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

214 SPARTUM OR SPANISH BROOM :
feed. I have supplied an order of the peanut variety of eggs,
to go to Guatemala ;
and Canton seed, of my own raising, to
go to Rio ; and now have an order for a number of the genu-
ine Canton mulberry trees, roots, or cuttings, to go to Lima,
where the appUcant went on business, a few years since, taking
with him a few multicaules, at $2 each—now multipUed to
50,000 ;
who, without any practical knowledge of raising trees,
reeling and manufacturing silk, or having seen a silk-worm or
reel until he introduced them in 1843, has now presented me
with beautiful samples offloss cocoons, reeled and sewing silk,
done by ladies as a diversion, without any assistance, and very
little instruction from him. The silk is of good quality. Sam-
ples had been sent by a mercantile house in Lima to England,
for an opinion of the quaUty ; but no return had been received
when he came away. He has come to this place with a native
Spaniard, to obtain more perfect information in all the branches
of reeling, twisting, coloring(!), &c. ; to procure machinery,
with a view of enlarging operations, so that he might turn off
twenty-five povmds per day of sewings, cords, braids, (fcc. He
represents the cUmate and soil as adapted to the culture of silk,
and could feed every month in the year ; that the necessaries
of living are procured with but httle labor ; that the laboring
population are indolent, the wealthy classes too proud to labor.
He feels confident of success, and that he can introduce habits
of industry by silk culture, that would counteract their natural
indolence ; and he will inform me of his success in due time,
that may be more interesting than speculations upon what he
intends doing. He has engaged several to perfect themselves in
reeling, «fec., to accompany him when he returns to Lima with
his machinery. He has become so satisfied with the superiority
of the genuine Canton mulberry, that he has engaged to take
it on with him for propagation and use.
" I have letters from widely different locations, rendering fa-
vorable accounts of this year's success in growing silk, and in
corroboration of the prevalent opinion that the silk cause will
finally j)revail. I have several letters on this sul)ject—one
from a gentleman presiding over one of our most eminent Uter-