New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1843-07-20
History OF The Silk Culture -. No. ".

For The Tribune.
History Of The Silk Culture -. No. ".
! 1t was at the South where this strange work
began. It vas there where the crash in our
moneyed institutions begaE-,l'eTe where the fail
ures among the large dealers in trees began, and
there -ff:er the subsequent panic among the
smaller ones began. bu: the cause spread as
rapidly as steam and horse power could spread
| them and the same disastrous results every where
followed IN quick time so that by the last of No
! ~crnher the work was all done up throughout the
country and ere-7 thing settled down 10 a dead
calm
Thus things remained through the corning
winter, yet the hope was cherished, that sales
would revive III the spring and, In anticipation
of this, the auction cellars in New FORK, Phlla-
delrhia, Baltimore and other centres of the busl
ness were filed wish trees, and hundreds OF thou
sands were buried III sand banks in the country,
waiting the anxious event. But the aFrlng came,
.,-inGng along with it other desirable things, but
no demand fJr mulberry trees. The money affairs
of the country remained yet pnlmprovcd, and OF
course there was no one 10 move III tins business
But more than all, the public sympathes on thus
siib.ect had been completely exhausted, by the
course pursued tIo preceding autumn, and the
great body Of the people scen!cd to have settled
down quito at case i'll the concus.cn, that the
Silk business had been tried, and found wanting )
and .i.a' rothin~ moro would eyer be heard
about it, except in tc history Of gone delusons
And the owners of trees themselves, IN unnum-
bcred instances, as if in the pltifu vcxa;icn Of
disappointed hopes or as the means OF regaining
the good opinion of their ighbors, joined IN the
shouts 81 popular triumph over the Frustrated
folly and TO bring forth fruits meet tor repent
ancc, doomed their mated trees to the flames and
the floods. The extent TO winch the destruction
of trees was carried III 1910 is almost incredible.
The auction cellars Gelcre alluded to, were emp
tied into the streets, and thence transferred to the
docks. Hundreds of thousands buried III sand
banks in the fall of 1889, remain undlsturbed
to this day. aIG scres upon acres that were lett
standing III the field were plo@gtsd TT, and burnt
by the road side. A friend in New-Jcrse, wrote
me, that at least ninctenths of all the trees IN
the ncighborhcod of Philadelphia were thus wan
ton!y destroyed. The same, | apprchend, is es-
sentally true in regard TO all the other great
centres Of the speculation. And according to
the best estimates that can now be made, 1t IS
presumed. that at least thcee-tourths OF all the
trees with which the country had been supplied,
by Importation, and by propagation, in the space
of some II years, and at an expense OF many
hundreds OF thousands Of dollars, have been IN
this wanton and inconsiderate manner, under
the cxasperatons of disappointed hopes and
blasted expectations, unsigned to destruction.
REMARXs-ll From the facts here stated you
will see at once and every body else will see, that
the Multicauiis Speculation as it IS called by
many of distinction, in its origin, progress, and
disastrous termination, had the least possible
connection, with the SIX Business, and shows
nothing, in any way, in regard to the merits, or
dement's of that business. The communication
between the two things was about the same as
between the Eastern land speculation and shay
ing shingles. Stripped naked, this speculation
was mere trade in trees, and the only thing
which it concluslyely demonstrates is, that popu
tar phrensy furnishes but an unsafe guide IN
matters of business, the same as in religion, poll
tics, and every thing else.
(2) This revulslon in the tree business pros
tratcd the most Of our Silk Companies, and Silk
Factories then in existence They were gene
rally projected on a large scale, and involved
large expectations, altogether two large for eX-
perimcnta operations, and were generally con-
Quoted without much regard to economy. They
had not gone far enough to derive much profits
from glOWliln, VI t'ilh' HeIi
man dependence was upon the sale of trees, and
when this source of income was thus suddenly
cut off, they were Of course Frustrated.
(.}) 1t is a remarkable fact that out of the
thousands, who, without any previous study, or
practical knowledge, of the Silk business, pur-
chased trees under the cxcltements of tile specu-
lation, very few, if any, are known to have per
severed, and to be now engaged i'll growing Silk.
Ny own personal acquaintance with Silk grow
ers is somewhat extensive, and | do not know d
case of the kind. do not expect, that there Is
none, but this do say unheststingly, that the
men now engaged in this great business-great
mean, in its benciiccnt wide spreading, and far
reaching results, are made up, as body, OF those
who engaged in it prior TIC September, 1888, and
those who have gone into it since June, lo40.
AS to the rest. the thousands, the great hume
rical majority that came in between those dates,
flushed with zeal, and faith, and patriotism, and
all that sort of thing, what has become OF them
Gone. gone off in smoke, all melted away, only
leaving terrible grease spot behind.
:. In the sprng Of l5lI, a Trend ia w. Conn bid the
writer welcome lot OF large leaf Cartons that had been
buried TWO winters and summer sent my team, dug
them out, ought them nome, and planted hsm They
dia As well as the average Of trees.
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