160 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. [March, 



the most creditable frankness, that he despairs of ever seeing 

 104 or 128 lbs. of silk produced upon an acre. I cannot say 

 with him, that I despair of such a result ; but I shall wait for 

 further trials before I am prepared to say, with confidence, that 

 more can be done than what his remarkable intelligence, skill, 

 and enterprise have effected. In respect to the actual cost of 

 producing silk, that as yet is by no means settled. Mr. Mc 

 Lean's experiment, which has come the nearest to determining 

 this matter with exactness, is, as I have shown, far from doing 

 it. First, he made no allowance for land, trees, rent of build- 

 ings, cultivation and superintendence. Second, he charged 

 the man's labor and board at half the price, three dolls, per week, 

 which it would cost with us. Third, he states distinctly, that 

 his silk cost him much more than two dollars a pound, though 

 he thinks it may be produced for this sum ; that is, as I under- 

 stand it, the mere labor of producing it can be paid for by that 

 sum, in his judgment. 



XXI. — Manufacture of Silk. — With respect to the manu- 

 facture of silk, except in a small way, the attempt in New Eng- 

 land, thus far, must be pronounced a failure. It has been fol- 

 lowed by loss and bankruptcy in almost every instance where 

 it has been undertaken. Unless the government should utterly 

 prohibit its importation, it cannot be otherwise ; and if the gov- 

 ernment should attempt this, and nothing is less likely, the rise 

 in the price would product only new efforts for its illicit introduc- 

 tion, which, as remarked, wnth an article admitting of so easy 

 concealment as silk, would not be difficult, in a country accessi- 

 ble at so many points as ours. But would the introduction of 

 the silk manufacture among us be desirable? I think not, in the 

 present condition of our population. The manufacturers of 

 silk in Great Britain, and on the continent, are wretchedly paid 

 and wretchedly fed. Whatever wealth may have been accu- 

 mulated, or whatever success may have attended the operations 

 of the proprietors of these silk establishments, the wretched 



