100 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. [March, 



imported, that many have thought it would be best that we 

 should make our own clothes ; and by this means lessen our 

 importation, which indeed would be better than to run into an 

 endless and irrecoverable debt ; but there is now a way 

 opened by which, if we are not wanthig to ourselves, we may 

 not only continue but increase our importation, for if the same 

 cost, labor, and time, which we expend in making one yard of 

 cloth, if laid out in raising silk will procure two yards of the 

 same sort of cloth, and manufactured by more skilful hands, it 

 is easy to see which is the most eligible method." 



In 1772, as appears from the manuscript journal of president 

 Stiles of Yale College, his family engaged, to some extent, in 

 the culture of silk, and their production was sent to England 

 to be manufactured, a sample of which cloth, presenting a sin- 

 gularly beautiful fabric, together with the journal itself, is now 

 in my possession. 



About the year 1770, a filature was established in Philadel- 

 phia, and it is a remarkable fact that from the 25th of Jime to 

 the 15th of August 1771, 2,300 pounds of cocoons were 

 brought to the filature to be reeled, or were bought by the 

 managers. These came from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and 

 Delaware.* 



About the year 1760, the culture of silk was introduced into 

 Mansfield, Conn., and some of the neighboring towns. It has 

 been pursued ever since that time, to a small extent, in several 

 other places in New England ; but it cannot be said to have 

 maintained its foothold in any other situation than in Mans- 

 field. In other places, where it planted itself with every 

 favorable prospect of success, it presently expired. In Mans- 

 field, Conn., it has continued to be pursued to the present time. 

 The largest amount of raw reeled silk reported to have been 

 produced in any one year in Mansfield, as was stated to me in 

 that town, has been about seven thousand pounds. In general, 

 however, it has notT exceeded three thousand pounds per year. 

 The inhabitants of Mansfield have been wholly dependent upon 



* Hazard's Register of Pennsylvania, p. G4. 



