252 



It is strange that our people cannot supply the demand for wool among us. 

 In England, the annual rent of ground per acre is almost equal to the cost of 

 the average improved land with us, yet the rent is paid, the wool raised 

 shipped and sold abroad. 



You have upon this ground, exhibited to-day, a French sheep that the 

 owner (of Clinton county, Ohio,) assures me turned off last sprino- twenty 

 S)S. of wool — that he sold for 37)^ cents per Ba., making $7.50. A wool 

 buyer informed me, that in Warren county in this State, he purchased a fleece 

 that weighed eighteen pounds. We can, in my opinion, raise wool in this 

 State, as cheap as in any part of the western States. My advice to farmers, 

 would be to engage in raising sheep. 



FLAX SEED OIL. 



"We are neglecting, too much, the cultivation of the flax. The amount of 

 flax seed oil imported into the United States, for the year previous to the 30th 

 of June, 1850, was 1,573,177 gallons — equal to 698,000 bushels of flax seed, 

 which is at its present eastern price $1,548,000, a sum equal to one-fourth of 

 all the flour exported from the United States during the same period. The 

 crop therefore must be increased more than a million of bushels before the 

 home demand can be supplied. 



In some parts of the country, flax is raised and cut for the seed alone, the 

 ground the same season put in wheat. 



You may take the present price of flax seed, make an estimate of the cost 

 of preparing it for market, and no article can be raised that is more profitable. 



In conversing with one of our best farmers on the subject, he informed me 

 that an acre of flax will yield twelve bushels; the cost of raising, preparing, 

 and taking to market, he estimates at about $8 — the price at $1.25 per bushel, 

 will make $15 — leaving a profit of $7 per acre. 



But in this calculation, no account is taken of the flax. I have now before 

 me a specimen of the flax cotton, samples of cloth made of all flax, likewise 

 part wool and flax, and part cotton and flax. I do not consider myself com- 

 petent to decide whether this movement in the flax cotton will succeed; but 

 if the Yankee fails in this movement, to make it successful, it will be the 

 first. 



In conversing with a gentleman on the subject of the cheese trade in Indi- 

 ana, I was astonished to learn that we purchased annually about eighty thou- 

 sand dollars worth of what is called Western Reserve cheese. The amount 

 purchased in two years would build a McAdamized or plank road across your 

 State. A very large proportion of this cheese is an inferior article that would 

 not be brought to the table where it is made. No country is bett«r adapted 

 to the dairy than Indiana, with the variety of hill, dale, and valley, springs, 

 wells, running brooks, branches and streams, of all sizas. It is a wonder 

 that our people do not turn their attention more to this subject. 



