Over a thousand pounds of cocoons were raised at Ebenezer, and seventy-four pounds two ounces raw silk made, producing (the price being then thirty shillings) over 110_l_. sterling.  As illustrative of the luxuriant growth of the mulberry, it may be interesting to state, that two trees in front of the Parsonage, ten years old, measured three feet eight inches in circumference.  In December of this year, eight more copper basins were received, and public confidence in the success of the undertaking seemed revived, notwithstanding Mr. Camuse and family had left the Province, and settled at Purysburgh, in South Carolina.

On the 25th December, 1750, Mr. Pickering Robinson, who, together with Mr. James Habersham, had been appointed the preceding August a commissioner to promote more effectually the culture of silk, arrived in Savannah.

Mr. Robinson had been sent to France, at the expense of the Trustees, to study the management of filatures and the necessary processes for preparing the article for market, and thus, though no operative, was qualified to take the directorship of so important a branch of industry.  His salary was 100_l_. per annum; 25_l_. for a clerk, and a tract of land was also granted him, which, in 1763, sold for 1300_l_.

Mr. Robinson brought with him a large quantity of silkworm seed, but all failed, save about half an ounce; the commissioners determined at once to erect a filature, which should be a normal school to the whole province, and it was their opinion that it would be “a sufficient nursery to supply, in three or four years, as many reelers as will be wanted, when we make no doubt of many private filatures being erected, which can only make their culture a general staple.”  The dimensions were thirty-six feet by twenty, rough boarded, with a loft or upper story, for the spreading out of the green cocoons.  It was commenced on the 4th of March, 1751.  On the 1st of April, the basins were put up, and on the 8th of May the reeling began.  To encourage the colonists, the Trustees proposed to purchase all the balls, and wind them at their own expense, and paid from 1_s_. 6_d_. to 2_s_. 4_d_. per pound for green cocoons.  The Commissioners separated the cocoons into three sorts:  1st, perfect cones; 2d, the spongy and fuzzy; and 3d, the spotted, stained, and dupions.  This arrangement, however, gave great offence to some of the residents in Savannah and Purysburgh, and Messrs. Robinson and Habersham requested the Vice President and assistants to determine the respective prices and publicly announce the same, which they did on the 26th April, by a proclamation, wherein by way of bounty, they promised to pay for cocoons delivered at their store in Savannah, the following sums, namely, for cocoons made by one worm, hard, weighty and good substance, 2_s_. per pound; for the weaker quality, pointed, spotted, or bruised, 1_s_. 3_d_.; for dupions (those made by two worms), 6_d_.; for raw silk, from 1st quality cocoons 14_s_. per pound; for that made from 2d quality, 12_s_.; the product of the double cones, 6_s_. per pound; and they also offered, if delivered at the filature, for best cocoons, 3_s_. 6_d_.; for middling 1_s_. 8_d_.; and for inferior 1_s_. 1_d_., a series of prices truly astonishing, when we reflect that the real merchantable worth of a pound of cocoons is scarcely ever 6_d_.