t may be interesting to state,
that two trees in front of the Parsonage, ten years old, measured
three feet eight inches in circumference. In December of this year,
eight more copper basins were received, and public confidence in the
success of the undertaking seemed revived, notwithstanding Mr. Camuse
and family had left the Province, and settled at Purysburgh, in South
Carolina.

On the 25th December, 1750, Mr. Pickering Robinson, who, together
with Mr. James Habersham, had been appointed the preceding August a
commissioner to promote more effectually the culture of silk, arrived
in Savannah.

Mr. Robinson had been sent to France, at the expense of the Trustees,
to study the management of filatures and the necessary processes for
preparing the article for market, and thus, though no operative,
was qualified to take the directorship of so important a branch of
industry. His salary was 100_l_. per annum; 25_l_. for a clerk, and a
tract of land was also granted him, which, in 1763, sold for 1300_l_.

Mr. Robinson brought with him a large quantity of silkworm seed, but
all failed, save about half an ounce; the commissioners determined at
once to erect a filature, which should be a normal school to the whole
province, and it was their opinion that it would be "a sufficient
nursery to supply, in three or four years, as many reelers as will be
wanted, when we make no doubt of many private filatures being erected,
which can only make their culture a general staple." The dimensions
were thirty-six feet by twenty, rough boarded, with a loft or upper
story, for the spreading out of the green cocoons. It was commenced on
the 4th of March, 1751. On the 1st of April, the basins were put up,
and on the 8th of May the reeling began. To encourage the colonists,
the Trustees proposed to purchase all the balls, and wind them at
their own expense, and paid from 1_s_. 6_d_. to 2_s_. 4_d_. per pound
for green cocoons. The Commissioners separated the cocoons into three
sorts: 1st, perfect cones; 2d, the spongy and fuzzy; and 3d, the
spotted, stained, and dupions. This arrangement, however, gave great
offence to some of the residents in Savannah and Purysburgh, and
Messrs. Robinson and Habersham requested the Vice President and
assistants to determine the respective prices and publicly announce
the same, which they did on the 26th April, by a proclamation, wherein
by way of bounty, they promised to pay for cocoons delivered at their
stor