Third, the great reduction of the bounty, which, being the stimulus to exertion, ceased to operate as an incentive, when from 3_s_. 3_d_. it fell to 1_s_. 3_d_., and finally to a mere premium on the general quantity imported. The poor could not subsist on these prices, and the rich could employ their lands to much better advantage than in cultivating an article which would not repay the expenses of labor: and lastly, the increasing attention, bestowed on rice and cotton, sealed the fate of the silk culture, and the planters soon learned to consider the latter of no importance in comparison, with the large and lucrative crops yielded by these more staple commodities. Other reasons might be mentioned, but these sufficiently account for its decline there, and its total neglect even to the present day. During the morus multicaulis epidemic, which spread over our country in 1838, Savannah, it is true, did not escape, and for a time the fever raged, with much violence, but the febrile action soon subsided, leaving no permanent benefit and only a few fields of waving foliage, as a deciduous memento of this frenzied excitement. That silk can be produced in Georgia equal to any in the world, does not admit of a doubt, but whether it will ever be resumed, and when, is among the unknown events of the future.