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"Letter from the Secretary of the Treasury-Growth and Manufacture of Silk"

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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Silk was an expensive import to the United States. To promote domestic production the government published this 220-page pamphlet. Because of the possibility of making big profits, the public was very interested. More than six thousand copies were sold in the U.S. But silk making is time-consuming and difficult, and although many tried, few were successful. In the end, hard winters (1840-42) and a mulberry tree blight (1844) killed off the domestic silk industry. <BR> <BR>The chart shows the immense number of leaves and precise temperatures the silk worms need during their lives. These temperatures must have been hard to maintain, particularly in New England. And at the end of this item, engravings show the tools for silk manufacture.

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