WOOL INDUSTRY. 201 



variation in any particular, as were first invented and made by me 

 in 1827." 



In the wool manufacture, especially since the general disuse of 

 broadcloth, the requirements of fashion demand new fabrics or 

 new designs every season. A large fancy cassimere mill will 

 produce not less than two hundred distinct designs each season, 

 making four hundred in the year. In some mills there are made 

 not less than fifty distinct classes of fabrics, to say nothing of 

 styles. New fabrics perpetually call for new machines. The 

 producer in this industry can have no rest : he must be constantly 

 learning. No degree of skill in the selection of other fabrics is 

 comparable with that which must be exercised in buying and ap- 

 plying wool. Its preparation is more difficult, and the finish of 

 its products is more complicated. Add to this that the dyeing of 

 the wool fabrics requires what is a distinct art by itself in Europe, 

 and in some branches, such as the indigo fermented vat, is the 

 most difficult work in practical chemistry, and we see a sufficient 

 reason why the wool manufacture takes the first place in the tex- 

 tile arts. Some branches of the wool manufacture, like that of 

 carpets, require the most profound knowledge of the principles of 

 decorative art ; others, like that of printing stuffs, are based upon 

 a knowledge of the chemical arts. Indeed, it may be said that no 

 industrial work brings so fully into play the results of scientific 

 research and the practical applications of art as the vast estab- 

 lishments in this country which make and print the mixed dress 

 goods of cotton and wool. Thus it will be seen that the acquisi- 

 tion of a perfect wool industry is in itself the possession of the 

 most important arts. 



The Manufacture essential to a Successful Sheep IIusbandby. 

 We have shown that without domestic wool we should not have 

 mills. On the other hand, without mills we should not have sheep. 

 We have exported so little wool that it has been said that the 

 value of imported playing-cards exceeds the value of all the wool 

 sent abroad from this country. Under the prevailing system of 

 growing sheep in small flocks, it would be clearly impossible for 

 the American farmer to compete in the markets of the world with 

 the possessor of a hundred thousand sheep. We shall never ex- 

 port wool until a system of pastoral sheep husbandry, without 

 artificial feeding in winter, is developed on a scale as broad as in 

 Australia or Buenos Ayres. And the only means to that end is a 



