REARING SILKWORMS. 101 



than any that had been imported. A large 

 filature was established in Savannah. This fact 

 encouraged many women to continue the produc- 

 tion of silk; but, very unfortunately, this was 

 burned, and with it large quantities of raw and 

 reeled silk. Soon followed the Revolution. The 

 fearful struggle of the century, when the colonies 

 threw off the yoke of the " mother country," and 

 being but young and poor, their first inhabitants 

 had no time to look for the luxuries of life. 

 Daily bread called for their utmost ambition, 

 and in supplying this all their energies were 

 engrossed, and the silkworm and its work were 

 lost sight of, and almost forgotten. With the 

 peace that followed the Revolution, came the 

 cotton-gin. Cotton and slave-labor combined to 

 keep back for a time all efforts in silk-production. 

 In 1825, "The British, Irish, and Colonial Silk 

 Company" was organized, ^ith a capital stock of 

 five million dollars, to introduce silk-culture into 

 Ireland. To promote the interests of this com- 

 pany, the celebrated work on silk and silkworms, 

 by Dandola, the Italian savant, was translated 

 into English. This company failed for want of 

 practical knowledge of the necessary require- 

 ments of the silkworm. They understood neither 

 the tree nor the worms.^ Notwithstanding the 

 failure of this large company, fine silk has been 



