The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1907-05-15
THE MULBERRYc
How 1t Swept This Country Early
In the Last Century.
EVERYBODY WENT SILK MAD.

An Insane Passion to Raise Mulberry
Trees Seized Upon All Glasses of
People-The Crash That Came When
the Bubble Was Pricked.
James l., who almost insanely hated
tobacco, was determined that silk
worms should be reared in Virginia
mainly because he thought he could
thus destroy the tobacco culture, which
he ordered to be abandoned.
For a time silk culture met with
great success in Georgia. In 1888
10000 pounds of raw silk were thence
exported to England. Connecticut was,
however the center of the industry.
As late as 1925 the culture of silk was
very general there and also flourished
in Massachusetts.
Silkworms were fed on the white
mulberry Morus alba) until 1880, when
there appeared the Chinese mulberry,
or Morus multicaulis. 1t was predict
ed that by its culture two crops of silk
could be raised annually. Soon all the
agricultural literature and the newspa-
pers of the country became surfeited
with descriptions of this wonderful
tree.
Many documents relating to 'sericul-
ture were published by congress. The
legislature of nearly every state pro
yided for the payment of liberal bOun-
ties for planting mulberry trees and
raising cQcoons.
Thus it was that speculative furor,
a veritable madness, seized upon all
classes of people and particularly upon
the shrewd. calculating Yankee. II
ragged like an epidemic. Not only agri-
culturists, but doctors of divinity, law
ard medicine, scholars stHdesmen and
mechanics, men apT women. old and
Young, were INFECTED with an insane
passion to raiSG mulberry trees.
Every oneSthought the glorious dar
was dawfiiag when each farm would
be Il nursery for the young trees and
every house have its cocooneries and
i.S silk worms yielding two or more
crops of cocoons yearly The farmers
wiYes and daughters when not feeding
he worms were to reel the silk. which
would become as cheap as cotton ev-
cry woman having at least a dozen silk
.rcsSeS
The large profits anticipated in pro
!ucing silk were insignificant compar-
ID with the fortunes that all expectc
make by raising the new mulberry
tree. In 1894 trees of seasons growth
were sold for SO to IS hundred. but
hey soon sold at $25, $50, 500, 5000
md $500 hundred and sometimes 81
apiece.
There is recorded an instance of two
jrees of one seasons growth, raised by
one Elder Sharp in North Windham,
Conn, which were sold at auction. The
first brought $106 and the second $1O0.
Further sales We're then withheld be-
cause the bidding was not considered
10 be sufficiently spirited.
When the craze reached its height
but little silk was produced, for every
one was busy raising the new mulberry
tree. Men expected to make fortunes
in a few months buying land and
planting mulberry slips, and' the silk
companies almost without exception
sank their capital in this way many
fully equipped mills being closed
One farmer planted $1,000 worth of
trees in three-quarters of an acre and
sold them the next year for $4,000.
In 1889, just before the people came
20 their senses. nurseryman sent an
agent to France to purchase several
millions of young trees. He carried
FoO'COO in cash as first payment.
When the trees arrived the inevitable
crash had come. and the nurseryman
failed for so large an amount that he
could never reckon up his indebted
IesG His trees were offered in vain at
~ hundred for pea brush.
When the fever was over and the
people realized that their capital stock
'yas suddenly worthless they pulled up
I'll the mulberry trees in a rage and
burned them as brushwood.
IL 1914 violent storm, following a
general blight. destroyed most of the
remaining Morus multicauls trees and
even the more hardy white mulberry
rariety. This wcs the finishing blow.
and thus silk culture in America prac-
tically ceased to exist. No industry
ever In this country received such
crushing stroke.-Scientific American.
Just Escaped the Madhouse.