142 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. [March, 



than seAvings into the country, as long as foreign fabrics are 

 admitted free from Europe, and from China paying only a 

 small duty, it must be despaired of as matter of profit. The 

 silk manufacturers in Europe, if we except the worms them- 

 selves, are the poorest fed and the poorest paid of almost any 

 class of manufacturing operatives on the continent. In 1834, the 

 prices of labor for weaving galoons f wide, was one shilling 

 one farthing sterling per groce ; this would be a great day's 

 work. At Huddersfield, where 13,000 persons, mostly females 

 were employed, the wages averaged 2^d. per day. At Tot- 

 maston, where they worked 14 hours per day, men's labor was 

 at one shilling sterling per day. In the county of Kent, 30,000 

 persons were employed in the silk business, at 6d. per day. 

 The prices, it is presumed, have not since advanced. In Ly- 

 ons, the wages of men in the silk business, is less than six 

 shillings sterling per week, and of girls not more than three 

 shillings per week. The salary of an overseer is about seven- 

 ty-five cents per day. The wages in the silk districts in Eng- 

 land, when the condition of the business is spoken of as pros- 

 perous, varies for an adult, from three shillings to eight shillings 

 sterling per wcik ; and as the article is matter of mere luxury, 

 though of almost universal use, the fluctuations in their condi- 

 tion to which these poor creatures arc subject, from the changes 

 and caprices of fashion, often reduce them to extreme distress. 

 We can easily suppose, that in some cases, they may wish they 

 had the power of the humble insect, whose winding sheet they 

 unravel, of enclosing themselves in a cocoon, from whence 

 they might emerge with wings which should bear them away 

 from their ill-requited toils and unpitied sufferings. 



We cannot contemplate such facts without exulting with re- 

 ligious gratitude, in the superior compensation, and, in general, 

 the extraordinary prosperity of labor, in our own country. But 

 if we undertake the manufacture of silk, while trade is free, 

 we must come in competition with such rates of labor. Is it 

 to be supposed that we are ready for this? The benevolent 

 mind would reluct at taking the bread from those mouths 

 which get nothing, excepting bread, and scarcely enough of 



