mulberries

[from Domingo Faustino Sarmiento's Facundo: Or, Civilization and Barbarism, tr. Ilan Stavans, 1845]

Godoi Cruz . . . endeavored, by introducing the cultivation of the white mulberry, to solve the problem of the possible future of San Juan and Mendoza, which depends upon the discovery of some production of great value, yet of small compass. Silk answers this condition, imposed upon these inland cities by their great distance from the seaports, and the high price of transportation. Godoi, not satisfied with publishing at Santiago a long and complete treatise on the cultivation of the mulberry, and the care of the silkworm and cochineal, had it distributed through the provinces free of cost, kept the question of the mulberry constantly before the public for ten years, urging its cultivation, and setting forth its advantages, while he carried on a correspondence with Europe, learning the current prices, and sending over specimens of the silk he had himself obtained, thus discovering the failings or excellences in quality, and also the best methods of spinning. The results of this great, patriotic labor, were all that he could hope for; now there are already some thousands of mulberry-trees, and the silk gathered by the quintal was spun, twisted, dyed, and sold in Buenos Ayres and Santiago, for the European market, at the rate of six or seven dollars a pound; for the silk of Mendoza was as glossy as that of the best quality in Spain or Italy.