In 1872, Suge had the honjin of the former post station relocated and initially hired 360 former samurai of Shōnai Domain in the endeavor, which he organized into six companies. Initially, they began to cultivate the riverside of Akagawa, in the eastern suburbs of Tsuruoka. Later that year, he organized an additional 3,000 former samurai into 34 companies and started the clearing of 106 hectares at Gotayama at the foot of Mount Gassan. This involved the clearing of a large amount of forest and replanting it with mulberry trees, the source of food for silkworms. The former daimyō of Shōnai Domain, Sakai Tadaaki visited the site, and gave it the name of Matsugaoka. In 1873, and additional 204 hectares of mountain was cleared and the cultivation of tea, another important export crop, was also attempted. In 1874, on 311 hectares of open fields, 551,600 mulberry seedlings were planted. In 1875, the first silkworms were raised and their cocoons shipped to Yokohama. The production of raw silk thread also began. From 1875 to 1877 a total of ten large buildings were constructed for the rearing of the silkworms, and eventually for the production of silk thread and silk cloth, and used roof tiles salvaged from the demolished Tsuruoka Castle. While many similar sericulture businesses were attempted around Japan at that time, none were on such a large scale.