138 THE EVOLUTION OF OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



ing-liues, and sell very readily in Savannah." These 

 thrifty Germans continued the production of silk until 

 the very eve of the Revolution. As late as 1772, fchey 

 sent to England four hundred and eighty-five pounds 

 of raw silk, and it is recorded that "some persons in 

 almost every family there understand its process from 

 the beginning to the end." 



But the doom of the southern silk industry, which 

 had been portended by the rise of cotton and rice 

 and other interests, as well as by restriction of 

 climate, was finally set by the American Revolution. 

 The trustees of the colony, according to Charles C. 

 Jones, Jr., had "seriously misinterpreted " the agricul- 

 tural capabilities of Georgia. "Although substantial 

 encouragement had been afforded to Mr. Amatis. to 

 Jacques Camuse [Italian silk - growers] , to the SmIz- 

 burgers at Ebenezer, and to others ; although copper 

 basins ami reeling machines had been supplied and a 

 filature erected ; although silk-worm eggs were pro- 

 cured and mulberry trees multiplied, — silk culture in 

 Georgia yielded only a harvest of disappointment." 



The center of activity in the silk industry was now 

 transferred to the northward. Aboul 1760, silk worm 

 eggs and mulberry trees began to be planted in Con- 

 necticut, and there soon arose in thai state the mosl 

 important — because the most nearly self-sustaining — 

 silk -growing industry which lias yet been seen in 

 America. The industry was greatly encouraged by 

 the writings <>f Jared Eliot, an able preacher and 

 naturalist, wh<>>.,- memory is preserved t<> as, amongst 

 other ways, in his excellenl "Essays upon Field Hus- 

 bandry," which appeared at sundry times from 1717 

 to 17o'.). lie lived from 1685 to 17C>:;. lie was 





