In concluding our notice of this volume, we will only add, that, after seeing the condemnatory notice of it in the Monthly Review, which has already been quoted in some of our respectable journals, and circulated through the country, we took it up again and read it, both with care and with an increased conviction of its designed impartiality and general correctness. We think it due to a foreigner and a gentleman, no matter whether of distinction or not, to rescue his remarks from undeserved English censure, and American misapprehension. Were his volume republished in this country, it could not fail of being generally read, and of communicating more precise information in regard to the states, bordering on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, especially of the states so little known of Mississippi and Louisiana, than any other volume with which we are acquainted, if, perhaps, we may not except the Ten Years' Journeyings in the Valley of the Mississippi.' Our author is not so good a landscape-painter as Mr Flint, but we think he takes a better profile. Mr Flint wrote from recollection and without book." Our author took notes, and has made good use of them. The West, the South, and the North are already under great obligations to Mr Flint. We hope he will increase them still more, and that a liberal public will not suffer one of the most enlightened of its citizens to go unrewarded.

We intended to give an extract from the book entitled 'The United States as they are.' But it is needless. Its character may be given in two words, vile trash. The book entitled 'The Americans as they are,' seems to have been formed on the principle involved in its concluding sentence, with which we will close this article. Brother Jonathan is neither so bad as John Bull supposes him to be, nor so faultless as he fancies himself. Medium tenuêre beati.'

ART. IX.-1. Letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, transmitting the Information required by a Resolution of the House of Representatives, of May 11, 1826, in relation to the Growth and Manufacture of Silk, adapted to the different Parts of the Union. Washington. Gales & Seaton. 1828. pp. 220.

2. A Treatise on the Culture of Silk in Germany and especially in Bavaria, or Complete Instruction for the Plantation and the Management of Mulberry Trees, and the Rearing of Silkworms. By the Counsellor of State DE HAZZI, &c. Translated from the German. Washington. Gales & Seaton. 1828. pp. 108.

MR MINER deserves the gratitude of his country for the resolution moved by him in the House of Representatives, on the twenty-ninth of December 1825, on the subject of the encouragement which the culture of silk merited, and might receive from the national legislature. The report of the committee on agriculture, to whom this proposition was referred, was well adapted to stimulate the zeal of Congress; and, though very short, throws much light upon the subject, and contains sound reflections upon the necessity of cultivating all the national resources of the country. They enforce their arguments, by a statement of facts, which show that the decay of the resources previously derived from the principal branch of rural economy, rendered necessary a sedulous attention to other branches of industry, which may take the place of those on the decline. From 1817 to 1825, inclusive, the exports of bread stuffs fell from twenty millions, three hundred and seventy-four thousand dollars, to five millions, four hundred and seventeen thousand, nine hundred and ninety-seven; whilst the importation of silk goods was increased in the interval from 1821 to 1825, by nearly six millions. The whole amount of silk goods imported within those five years, is estimated at thirty-five millions, one hundred and fifty-six thousand, four hundred and ninety-four; and their export, in the same space of time, was below eight millions. The report of the committee terminated by a resolution, directing the Secretary of the Treasury to cause a well digested manual to be prepared, 'containing the best practical information, that can be collected, on the growth and manufacture of silk, adapted to the different parts of the

Union, containing such facts and observations, in relation to the growth and manufacture of silk in other countries, as may be useful.'

In compliance with this resolution a set of queries was prepared by Mr Rush, which, together with a copy of the resolution of the House of Representatives, were forwarded to the governors of the several states, and to a great number of individuals, enabled by their studies, or pursuits, to furnish exact and useful information upon the subject. The preparation of these queries was a work of great labor, and the manner in which it was executed does infinite credit to Mr Rush. The information, collected from the answers made to these queries, was embodied in a report, submitted in February last by Mr Rush to the House of Representatives, of which six thousand copies were ordered to be printed for distribution. By another resolution, a work in German by Mr de Hazzi (the second named at the head of the present article), and sent by him to Congress, was ordered to be translated into English; and of this work, also, six thousand copies have been printed. Both publications are accompanied by plates and wood cuts. Thus has Congress liberally provided for the collection and wide circulation of a mass of data concerning the culture of silk; and it now only remains for the persons already interested in this branch of industry, and for those who wish to share in its profits, zealously to avail themselves of the instruction thus afforded to them.

The Manual annexed to, or rather constituting, the report of the Secretary of the Treasury is made up of a variety of materials. Much has obviously been collected by means of personal inquiries of men practically engaged in the culture and manufacture of silk, and of silk-dyers, in this country. More has been extracted from the best theoretical writers on the subject (some of whom, as, for instance, Count Dandolo, were actively engaged in the breeding of silkworms, and in the rearing of mulberry trees, upon an extensive scale); and from printed accounts of the experiments which had been already made in this country. Not a little has been derived from the official correspondence of several governors, and private individuals, in answer to the queries of the treasury department. Among these last sources we shall particularly mention a letter of Governor Wolcott, not because it is the only one entitled to notice, but because it seems to leave nothing to desire, in regard to perspicuity and fulness of detail.

By means of the abovementioned materials, and the information gleaned from several French and English treatises, we shall present to our readers a sketch of the methods of raising mulberry trees, of rearing the valuable worms which feed upon their leaves, and of the culture of silk in general.

The mulberry tree is mentioned in various passages of Scripture. David was directed by the Lord to come upon the Philistines' over against the mulberry trees' in the valley of Rephaim. (2 Samuel v. 23.) Among the writers of classical antiquity, we find the mulberry tree mentioned in Ovid's Metamorphoses, in the story of Pyramus and Thisbe. Pliny the elder repeatedly speaks of the mulberry tree. He mentions the budding, and shooting of the leaf, as the surest indication that the winter, and the frosts, are over. The name of the fruit in Greek is μógov and of the tree μogén, and the name of Morea, which now belongs to the ancient Peloponnesus, is ascribed to the great quantity of mulberry trees, which are found there. The Greeks were acquainted with this tree, and with the silkworm, from the time of Alexander the Great; and Mr Phillips* is, therefore, in some degree, warranted in doubting the authenticity of the tradition, by which two monks are generally represented as having first brought the silkworm into Europe, in the time of Justinian.

But we must hasten to the period at which the mulberry tree was first introduced in England, the only country, in regard to which, in this respect, we have sufficient information. Before however, we enter on this part of our subject, we beg leave to say a few words on the nature of this tree.

It belongs to the Scabridæ, and is of the class Monœcia, and of the order Tetrandria.

The varieties are,

1. Morus Alba, the white mulberry tree, a native of China. 2. M. Nigra, the black mulberry tree, which is of the largest size. The fruit is of a dark red color, and furnishes a good wine. It is a native of Persia.

3. M. Rubra, the red mulberry tree, a native of Virginia. A variety peculiar to Japan is called Papyrifera, because a kind of paper is made of the bark of it.

This tree, which seems especially destined by nature for the

* Pomarium Britannicum, by Henry Phillips. Third edition, London, 1823.

feeding of the silkworms, harbors no other caterpillar, nor breeds any sort of vermin. The acrid bitterness, which belongs to the root, has been found a remedy against worms; and it is probable that the sap is impregnated with it, and gives to the tree the property, which we have just mentioned.

It seldom produces fruit before an advanced age; and this circumstance may have contributed to its neglect; but by grafting this inconvenience is removed. The mulberry tree attains a very great age. It thrives in every kind of soil, and no other tree of equal growth and beauty resists so well the influences of the sea atmosphere.

Two or three grand specimens of this beautiful tree,' says Mr Phillips, standing in the most exposed situation of the north east coast of England, not only defy the enemy, but delight in their situation, throwing out their noble limbs in all directions, and assuming a foliage, rich, full, and tufted to its topmost boughs. One of them is of the greatest magnitude, though some of its vast limbs have been torn from it; but it is still in vigor, and, in point of richness of effect, the oak itself, is scarcely superior. They are abundantly prolific."

We have, thus far, principally gathered our facts from Mr Phillips's Pomona, a work not less entertaining for the general reader, than useful for the practical gardener, or the tasteful land proprietor. We turn now to Mr Rush's report, where we find, in a few pages, an abundance of interesting details, which it would cost much time and labor to collect from other

sources.

The red mulberry is considered as the only species indigenous in this country. The northern extremity of Lake Champlain is, according to Michaux, its most northern limit; yet it has also been found in Massachusetts. It abounds in all the states of the Union south and westward; and Dr James found it as far west as the lower part of the river Canadian.*

Doubts have existed in regard to the fitness of the red mulberry leaf for the feeding of silkworms. But experiments made in Louisiana and Missouri afford reasons for believing the fact, at least as weighty as the assertion to the contrary made by a Mr Delongchamp, which relates only to France. Besides, there is obviously a contradiction between his denial of the red mulberry's fitness for the feeding of the worm, and the

* Annals of the Lyceum. New York. vol. ii. p. 246.