Online Collection |
|
A
MANUAL
CONTAINING
INFORMATION RESPECTING THE GROWTH
OF THE
MULBERRY TREE,
WITH
SUITABLE DIRECTIONS
FOR THE
CULTURE OF SILK.
IN THREE PARTS.
BY J. H. COBB, A. M.
PUBLISHED BY DIRECTION OF HIS EXCELLENCY GOV. LINCOLN,
AGREEABLY TO A RESOLVE OF THE COMMONWEALTH.
Ostendens hujus muneris usum.
Vida in Bombyx.
NEW EDITION.
BOSTON:
CARTER, HENDEE AND CO.
M DCCC XXXIII.
|
(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
Contact us for information about using this image.
label levels: |
|
|
In the first years of the 1830s the cultivation of silk was seen as the next sure-fire get-rich scheme. The difficulties of cultivating silk worms were minimized in publications which painted the painstaking process of silk cultivation as something anyone, even children, could do. This excerpt from an 1833 book is typical: it offers some inflated, although possible, figures for profits; it gives advice that, if meticulously followed, could work but it minimizes the risks that for many led to complete financial disaster. Driven by texts such as this, the market for mulberry trees--silk worms can only feed on these leaves--had exploded by 1838. Speculation drove the price through the roof but the price collapsed in 1839. Several hard winters (1840-42) followed, killing many of these trees; those left were finished off by a blight.
top of page
|
"A Manual Containing Information Respecting the Growth of the Mulberry Tree, with Suitable Directions for the Culture of Silk"
publisher Carter, Hendee and Company |
author Jonathan Holmes Cobb (1799-1882) |
date 1833 |
location Boston, Massachusetts |
width 4.75" |
height 7.25" |
process/materials printed paper, ink |
item type Books/Non-fiction |
accession # #L02.127 |
Send an e-Postcard of this object
|