The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous ... - Cd3wd.com

212 SPARTUM OR SPANISH BROOM :
C. Bridgman, missionary at Canton, China, a native of Hamp-
shire county, with the request that he would procure and for-
ward me some mulberry seed of the most approved kind for
growing in China, for the use of members of the agricultural
society. He promptly attended to the request ; the seed was
forwarded and sown in the spring of 1834 or 1835. It grew
finely, and developed a splendid leaf
'• About tw'O years since, while Dr. Parker, wnth a Chinaman,
was here on a visit, on being shown the Canton foliage, it was
readily recognized. As the trees had grown here very luxuri-
antly, and developed a larger leaf than in China, Dr. Parker
suggested that our soil might be more congenial to the plant
than even China, its native soil.
" Soon after receiving the seed from Canton, a friend sent
me another parcel from the South of Asia, wdth high commen-
dations, that if it would giow here, it w^ould be of essential ben-
efit to the United States for raising silk. It succeeded well, and
is more hardy than the white mulberry, very productive in
small branches, and a good-sized leaf. I named the latter
Asiatic Canton. These two kinds are highly approved of for
feeding silk-worms—the Canton for leaf-feeding, and the Asi-
atic for branch feeding. I have, however, almost every variety
which was cultivated during the mulberry speculation—covering,
altogether, some ten or tw^elve acres, besides a large number
of young Canton and Asiatic seedlings, of this year's sowing,
from seed of my own raising, to enlarge the plantations.
" A few days since, the Rev. William Richards, of the Sand-
wich Islands, with the young prince, called on me. At a former
visit, I had supphed him wuth Canton mulberry-seed, silk-
worms' eggs, and dry mulberry foliage to use in case the eggs
should hatch on the passage ; but this they did not do until his
arrival home. About the same time, other eggs had been received
there from China; but the cocoons raised from them
were not 07ie quarter as large as the American, and must have
required some 10,000 to 12,000 to make a pound of silk, while
in America 2,400 to 3,000 w^ould make a pound.
" Mr. Titcomb, also a silk-grower in one of the islands, having
the American and Chinese, crossed them : but the crossing