“The present time has been called the age of invention and improvement. But if ”there is nothing new under the sun” (a pretty fair illustration of this assertion of the wise man--Vide Ecclesiastes i. 9, 10.--will be found in this work.); and if what is, has been and may be again, then may we hope to be benefitted by the reproduction of astonishing results in all coming time; and even now, while there has been anxious inquiry for some easy mode to separate the bark of the mulberry from the wood, an _historical fact_ has been recently communicated(?); by which, some two hundred and forty years ago, in the year 1600, an accident occurred, which resulted in the manufacture of a handsome fabric from the fibrous bark of the mulberry, with the inference that the bark had been previously used for the manufacture of cordage, on account of the superior strength of the fibrous bark over that of other materials used for cordage[141]. “Under date of June 6, 1844, I have been favored with a letter from the president of one of the most eminent literary institutions of our country, who expresses his opinion of the progress of silk culture as follows: ‘I am gratified to find a renewed and more general interest excited at the present time. If this awaking up to a scientific and practical consideration of the subject is not soon crowned with signal success, I am satisfied it will not be for want of enterprize or skill in our countrymen, but merely from the high price of labor, compared with the scanty wages given in other silk-growing countries. Even this consideration (though it may retard for a while the complete success of this department of productive industry), will not prevent its ultimate triumph.’ “The above is the opinion of one of the most scientific men of the age, who, in early life, was himself a silk grower. His opinion accords with that of many others of high consideration in the United States. “While viewing the flourishing condition of one of my mulberry patches, you asked with what it had been manured? and received for answer, _ashes_, and the _deciduous foliage_. The foliage, you thought, could be gathered for making _paper_, and answered, that there would be sufficient defective foliage left to manure the land; the foliage is richer than any stable manure, and stable manure should never be applied to the mulberry. I have not had occasion the last five or six years to use even ashes as a manure, but keep the land in good tilth by frequent hoeing. If you found these mulberries more flourishing than others you had seen, it may be attributed, in a great measure, to frequent hoeing, and dressing with the decayed mulberry foliage.