icon for Home page
icon for Kid's Home page
icon for Digital Collection
icon for Activities
icon for Turns Exhibit
icon for In the Classroom
icon for Chronologies
icon for My Collection

Online Collection
Select a page:

Page 249
(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
Contact us for information about using this image.



label levels:

In one of the many governmental initiatives to promote the growth of silk, the government of Massachusetts offered a bounty to plant mulberry trees. This was based on the idea, as the article stated, that mulberry trees "would grow in any country between 20 and 50 degrees of latitude." It turned out that even the most robust versions of the mulberry could be killed by the hard winters of the early 1840s, and that they were not resistant to a blight that wiped out the remainder. The silk industry, though, thrived in the 1830s. The introduction from China of a new, more robust variety, Morus multicaulis, signaled to many that silk could be made profitably here. But the technical problems inherent in the creation and processing of silk, combined with the failure of the mulberry tree, meant that the domestic production of silk never amounted to much.

 

top of page

"Culture of Silk" from New England Farmer

publisher   George C. Barrett
creator   Thomas Green Fessenden (1771-1837)
date   Feb 19, 1834
location   Boston, Massachusetts
height   11.25"
width   9.0"
process/materials   printed paper, ink
item type   Periodicals/Magazine
accession #   #L02.064


Look Closer icon My Collection icon Transcription icon Detailed info icon


ecard icon Send an e-Postcard of this object



See Also...

Raw Silk

"Specimen of a Leaf of the Morus Multicaulis Tree for The Silk Grower"

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

"Manufacture of Silk Not New in New England" from New England Farmer

"Chinese Mulberry" and "Persian Management of Silkworms from New England Farmer"

"The Silk Culturist"


button for Side by Side Viewingbutton for Glossarybutton for Printing Helpbutton for How to Read Old Documents

 

Home | Online Collection | Things To Do | Turns Exhibit | Classroom | Chronologies | My Collection
About This Site | Site Index | Site Search | Feedback