REARING SILKWORMS. 117 



to manufacture, it largely took the place of silk. 

 And by slow degrees, cotton, rice, tobacco, and 

 sugar took the place of silk on all the plantations 

 of the Southern States. Though a pound of cot- 

 ton would bring but about three cents, while a 

 pound of silk brought thirty-five to forty cents, 

 the cotton required less skill, and would endure 

 more abuse than the silkworms or the silk, and 

 so it came that the silk was neglected by the 

 large plantation-owners. But as the years moved 

 on, others, less able to hold slaves or large estates, 

 became more interested in the production of silk, 

 and early in the nineteenth century the multi- 

 caulis fever, as it was called, sprung up, and 

 spread over the entire country. This fever was 

 a mere frenzy or excitement, started by unscrupu- 

 lous nurserymen to sell the mulberry tree of that 

 name. So wild did the people become on this 

 question, that single slips from ten to twelve 

 inches long were sold at one dollar apiece. Many 

 of the trees then planted are growing in the 

 Southern States to-day. 



At the Interstate, State, and West India Fair 

 held in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1901 and 

 1902, a silk dress made from silk there produced 

 was exhibited. The dress was one hundred and 

 fifty years old. The silk was sent to England to be 

 woven. There are in that particular region many 

 very old mulberry trees still growing. 



