280 



SILK. 



ensure a rich and heavy crop ; choosing for the whole plan 

 tation a piece of sheltered, high ground, sweet and well 

 laid to the sun, and planting ridges, hedges, and trees, in 

 such a manner as will give to all the uninterrupted benefit 

 of the light and heat of the sun. 



Fully aware of the importance of the object w^e have 

 presented to the attention of the colnmunity, we cannot 

 leave it, without making a concluding appeal to the intelli- 

 gence and energy of our countrymen, not to suffer any de- 

 lay to take place in setting their hands to a work so prom- 

 ising of results the most favourable to our comforts, and for 

 our welfare : the first step is within the farmer's immediate 

 department, to sow the mulberry-seed, and rear the young 

 trees ; and after two years of attendance, the silk raising 

 may commence in good earnest, and will become a healthy 

 and pleasant business for children and young women. This 

 rich crop will require but two months' care to secure it, and, 

 wlien the business shall flourish on a large scale, which we 

 may anticipate as probable within a short period, the rais- 

 ing of the cocoons will become a distinct occupation for 

 farmers' familie^i ; the winding and reeling of them, most 

 probably, will be carried on as a distinct and separate 

 branch of industry ; this is actually the case in all the silk- 

 growing countries, where the cocoons are carried to the 

 public markets, and sold for ready cash to those who keep 

 filatures, where they wind and reel them. 



Great advantages will accrue to the younger members of 

 farmers' families, in cultivating so pleasant and profitable an 

 employment at home : it will offer to many young women 

 a choice betw^een home and the factories, and a resource 

 in case the liberal encouragement given to manufactures 

 should eventually prove the cause of business being over- 

 done; it will also offer valuable resources for the pauper 

 establishments, where the old and infirm, under a discreet 

 and judicious government, may be made to provide them- 

 selves a comfortable support. If we take a retrospective 

 view of the affairs of mankind, since the times of early 

 record, we find that the riches and the prosperity resulting 

 from commerce and navigation, or from a system of exten- 

 sive manufactuies, however brilliant, are comparatively of 

 short and uncertain duration ; the changes of views and 

 systems of a government at home, the changes of policy 

 among foreign nations, render the wdiole fabric subject to 

 many sudden and unforeseen vicissitudes, and dependent 

 upon the results of relations abroad, and of the compromise 



