view,--the production of silk.

They had learned that the climate of the region was particularly
favorable to the breeding of the worms, and that the mulberry-tree was
indigenous there. They conceived that the attention requisite, during
the few weeks of the feeding of the worms, might be paid by the women
and children, the old and infirm, without taking off the active men
from their employment, or calling in the laborers from their work. For
encouragement and assistance in the undertaking, they were willing to
engage persons from Italy, acquainted with the method of feeding the
worms and winding the thread from the cocoons, to go over with the
settlers, and instruct them in the whole process. And they intended to
recommend it strongly to the emigrants to use their utmost skill and
diligence in the culture of mulberry trees, and the prompt attention
to the purpose to which their leaves were to be applied; so that, in
due time the nation might receive such remittances of raw silk as
would evince that their liberality towards effecting the settlement
was well applied, and available in produce of an article of
importation of so valuable a nature, and in great demand.

The trustees were excited to this project by Oglethorpe, who had been
deeply engaged in ascertaining the value of wrought silk as an article
of commerce, and also of the raw silk for domestic manufacture, at the
time when Mr. John Lombe's invention for winding and reeling had been
brought before Parliament. And now he considered that it would be
an exceedingly desirable project to introduce the raising of the
commodity in the projected new settlement, and thus diminish to the
nation the large sums annually expended in the importation.

This is one of those prospective measures for the advancement of the