“one reason for this reluctance, is ascribed to 
the circumstance that, by ordinary labor, about 
two shillings might be obtained per day, whereas 
scarcely a shilling could be earned in the same 
time by the silk concern.” Sseven hundred and 
6i.?ty-tvvo pounds of cocoons were raised, and 
fifty pounds thirteen ounces spun si'k. and there 
were two machiaes erected in Mr. Bolzius’s yard 
which drew off twenty-four ounces per day. On 
the ‘29th September, 17 19, the Trustees promised 
£2 to every woman who shall make herself mis- 
tress of the art ol winding in one year. And they 
also gave Rev. Mr. Bolzius permission to erect 
ten sheds, with c ay furnaces, at an e.vpense of 
not more than £2 each, ana ten machines for 
reeling, at thirty shillings each, which he says 
could be made I'etter than those at Savannah for 
£3 ; they also sent them ten basins, and the good 
Germans felt the impulse of this substantial en- 
couragement. In 1750, though the people in 
otherparis of the colony mostly relinquished the 
silk culture, the inhabitants of Ebenezer contin- 
ued vigorously employed and interested in it. — 
On the 2d of June they received ten kettles Irom 
the Trustees, one of w'hich, and a reeling ma- 
chine, were uiven to each mistress in the art of 
spinning, and two of the best artisans received 
£5 for giving instruction to fourteen young wo- 
men, to each f whom was bestowed £1, for at- 
tention and industry. 
Over a thousand pounds of cocootts were rais- 
ed at Ebenezer, and seventy-four pounds two 
ounces raw silk made, producing (the price being 
then thirty shillings) over £110 sterling. A.s il- 
lustrative of the luxuriant growth of the mulberry, 
it may be interesting to state that two trees in 
front of the parsonage, ten years old, measured 
three feet eight inches in circumference. In De- 
cember of this year, eight more copper basins 
were received, and public confidence in the suc- 
cess of the undertaking seemed revived, notr'ith- 
standing Mr. Camuse and family had left the 
Province, and settled at Purysburgh in South 
Carolina. 
On the 25th December, 1750, M-r. Pickering 
Robinson, who, together with Mr. .lames Hab- 
ersham, had been appointed the preceding August 
a Commissioner to promote more effectually the 
culture of silk, arrivedin Savannah. 
Mr. Robinson had been sent to France, at the 
expense of the Trustees, to study the manage- 
ment of filatures and .the necessary process for 
preparing the ardcle for market, and thus, though 
no operative, was qualified t j take the director- 
ship of so important a branch of industry- His 
salary was £100 per annum, £25 for a clerk, and 
a tract of land was also granted hi.m, which, in 
1763, sold for£lS0Q. 
Mr. Robinson brought with him a quantity of 
silk worm seed, but all failed, save about half an 
ounce; the Commissioners determined at once 
to erect a filature, which should be a normal 
school to the whole prounce, and it was their 
opinion that it would be “ a sufficient nursery to 
supply, in three or four years, as many reelers 
as will be wanted, when we make no doubt of 
many private filatures being eree'ed, which can 
only make their culture a general staple ” The 
dimensions were thirty-six feet by twenty, rough 
boarded, with a loft or upper story, for the spread- 
ing out of the green cocoons. 1 1 was commenc- 
ed on the 4th of March, 1751. On the ist of 
April, the basins were put up, and on the Sth of 
May the reeling began. To encourage the colo- 
nists, the Trustees proposed to purchase all the 
balls, and wind them at their own expense, and 
paid from Is. 6d. to 23. 4d. per pound for green 
cocoons. The Commissioners separated the co- 
coons into three sorts: Ist, pofect cones; 2d, the 
spungy and fuzzy; and 3d, the spotted, stained 
and dupions. This management, however, gave 
great offence to some of the residents in Savan- 
nah and Purysburgh, and Messrs. Robingpn and 
Habersham requested the Vice-President and as- 
sistants to determine the respective prices and 
publicly announce the same, which they did on 
the 26th April, by a proclamation, wherein, by 
way ofbounty, they promised to pay for cocoons 
delivered at their store in Savannah, the follow- 
ing sums, namely : for cocoons made by one 
worm, hard, weighty and good substance, is. per 
pound; for the weaker quality, pointed, spotted 
or bruised, Is. 3d. ; for dupions, (those made by 
two worms,) 6d. ; for raw silk, from 1st quality 
cocoons, 14s. per pound ; for that made from 2d 
quality, 12s.; the product of the double cones, 
6s. per pound ; and they also offered, if delivered 
at the filature, for best cocoons, 3s. 6d. ; for mid- 
dling, Is. 8J. ; and for inferior, Is. Id., a series of 
prices truly astonishing, when we reflect that 
the real merchantable worth of a pound of co- 
coons is scarcely ever 6d. 
Experiments were made at tlie filature to as- 
certain the relative quantity of each of these 
qualities in a given weight of cocoons, and the 
results were, that in fifty pounds of green cocoons 
there were twenty seven pounds of the firstsort, 
ten pounds four ounces of the second, and twelve 
pounds twelve ounces of the third. After curing 
or baking, these fifty pounds weighed only forty- 
six pounds five ounces, showing a loss in ponde- 
rosity of nearly eight per cent. Besides ihe ar- 
rangement above specified, the cocoons were still 
further divided for the puipose of ree ing into 
white and yellow, and these again, subdivided 
into five each, namely : Ist, hard and weighty ; 2d, 
little woolly and weaker; 3d, very woolly a.td 
soft; 4ih, spotted and much bruised; 5th, dou- 
ble worms. 
Mr. Camuse, son and daughter, wlio, it ap- 
pears, gave the Commissioners no little trouble 
by their perverse conduct, returned to Savannah 
and were engaged to labor at the filature, at three 
shillings per day, at which Mr. Habersham ex- 
claims, “ monstrous wages !” The reelers now 
advanced with much proficiency, and five of 
them, on the 16th of May, wound off eleven 
pounds of cocoons each, The proportion of raw 
silk to the cocoons, appeared, on a variety of tri- 
als, to be nearly m this ratio : — 
May 10 1751, 
53 Ib.s. cocoons 
, 1st qualit'’, produced 1174 oz. 
“ 11, “ 
8 “ 
“ 6-9 pr thread. 
18i 
“ 13, " 
11 “ 
“ iiriduoed 
2l| 
“ 15, “ 
55 
2,1 ■> 
109 
“ 18, “ 
20 “ 
“ “ 
24 
“ 22, “ 
15 
l.st “ 
20 1 
“ " “ 
10 
2d “ 
131 
The whole amount 
of cocoons raised 
i'l the 
province, was six thousand three hundred and 
one pounds, of which two thousand pounds came 
from Ebenezer, and f mr thqnsar.d pounds were 
made at Whitefidd’s Orphan House. Two hun- 
dred and sixty-nine pounds and one ounce of raw 
silk, and one hundred and sixty one pounds of 
filogee, were prtpa en, ni twithstanding over 
three hundred and eighty pounds were lost by 
vermin, fire and moujd. The expense of the cul- 
ture was large this year, owing to the erection of 
the filature. &c., which swelled the sum to £608 
93. 8Jd. sterling. The private journals of that 
day kept at .8avannah and Ebenezer, acquaint 
ns, in some measure, with the arduous nature of 
the Commissioners’ labors, and he difficulties 
they encountered from the want of funds, the 
intraetableness of laborers, the novelty of the 
attempt, the imperfections of machinery, and the 
bitter opposition of those who should have sus- 
tained and encouraged them. The public duties 
of Mr. Habersham prevented his constant atten- 
tion to this business; but the whale time of lifr. 
Robinson was devoted to the filature, directing the 
sorters, aiding the novices, advising the reelers, 
and in every way exerting himst If to obtain suc- 
cess. His engagement with the Trustees expir 
ed on the 30th of August, 1751, but finding that 
his intended departure dep essed the friends of 
the culture, he was solicited by the local govern- 
ment to remain another year, and, generously 
sacrificing private to public in crests, -he compli- 
ed with their request. Mr. Haberstiain thus 
speaks of Mr. Robinson ; “ I think him the most 
prudent as well as the most capable person I ever 
knew, to undertake such a work, and it he could 
be continued here, I doubt not but that he would 
turn out a number of well instructed reelers, who 
would be able to conduct filatures at Eberezer, 
Aiigitsta, and other part.? of the province.” So 
great was the confidence whicJi the Trustees had 
in him, that he was appointed an assistant in the 
government at Savannah; an honor which he 
declined, and in the sane letter stated ; “If due 
encouragement be not given to the culture of 
raw si’k, for the term of at least fotirteen years, 
I positively cannot think of settling in America.” 
These gentlemen recommended the building of a 
house, sixty feet by twenty-six, as a cocoonry, 
great los« having been experienced for the want 
of such a structure. 
In 1752, Mr. Robinson returned to England, 
and his place was partially supplied by Joseph 
Ottolenghe, a native of Piedmont, and a profi- 
cient in his art, who came to Georgia on the 18ih 
of July. 1751, and took charge of the filature in 
April, 1753. In a letter to Secretary Marty n, da- 
ted September 11, 1753, Mr. Ottolenghe says, 
that “there were fewer cocoons raised this year, 
as the worms m.ostly hatched before the trees 
‘ the people were wiliing to 
continue the business.” One hundred and nine- 
ty-seven pounds of raw silk were made this 
year, and three hundted and seventy-six pounds 
in 1754, besides twenty-four pounds of filosele. 
The peoj lc of Augusta became interested in this 
manufacture, anu entered, with considerabJe spir- 
it, into the undertaking, promising to send hands 
to Savannah, yearly, to learn the^art of reeling: 
their enthusiasm, however, soon evaporated. 
On the 29th of Match, 1755, a certificate, sign- 
ed by thirty-nine eminent silk throwsters and 
weavers, was given to the “Oemmissioners for 
Trade and Plantations,” staiirg th.at after exam- 
ining three hundred pounds of raw silk, im- orted 
from Georgia, “ we do sincerely declare that the 
nature and texture is truly good, the color beau- 
tiful, the thread as even and as dear as the best 
Piedmont (called wire silk) of the size, and much 
clearer and even than the usual Italian silks;” 
and furthermore, “it could be worked with less 
waste than China silk, and has all the properties 
of goad silit well adapted to the weaver's art in 
most branches.” 
In 1755, five thousand four hundred and eighty 
eight pounds of cocoons were raised, and four 
hundred and thirty-eight pounds of raw silk 
spun. The good effects of the filature were now 
happily avident in the increased interest of the 
planters in the subject, w hos nt both their daugh- 
ter- and young negroes to acquire the a> t of reel- 
ing. In 1756, three thousand seven hundred and 
eighty-three pounds and one ounce of cocoons 
were received at the filatme, and two hundred 
and sixty-eight pounds of raw silk reeled. 
The liberal policy of the Coramissioner.=, who 
had no private ends to answer, caused them to 
recommend the establishment of additional fila- 
tures, and in their letter to the Trustees, June 
12; 1761, they advise the erection of one at Ebe- 
nezer, and another contiguous to yavannah, but 
Mr. Ottolenghe opposed this course, and arrogated 
to the one in Savannah the entire monopoly of 
the culture. Jealousy appears to have been very 
conspicuous in tlr. Oltolenghe’s character, and 
his opposition to the Saltzburgers and depri ela- 
tion of their efiorts, arose from this suspidons 
trait. He aimed to render himself solely neces- 
sary, and aspersed everything which seemed to 
militate with hi? fancied superiority. This ap- 
pears not only from letters of Governors Rey- 
nold and Ellis, but from his own correspondence, 
w here this can don and fear of rivalry is plainly 
discernible. His course gave ofl’ence to the Eb- 
enezer people, who had already erected a filature 
in their village ; w ho had been at a gia at sacrifice 
to send their wives and daughters to learn the 
art of reeling in Savannah, and' who had hoped 
to carry on the manufacture under their own su- 
pervision and for their oxvn benefit. Mr Otto- 
lenshe, how'cvtr, overruled their views and re- 
quired all cocoons to be de-livered at Savannah, 
and to be reeled theie. Each basin at the filature 
had two apprentice s besides others who were 
employe din sorting the bails, &c., and the \ari- 
ous ope-ations connected with the tiadc, em- 
ployed nearly forty peisons. 
In 1757. over five thousand pounds of cocoons 
were received at Savannah, and three hunored 
and sixty pounds of raw silk spun, which, sat s 
Governor Ellis, would have been more, if tire 
eergs had not failed ; and in a letter, dated llih of 
March, 1757, he snys, “ the raising of silk st en.s 
to be no longer a matter of cuiiosiiy, it employs 
many poor people, and is a,vproaching tow ards a 
staple.” 
Seven thousand and forty spounds of cocoons 
were deposited in tire filature in 1758, but while 
the ftiends of this business were rejei' i;ig in the 
assurt'd success of their expei iment, they were 
saddened by the destruction of the filature, which 
took fire on the 4th of J uly, and was t jtaliy con- 
sumed. The wound silk, which had not yet been 
shipped, amounting to three hundred and fiity 
pounds, was saved, but several thousand weight 
of silk balls, together wi h much of the reeling 
apparatus, were destroyed. .Another and more 
capacious building was immediately erected and 
was ready for use the ensuing season. 
In 1759, ten thousand one hundred and thirty- 
six pounds of cocoons were raised in Georgia, 
four thousand pounds of which were frem Ebe.- 
nezer, and the proceeds of theirculture alone, for 
the season, reached £700 sterlins. The opini 'n 
of chose engaged in the culture, as expressed to 
Dr. Jared Elliot was, “ that it was more profita- 
ble than any other ordinary business.” 
The cocoons delivered at the filature in 1760, 
THE SOUTHERN CLXTIVATOR. 
leaved, and that, 
