Chapter XI.). Hopes are entertained that what has been done may be done

again; that Yankee ingenuity and perseverance may prove a match for foreign cheap labor(?).

“The present time has been called the age of invention and improvement. But if ”there is nothing new under the sun” (a pretty fair illustration of this assertion of the wise man--Vide Ecclesiastes i. 9, 10.--will be found in this work.); and if what is, has been and may be again, then may we hope to be benefitted by the reproduction of astonishing results in all coming time; and even now, while there has been anxious inquiry for some easy mode to separate the bark of the mulberry from the wood, an _historical fact_ has been recently communicated(?); by which, some two hundred and forty years ago, in the year 1600, an accident occurred, which resulted in the manufacture of a handsome fabric from the fibrous bark of the mulberry, with the inference that the bark had been previously used for the manufacture of cordage, on account of the superior strength of the fibrous bark over that of other materials used for cordage[141].

“Under date of June 6, 1844, I have been favored with a letter from the president of one of the most eminent literary institutions of our country, who expresses his opinion of the progress of silk culture as follows:

‘I am gratified to find a renewed and more general interest excited at the present time. If this awaking up to a scientific and practical consideration of the subject is not soon crowned with signal success, I am satisfied it will not be for want of enterprize or skill in our countrymen, but merely from the high price of labor, compared with the scanty wages given in other silk-growing countries. Even this consideration (though it may retard for a while the complete success of this department of productive industry), will not prevent its ultimate triumph.’

“The above is the opinion of one of the most scientific men of the age, who, in early life, was himself a silk grower. His opinion accords with that of many others of high consideration in the United States.

“While viewing the flourishing condition of one of my mulberry patches, you asked with what it had been manured? and received for answer, _ashes_, and the _deciduous foliage_. The foliage, you thought, could be gathered for making _paper_, and answered, that there would be sufficient defective foliage left to manure the land; the foliage is richer than any stable manure, and stable manure should never be applied to the mulberry. I have not had occasion the last five or six years to use even ashes as a manure, but keep the land in good tilth by frequent hoeing. If you found these mulberries more flourishing than others you had seen, it may be attributed, in a great measure, to frequent hoeing, and dressing with the decayed mulberry foliage.

“The soil is a light sandy loam; and, previous to its being stocked with mulberry, would not yield the value of $10 in any crop; and now, my feeder says, if his worms do well, he hopes to get $800 for the crop! A part of this lot being stocked with alpine, broosa, and Asiatic mulberry, of 6 to 10 feet in height, in rows 3 feet apart; and having grown so vigorously as to shade each other, and liable to have spotted leaves. I have, in order to avoid this, and procure more, larger, and better foliage, cut away or headed down every other row, within three or four inches of the ground; and from the stumps have sprung up a multitude of thrifty sprouts, now fit for use, and the leaves three times larger than those on the standard trees, are so fresh and tender, that in some measure it is hoped, they may answer the purpose of seedling foliage, so highly recommended by M. Frassinet, who has the following encomium on _seedling_ foliage: ‘that 100 pounds of such foliage is worth near 200 pounds of old leaves to make the same quantity of cocoons; or in fact, equivalent in value to nearly double the stock of other foliage.’ I have caused considerable bark to be stripped from the Asiatic trees cut away for manufacturing purposes; and M. Rouviere, of Lyons, has proved that the bark of young shoots, submitted to the same process as hemp, yields abundant silk-fibre to make beautiful tissues (noticed at the close of Chapter XI.). I should advise silk growers to preserve the shoots, have them barked in the best way, and the silky fibre rotted, carded, spun, and wove. M. Rouviere asserts that it will be not only fine and strong, but take the most beautiful colors. Of the bark, ropes and nets are made in the Morea, and may be applied to great advantage in the manufacture of paper, together with the foliage.

“The Canton and Asiatic seed sown this year are in a flourishing condition for plantation use, exclusive of several mulberry plantations which will be for rent, or growing silk on shares, next spring. Up to the first of July, worms have been uncommonly healthy--the probable effect of more open ventilation than in former years.

“Mr. Dabney, consul at Fayal, (now in Boston) has two millions of worms at present on feed. S. Whitmarsh, at Jamaica, has 360 of what he calls _creolized native_ eggs, in constant feed, which go through the whole course to the cocoon in 24 days. The eggs hatch in 10 days after being laid. He has received the silk report, and made such improvement as to save, in all, nine-tenths of the usual labor. The silk cause at Jamaica occasions great interest in England for its prosperity and success.”

D. Stebbins.

Northampton, Mass., _July_, 1844.

[141] We have abundant testimony that the most beautiful fabrics, comprising _mantles_, &c., as well as cordage, was produced from the bark of trees, as early as the year 412 B. C. So that Mr. Stebbins’s “_historical fact_” is anticipated by 2012 years! (See Chapters XII. and XIII. of this Part.)

We will now conclude this Chapter with Dr. Bowling’s admirable illustration, of the mutual dependence of the arts upon each other:--

“Let us fancy that some thousand years ago, a mortal, wandering through an oriental wood, saw a worm falling from a fruit-bearing tree--that he found this little creature had reached the end of one of its stages of existence, and was laboriously engaged in shrouding itself in an unknown substance, like a fine thread of gold, out of which it constructed its tomb; that, attracted by the circumstance, he found this shroud to consist of a thread hundreds of yards long, which a very little attention enabled him to detach; he found he could strengthen the threads by uniting them together, and they could be applied to various purposes of usefulness; he thought of winding off the thread; the reel lends him the first assistance, but he could not make the reel without the co-operation of a knife, or some such instrument with a sharp edge. Thus the aid of art--of the produce of art--is already called in. With this rude instrument he makes a machine which enables him to reel off the thread coffin of the curious animal. In process of time, he finds that this fine filament can be applied to the making of garments--garments alike useful and ornamental. Now trace the progress of things by which, from the narrow sphere of his observation and experiment, his success spreads through the districts he inhabits, and from them to other lands, and becomes an object of importance to communicate with the whole family of man. By and by the cocoon, or its produce, finds its way to foreign countries, probably more enlightened than his own, again to be operated on by a higher intelligence and more practised skill. This associates the thread of the silk-worm with a ship, with ship-building, and all its marvellous combinations.--Some wandering merchant probably conveyed the raw material to Persia; some adventurous mariner to Greece or Italy, or other regions where it gave a new impulse to science and to thought. But consider for a moment, before the ship was launched upon the water, how many elements were necessary for its production; think of how multitudinous and various the materials which that ship required for its construction, before the products of that remote country are brought to their ultimate markets for manufacture. I refer to this particular topic, because it is associated with the prosperity of the districts in which we are, and I wished to carry back your thoughts to the germ whence that prosperity sprung.”--BOWRING’S _Lecture at the Poplar Institution_.