82 THE CALIFORNIA 



than even grain-growing regions ; and where will you 

 find the reason if not in the fact that in the former case 

 there is profitable domestic labor, and in the latter there 

 is not ? If the tenants whose abodes are among the 

 hills which are covered with bleating flocks and lowing 

 herds, are found continually making excursions down 

 and buying up the beautiful valleys beneath them, what 

 may we not expect to see when portions of these hills 

 are covered with mulberry trees, and millions of skilled 

 operators working unceasingly by day and by night, 

 under the fostering care of female superintendence ? 



But there are also other members of the domestic 

 circle, besides those already referred to, whose labor is 

 almost utterly unproductive, for want of proper objects 

 on which to bestow that labor. In almost every family 

 there are children, and aged and infirm individuals, 

 whose labor is of little value on the farm, and these are 

 the persons who can almost entirely take charge of 

 the cocoonery, with a little direction and superintend- 

 ence. Even children can do much toward gathering 

 the leaves and feeding the worms. Even the aged 

 and decrepid, with the aid of ingenious contrivances 

 for moving along by the shelves, can perform the work 

 of the most athletic laborer. Surely that community 

 cannot but grow rich when the labors of all are made 

 productive. Other communities may be convulsed with 

 every fluctuation in trade ; this can smile with compla- 

 cency in the midst of plenty ; while all are debtors to 

 them, they to none. 



On all plantations of the South, too, there are un- 



