No. 216] 351 



earth in the spirit of invention, enterprise, genius and skill of her 

 people, should, in this matter, be recreant to her own interests, or 

 should fail to perceive and to secure them. Deprived by nature of 

 an equal and fair competition with the fertile valleys and prairies of 

 the west in the productions of her soil, she is yet more than com- 

 pensated, by the same beneficent hand, in her water power, and in 

 the fertility of invention necessary to its impr vement It is the un- 

 mistakable destiny of New-England, in which peculiar destiny Con- 

 necticut largely partakes, to be the Workshop, in time to come, of 

 this Western Continent at least. And it is time that she was arous- 

 ing and preparing herself for that destiny. Every muscle should be 

 schooled to profitable service — every impulse given to inventive pro- 

 gress — every facility afforded, giving scope and vigor to mechanical 

 genius, and every encouragement and incentive offered, to bring out 

 improvements in Manufactures and in the Arts — and the establish- 

 ment of a Repository of Arts, is designed as being most effectually 

 subservient to these great ends. 



On the consideration of the 6th and last subject before the con- 

 vention, viz: The Potato Disease — what is the cause and what the 

 remedy? A committee was called for and appointed, [the names of 

 the gentlemen composing it will be found under the general head of 

 " Committees" in the report of the second day. j^ 



Mr. Ellsworth remarked, that he was a potJito-raiser, and believed 

 that absolutely nothing was known either of the cause or the remedy 

 for this Disease. He had never seen any reasonable explanation, 

 and no light had been obtained from any source. 



Similar views were expressed by the chairman, Judge Meigs and 

 others. 



The subject of Silk was briefly considered, and some papers were 

 submitted by Mr. Van Epps. The subject of State Bounties' was 

 discussed, and the Convention recommended that the Legislature of 

 this State be memorialized to re-enact the expired bounty law. 



The following is a portion of one of the chiefest of the papers 

 submitted by Mr. Van Epps. It is from Mr. John Fox, superinten- 

 dent of the Silk Factory of J. W. Gill, Esq., at Wheeling Virginia, 

 and will be found to embody much valuable information which only 

 a practical man can properly give. The conr^municdtion bears dale 

 September 27, 1847. 



