124 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



poor land rich and at the same time got wealth by the 

 sheep themselves. Sheep in America, it is said, are 

 less subject to diseases than our European sheep, and 

 seldom have the snivel, except now and then a similar 

 disease shows itself on low swampy meadows. Dr. 

 Bond says that this disease resembling the snivel is 

 neither so contagious nor so severe as the disease in 

 Europe, and the same is true of cattle diseases, which 

 very seldom appear and in certain regions are un- 

 known. The wool, notwithstanding the negligence with 

 which the sheep are handled, is really very good and 

 fine; but nobody thinks of increasing the supply and 

 making it a branch of trade.* The country people 

 make hats or articles of dress of the wool, doing the 

 work themselves. Indeed they are often too negligent 

 to shear at the proper time, and quite indifferent, see 

 wool on every bush, left hanging by the sheep pasturing 

 beneath. 



The taverns in the country are recognizable, even at 

 a distance, by a sort of gallows arrangement which 

 stands out over the road and exhibits the patron of the 

 house. So far we have observed many times the 

 counterfeit presentment of Frederick the Second, King 

 of Prussia, hung up in this way, that monarch having 

 been a great favorite of the Americans ever since the 

 war before the last. We still found a few Georges, let 

 hang perhaps out of sympathy, but of Queens of Eng- 

 land we saw a good many. We have as yet seen no 



* As yet no province has a superfluity of wool for export. 

 Only from Nantucket Island is any wool exported, but there 

 the most considerable flocks are pastured on commons. A 

 pound of wool in America costs about I shilling sterling or a 

 little more. 



