48 

 KEPORT OP COMMITTEE of the LEGISLATURE--1829, 



Report of a Committee, of the Legislature, on the Culture of Silk. 



JANUARY SESSION, 1829. 



Your Committee are unanimous in the opinion, that it will be 

 for the interest of this Commonwealth to extend the Grant to Agri- 

 cultural Societies, made by an Act passed in the year of our Lord 

 one thousand eight hundred and nineteen, for the further time of 

 live years, for the encouragement of the objects named in said Act, 

 and for the encouraging the culture of Silk. For several years 

 past, the culture of Silk has excited a good deal of attention in dif- 

 ferent parts of our country, and great exertions have been made by 

 patriotic individuals to bring this subject to the notice of the Agri- 

 culturalists ill almost every State in the Union. The Congress of 

 the United States, so late as the year one thousand eight hundred 

 and twenty-five, directed its views towards this source of National 

 wealth, and on motion of Mr. Miner, the Secretary of the Treasury 

 was requested to prepare a manual, containing the best practical in- 

 formation, that could be collected on the growth and manufacture 

 of Silk. The subject was taken up by the Secretary with the zeai 

 and ability, which it demanded, and his letter to the Committee on 

 Agriculture, together with the treatise of De Huzzi^ on the culture 

 of Silk in Germany, and on the plantation and management of Mul- 

 berry Trees, were published by order of Congress, and have been 

 extensively circulated throughout the several States of the Union. 



Your Committee refer to those works, as containing full informa- 

 tion on this important subject. 



As to the practicability of introducing the culture of Silk into 

 this Commonwealth, your Committee are of opinion that no dfficulty 

 whatever exists. The white mulberry (morus alba) flourishes lux- 

 uriantly in this climate ; is easily raised irom seed ; is not injured by 

 our winters ; and may safely be transplanted to almost any soil. 

 The kindest soils, however, are dry, sandy or stony ; these soils are 

 preferred to low, rich and moist land. Your Committee believe 

 that there are, on almost every farm, barren spots, rocky pastures, 

 and uncultivated tracts, upon which this tree could be planted at a 

 trifling expense, and would afford another means of a profitable pro- 

 duction, to those which the farmers of the Commonwealth already 

 possess. These trees may be planted in the most eligible situation 



