232 THE CALIFORNIA 



they are only those who enrich a country, then it is 

 to the farmers and planters throughout our silk climate 

 that I particularly address myself, and urge them to give 

 their immediate and earnest attention to this so important 

 a subject ; to look into the matter thoroughly, and not 

 only look, but act. They must not be alarmed with 

 the frequent croakings about the high price of labor in 

 this country, and the impossibility of raising the silk 

 in competition with other countries. It is too late now 

 for such arguments ; they vanish completely before the 

 face of facts, which are better than all the theories. 

 The silk culture has now gained too much headway in 

 California to be checked in its speed by the fears and 

 doubts of the timid and shortsighted as any doubts 

 of its full and complete success cannot be entertained 

 any more by any reasoning person. Then I urge you all 

 to plant mulberries, in the full assurance that they will 

 be wanted ; this will be a rich legacy to your children, 

 for you may be assured that silk must and will be 

 raised all over California, from one corner to the other, 

 and also in several other of our States, that possess a 

 similar climate to our own, and to which then our 

 simplified culture can be applied : 



1st. The difference in the price of labor here and 

 in France does not hardly exist any more, as the 

 price of labor there is double now of what it was thirty 

 years ago ; but supposing that it is now as low as then, 

 we could certainly obtain and raise the silk for half of 

 the cost there, for the different reasons that I have 

 already stated in the first chapter, in my letter. 



