Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-05-17
SILK CULTURE In AMERICA
A VANISHED GEORGIA INDUSTRY
EAOrIs of the Colonial Trustees
Work of the Salizburgers- The
Record of HaIf a CenturY-PFesenG
Status OF Ibe Business-An Insig-
nificanE Showing.

itself that l ever heard Of" The trustees
at their meeting in June, 1732,
certain proportion of mulberry trees. In their
respective grants ten years were allowed for
the cultivation of the soil, and 100 white null
berry trees were to be planted on every ten
acres when cleared. Power was vested in the
trustees to enter upon lands that remained un-
cultivated. A colonial seal was ordered. con-
tanning on one side representation of silk
worms, some beginning and others having I'm
ished their webs, with the motto: Non Sibt, Sed
dltis. This, says one historian. was "a very
proper emblem. Signifying that neither the first
views to their own interest" II does not seem
to have been meant by the use OF this motto.
TO suggest that the coonists. in raising silk for
British manufacturers, were labOring not for
themselves but for others.
Late in 1872. a man from Piedmont was sent
out bl the trustees to teach the coIonists the
art of reeling. Several public writers urged
the enterprise on varidps grounds of econo ny
and profit. An estimate in 1893 (based on the
assumption that the yearly import of raw silk
bv Great Britain from Piedmont amounted to
&30 900 ia value), set forth that the successful
raising of silk in Georgia would save the
mother country 100000 per annum. Another
estimate in the same year made the annual
import by Great Britain of thrown silk alone
Excluding raw silk) 800 900 pounds equal to
$500, 900 in value. 1t was therefore an
1734-'35, when General Oglethorpe took
with him to England eight pounds of colc-
nial silk, and showed it to the trustees,
who presented it to Queen Caroline Under
royal instructions Sir Thomas Lombe took
charge of the precious consignment, and had
it thrown and woven at his factory; so that in
1895, upon the Kings birthday, the Queen
honored the colony by appearing at levee in
a dress said to be entirely made of Georgia silk.
But even this neat little episode has suffered
by the breath of detractiOn. A certain DR..
Patrick Taller and others, who perhaps bore
no good will to General Oglethorpe have stated
in q
silk, was raised in South Carolina.
In 1875 plot of ground was laid out at one
end of the town of Savannah, and was planted
with vines and mulberry trees at public ex-
pense The trustees garden" as the plot was
termed proved to have been ill-located, the
soil being sandy and arid; though on this and
similar points authorize vary 1t is certain
that the trustees requested the selection of
some other spot of ground, but their wishes
we're not fulfilled The site was on
the bank of the river within view
Of the ocean. Plants and trees, native
and foreign, in great variety, including the
dg, orange, pomegranite, olive, coffee, cocoa,
and cotton, were set out; but chief attention
was given to the mulberry. Every planter
wanting mulberry trees supplied with
them, gratis, from this nursery The promise
to supply these trees was feature and condi-
ton of the land grants to coloniStS- One wri-
ter, describing the garden in glowing terms OF
praise, declares the soil excellent and the sit
uation delightful. Others hold totally op-
posite opinion and say that the place was zone
of the most barren spots of land in the colony.
being only hill Of dry sand; great sums of
money were thrown away upon it from year to
year to no purpose"
Several Italians of both sexes were brought
in 1876 at the trustees expense from Piedmont
in charge of Mr.. Amatis. The foreigners
were proficient in the arts of silk culture and
reeling; the men were ordered to teach male
English colonists to raise mulberry trees, the
women to take English girls as apprentices in
rearing worms and reeling from cocoons I'm
fol n SOnfh France.
carry the eggs in their bosom. and hatch them
by heir natural heat In other countries this
is done by means Of manure or hot houses"
1t is not specified which of these processes was
taught to the English girls. Some of the
Italians behaved badly; one Of them stole the
reels broke the copper pans, spoiled all the
eggs he could not steal, a1d fed to South Caro-
lima; but little seed and few faithful Pied
montese were left
Meanwhile number of Protestants, driven
out of their home in the valley of the Salza
Bavaria had emigrated to Georgia and found
ed a town. which they called Eoenezer, about
twenty-five miles above Savannah, near to, but
not quite on the river. They brought with
them several useful arts, and soon accom-
plished more in the business of raising silk
with far less fuss, than their neighbors at Sa-
vannah Thew CO operated with the trustees
and before long had two reels busy. There
are notices at this period OF a scheme for in
teresting the Chickasaw Indians in the work Of
silk culture. English writers were again
urging the need Of the mother country, and
the annual expenditure for silk from Piedmont
was estimated at $500 000 Even the muse was
invoked to stir the tagging colonists, and a
poem on the return of General Oglethorpe to
Georgia in 1876, winds up
Nor less the care
OF thy young province to oblige the fair;
Here tend the silkworm ia the verdant shade
The frugal matron and the blooming maid
But as to the export of raw silk, it was ad-
mitted in l740 that mo great entries have been
-,
ments verified by oath declare that ''the duan-
tity of silk hitherto made has not been great"
the small portion exported was produced bv
an Italian family settled in Savannah" An
other informant sums up the situation with
the remark, there are not as many mulberry
trees in the whole province as many one Of
the Carolina planters have, nor so much silk as
many a one of them makes" In fact. the colo
nv of Georgia was at this time in very weak
and impoverished condition, and scarcely able
to produce enough of the ne necessaries of life for
its own sustenance. Despite the poverty of
the province, the trustees firmly adhered to
the line of policy they had marked out: wine
and silk were to be cultivated in preference to
all other staples. 1.-The tracts of land which had
been planted with mulberry trees scarcely re-
tanned the vestiges of cultivation" in l744 but
new bounties were offered for silk: a filatIIre
was built at Savannah, and the implements
for reeliDg were ordered to be furnished
The premiums were afterward fixed at two
shillings per pound for first quality Of cncoons
one shilling for second, and eight pence for
third Bounties were also offered in 1749 for
proficiency in the art of reeling, and the trus-
tees supplied the requisite apparatus to com
petitors. In the following year fourteen young
women claimed the bounty and we're given
employment at the filature, which
by this time had an outfit of tools and imple-
ments. Special commissioners were sent to
the province by the trustees charged with the
duty of promoting the industry.
We are now approaching the period when
silk culture in the colonies attained its highest
annf A n tod SA +1.o
results has been formed by several of the wri-
ters who have recorded them This is chiefly
due to neglect in discriminating between Co
coons and raw silk. The records, from 1857 to
1868, are mostly of the production of cocoons;
and of these articles when fresh or not spe-
cially dried, ten or twelve to fourteen pounds
are required to furnish one pound of reeled or
raw silk. The following statements of Georgia
production or export are believed to be au-
thentic:
1856, 300 pounds cocoons received at fila.
ture
1850 to 1754. inclusive-value of raw silk ex-
i756-Amount of raw silk exported, 268
pounds
1757--1O5s pounds cocoons received at fila
lure
i7ss-7,O ,O4O pounds cocoons receive at fllature.
1T59-Considerably over 10000 pounds CO.
coons received at Savannah
H64-l5,2 200 pounds cocoons produced
1766-20, 900 pounds cocoons produced
1888 1,0S4 pounds raw silk sent to England
1758-1768. Enthusiastically 100000 pounds
cocoons received at filature.
1G7O-291 pounds raw silk produced at Ebene-
ger; none elsewhere.
1771- 438 pounds raw silk produced at Ebene-
zer; shipped to England.
1T2-4S5 pounds raw silk produced at Ebene-
zer; shipped to England.
1755-1772, inclusive-Amount Of raw silk ex-
ported, ,529 pounds.
A careful examination of the foregoing |
figures will show that they do not invoIve anV
cont ntradiction in themselves They indicate a |
varying product which eliminated in 1856 fur |
nishing from 1850 to 1772 an export averaging |
800 pounds OF raw silk per annum, and rarely |
lUOO pounds in a single year. 1t re- |
mains to be explained why an assertion has so /
found place and comment in his /
tories and essays, that in the year 1859 10000 /
pounds or raw silk were exported from Geor.
yia to England The discrepancy between this
and that Of the total export from /
1855 to 1772 (Which was furnished by the Col
ector Of Customs at Savannah) has been no
Iced by some of the more careful writer's;
others have ignored it; none have traced the
error to its origin. It arose in an ambiguous
not to say erroneous. publication from Charles
ION, South Carolina, which Adam Anderson
mas fortunately quoted in full He says:
I'VE had public advicss, in this year 1859 |
rom Charlt sGown in South Carolina of very
hopeful prospect in that province Of the grad
1al and considerable progress and increase of
OF raw silk there and in the adjoiu-
ng province OF Georgia, viz In the year 1857.
O52 pound weight OF raw silk balls were re-
,e1ved at the nlature in Georgia.: and the next |
rear produced no less than 040 pound weight
hereof. And that in this year 1859. there has
'een received at Savannah, the capital of
3e rgia, considerably above 10000 ID ,una
weight OF raw silk although the season has not