The Earle family : Ralph Earle and his descendants

I08 THE EARLE FAMILY [Sixth
before. For machine card wire they were obliged at one time to
pay from two to two and a half dollars per pound. The market
price of a much better article is now from twelve to fifteen cents per
pound.
In 1815, the unexpected declaration of peace found the company
with a very large stock of raw material on hand. Prices immediately
fell enormously, and the demand for cards almost entirely ceased,
so that this stock, when manufactured, paid but little more than
the interest upon its cost, from the time of purchase to the time of
sale. The company consequently became embarrassed, financially,
and was soon afterwards practically dissolved, although there was
no formal announcement of its dissolution.
Pliny Earle retained the business, and continued in it until his
decease in 1832, his son William B. Earle being his principal agent
and manager from and after 181 9. In 1824 his cutting-machines
were run by steam, and in 1827 the machinery was removed to
" New Boston," in the northwest part of Rutland, where it was run
by water-power.
He engaged, largely for the time, in the wool-growing business
which attracted much practical attention during the first quailer of
this century, and was pi-omoted by the first considerable importation
of merino sheep. He once sold a ram lamb, six months old, for a
yoke of oxen and one hundred dollars; and in 1820 his flock of
sheep numbered over two hundred.
He also attempted the cultivation of silk. About the time of his
marriage he raised mulberry trees, between sixty and seventy of
which were standing upon the farm at the time of his death. From
these, in 1827, the homestead derived the name "Mulberry Grove" ;
and hence, also, the name (Mulberry street) of the road which
traverses the farm from north to south. In one or two of the earliest
years of the century he made a quantity of silk, but it did not pay the
cost of culture.
His orchard of fruit was by far the most extensive in the town at
that time. Of grafted apples, both winter and summer, he had a
good variety ; of pears and cherries an abundance, and of several
varieties; and of peaches, at one time, from 1800 to 1S10, a very
prolific orchard ; and these were supplemented by plums, apricots
and nectarines.
In religious belief he lived and died a conscientious and consistent