In the 1830s, Connecticut River Valley farmers in Massachusetts started cultivating silk, which they hoped would prove profitable. The difficulties of maintaining the mulberry trees on which the silkworms fed, were minimized in publications which painted the 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 financial disaster. Driven by texts such as this, the market for mulberry trees had exploded by 1838, as speculation drove prices through the roof, but they collapsed in 1839. Several hard winters (1840-42) followed, killing many of these trees and those left were finished off by a blight.
Cobb, Jonathan Holmes. A Manual Containing Information Respecting the Growth of the Mulberry Tree, with Suitable Directions for the Culture of Silk. Carter, Hendee and Company, 1833. Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, American Centuries. https://americancenturies.org/collection/l02-127/. Accessed on October 15, 2024.
Please note: Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.