. to the acre, and 12 pounds of seed would be a good yield. 

 The flax which is cut in the flower is preferred to that which is 

 ripened. The former is soft, the latter tough. The superinten- 

 dent states that the water-roiied flax of Scotland is much superior 

 to ours, which is dew-rotted. He speaks of the Friesland flax as 

 preferable to any other ; and so considered in Scotland. It is 

 stronger and may be spun finer. Flax is scarcely cultivated in Essex. 

 It is considered an exhausting crop, and it will not do in a rotation 

 oftener than once in five years. 



