and lastly, the increasing attention, bestowed on rice
and cotton, sealed the fate of the silk culture, and
the planters soon learned to consider the latter of
no importance in comparison, with the large and lucrative
crops yielded by these more staple commodities.
Other reasons might be mentioned, but these sufficiently
account for its decline there, and its total neglect
even to the present day. During the morus multicaulis
epidemic, which spread over our country in 1838, Savannah,
it is true, did not escape, and for a time the fever
raged, with much violence, but the febrile action
soon subsided, leaving no permanent benefit and only
a few fields of waving foliage, as a deciduous memento
of this frenzied excitement.
That silk can be produced in Georgia equal to any in the world, does not admit of a doubt, but whether it will ever be resumed, and when, is among the unknown events of the future.