“Dear Sir,

You are a stranger to us, but believing you will gladly lend your aid in the cause we are in … induces us to introduce ourselves to you.

You are one who has been successful in the raising of silk worms, & understand all the details of the silk culture, & if we are rightly informed, you are not only satisfied, as we are, from calculation but from real practice, that silk can be made in this country & with profit too, a profit reasonable & sufficiently great, to make the business permanent & lasting – We have had for three years past a lively spirit existing to extend the propagation [of] the mulberry through all parts of our country … amt of capital have been invested & we now being invested & nothing is now wanted by the community but good practical instruction imparted to them by those who are in possession of the desired information, & we shall speedily see this new and interesting branch of rural industry well & permanently established in our land.

We have for 14 months past issued monthly numbers of a work on the culture of silk &c it has obtained a wide & extended circulation, for this work particularly at this time we want to place in its pages the results of practice from those who stand preeminent in the cause. May we therefore ask the favor of your views upon the subject in question giving the plan of operation, rearing, reeling, spinning &c & what kind of reel or spinner you use If it should merit your pleasure so to do, you will not only confer an obligation on us but many …”