No. 149.] 123 



importance, although they have, as it were, but just entered the field 

 of improvement and invention. There is much yet to claim 

 their attention. 



Many years since I suggested to the Institute, through our 

 departed friend, the late T. B. Wakeman, Esq., that the bark of 

 the mulberry might be applied to valuable purposes, if means 

 could be devised to separate the bark from the annual growth of 

 the wood, by some dissolvent or mechanical means. It was hoped 

 that the process of manufacturing hemp in the west, which 

 seemed to be rapidly developing itself, might aid us in this par- 

 ticular. But no one has appeared to embark in the enterprise, 

 with zeal calculated to ensure success. It is true some experi- 

 ments were made by members of the New-England Silk Conven- 

 tion, so called, but with no desirable success, and thus the busi- 

 ness has rested to the present time. 



Last autumn I headed down my Canton mulberries, and cov- 

 ered them with earth in the field. They were opened this 

 spring and peeled as readily as when deposited. I had saved 

 them, in hopes of having them tried by a new flax and hemp 

 company in this town, which has not yet gone into operation. 

 Therefore I caused the bark to be stripped from the stalks by 

 hand, and have saved a considerable quantity of it, specimens 

 of which I forward to you. Now, how to separate the outside 

 cuticle from the bark is a question undecided j whether to be 

 dried and pounded, or to be rotted as flax and thus prepured for 

 spinning and the loom, remains to be determined. 



It was my desire that samples of bark silk, fit for the loom, 

 might be seen by you at the fair in October. But my health and 

 age does not warrant that gratification, being now in my 85th 

 year, I do not expect the pleasure of ever visiting New-York 

 again. 



I have on hand a beautiful nursery of Canton mulberry, some 

 of which are now six feet high from the ground, grown this season 

 with the most exuberant foliage. These I hope may be cut and 

 stripped of the bark the coming autumn, say in September or Oc- 

 tober, for experiments. The use of the bark will never interfere 

 with using ^""le foliage for feeding worms, as thev wonM finish 



