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GENERAL REPORT OF THE JUDGES OF GROUP IX. white mulberry yielded, gave the finishing blow, and silk-culture in America ceased to exist. But the silk-culture, humble as it was and brief in duration, was the means of developing a knowledge of the fibre, of its uses, and manipulations; it drew attention to the possibilities of the fabrication, and created a passion for working it. The silk-culture was the humble larva from which was developed the winged and perfect insect, bril liant with gold and color, to which the perfected silk-manufacture may not unaptly be compared. Fabrication of Machine- and Sewing-Silk.—Proceeding to a his tory of the organized manufacture of silk in this country, we find that two of the most important branches of the manufacture, that of sewing- silk and spun silk, were direct offshoots from the domestic silk-culture of Connecticut. Attempts were made at Mansfield in 1810, 1814, and 1821, by Rodney Hanks, to manufacture sewing-silk by power, but without success. His grandsons are now successful manufacturers. In 1829 a company, consisting of seven individuals, most of whom subsequently became identified with numerous enterprises in the silk- manufacture, was incorporated under the name of the Mansfield Silk Company. Their first successful machinery was made by Mr. Lilly, the promoter of the enterprise, in accordance with the descriptions and rude drawings of Edmund Golding, a young English “ throwster,” who came to this country at the age of seventeen, expecting to find employment in his art. But the machinery proving inadequate for the manufacture of American silk, as it was then reeled, raw silk for the first time was imported from England and used in the manufacture of sewing-silk, which proved superior to the hand-made skeins. From that first successful attempt, the manufacture of sewing-silk, by power, has been uninterruptedly continued, though with successive improve ments in machinery, as well as in the quality of the goods made. This company, having unwisely entered into the culture of silk, was finally dissolved. Several members of the disbanded company started the manufacture of sewing-silks in other places, and contributed to the spread of the new industry. An ingenious mechanic of Mans field, named Rixford, made improvements in the machinery for wind ing, doubling, and reeling, which were adopted in a mill started at Florence, near Northampton, out of which the now celebrated Nono tuck Company’s establishment sprung. So that in the humble domestic silk-culture of Mansfield may be clearly seen the source of the present manufacture of sewing-silks and machine-twists in this country, amounting in 1875 to over six million dollars in value. This is, at present, the characteristic department of New England