ld be produced in this colonial
dependency.

As early as 1609, the subject engaged the attention of the adventurers
to Virginia, and in a pamphlet, called "Nova Brittannia offering most
excellent fruites by planting in Virginia," published that year, the
writer says "there are silkeworms, and plenty of mulberie-trees,
whereby ladies, gentlewomen and little children (being set in the way
to do it) may bee all imploied with pleasure, making silke comparable
to that of Persia, Turkey, or any other." In 1650, Mr. Samuel Hartlib
published a work entitled "Virginia Discovery of Silk Wormes, with
their Benefits," in which he endeavored to show that the raising of
silk was a thing very practicable in Virginia, and even asserted that
as a staple, it might be made superior to tobacco, in which opinion he
was confirmed by the judgment of several others. That they made some
advances in this culture, is evident from the fact that the Coronation
robe of Charles II., in 1660, was made of silk reeled in that colony,
and even so late as 1730, three hundred pounds of the raw material
were exported from Virginia. Tobacco, however, soon assumed and
maintained the ascendancy, to the exclusion of this more useful and
beautiful produce.

In 1703, Sir Nathaniel Johnson introduced the silk culture into South
Carolina, but the astonishing success which rewarded the casual
introduction of rice into the plantation about eight years before,
precluded a just interest in the undertaking, and as a public and
recognized commodity it soon came to naught, though several persons,
more for amusement than profit, still gave their attention to it; and
as late as 1755, Mrs. Pinckney, the same lady to whom the province was
indebted for the first cultivation of indigo ten years before, reeled
sufficient silk in the vicinity of Charleston to make three dresses,
one of which was presented to the Princess Dowager of Wales, another
to Lord Chesterfield, and the third, says Ramsay, who narrates the
circumstance, "is now (1809) in Charleston in the possession of her
daughter, Mrs. Horrey, and is remarkable for its beauty, firmness and
strength."

But notwithstanding these failures and the known difficulty of
introducing a new branch of agriculture into a country, as was
evidenced by the compulsion which was necessary by Henry IV.
to introduce it into France, against the united voices of the
merchants-traders, and even in opposition to the Duke of Sully, and
also