The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-01-20
SILK CULTURE.

Shall America Raise .,I.sr'S its Swn siIks-Arkansas
The Little Rock Republican of late date
says
We publish herewith letter from Secretary
White to the New York Tribune, and from
Hon. w. D. Kelley, of Pennsylvania to Sec
retary White, and from H. A. Millen to Seere-
tary White in relation to the silk produced
by Miss Marlborough, and exhibited at the
last State fair. If every citizen of the State
would call attention, as Secretary White has,
to some one of the many undeveloped re-
sources of wealth, that only require stroke
from the magic wand of industry and enter
prise, to convince the public that this or that
pursuit is not altogether Utopian, instead of
seeing thirty thousand immigrants coming
into the State annually, thre would be ten
times that number. All communications of
this character are 'as bread cast upon the
waters; it returneth after many days
As Mr.. Kelley says, there is great strife
for commercial independence and national
supremacy. During the two years ending on
the 30th of June 1869, he says we paid over
$40, 600, 900 for the raw and manufactured
silks brought to this country. This amount
was paid in gold, and estimating the present
population of the United States at 40, 600, 900,
each man, woman and child, without regard
to race or previous condition, in the United
States, pays one dollar per head for silks
alone Now the question arises, can this
supremacy ever be attained, with this large
balance against us? The raising or culture
of silk is not laborious; the women and
children of the country who have been
deprived of their natural protectors, are
competent to perform every thing connected
with it.
AS early as 1882, the culture of silk was un-
dertaken in Georgia, and an article equal to
the best French or Italian silks was produced.
In 1749 the production reached one thousand
pounds and commanded the highest price, in
London. In 1760 the product reached to
$4,000 pounds, and in 1866 it run as high as
10000. Similar experiments were made in
many of the more Northern States, but mono
proved as likely to be successful for series
of years as the Southern States. Since the
Revolutionary war, but little attention has
been paid to the culture of this article in
those States whose climate and soil are best
adapted to the wants of the silkworm.
The culture of rice and cotton
seems to have absorbed the
entire attention Of the people of those States,
and perhaps was crop much easier managed,
than the raising of silk. This labor can never
be again employed to the extent that it once
was; it is seeking other avenues and produces
more aggregate wealth than it ever did. The
white as well as the black labor must be re.
organized, and the more intelligent it is, the
lighter will be the avocatlon 1T will select
The difficulty in growing silk has been that
the proper amount of leaves could not be
grown to support the silk worm. This objec
kion seems to be obviated in this country, as
the leaf upon which Miss Marlborough feeds
her worms grows with great rapidity and il
hardy plant that every citizen knows will
grow.
Silk from Arkansas.
Editor I4i6une:-From the enlightened
interest you have long taken in American
products and manufactures, and the respect
you must have for the humblest effort indi
eating capacity, development and progress in
the country, 1 feel authorized to forward &c
you for inspection skein of sewing sill
made from the native mulberry of Arkansas
and spun by Miss nj. A. Marlborough o
Ouachita county, and exhibited in a larg,
quantity at the State Fair, recently held a
Little Rock. The thread, am told, is com
posed of one hundred and twenty primar,
Threads or webs, as formed by the silk-worm
and, though well done, was by machi
merry scarcely more artificial than uset
by the worm itself. 1t has beei
some years since / first heard
through an intelligent source, that the whit
mulberry in Arkansas was equal for the pro
duction of silk to the foreign varieties
this be true, we have another element o