86 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



in wool production by occupying all its pasture grounds, or 

 by converting them from the domain of the crook to that of 

 the plough. Lands in Vermont, Ohio, New York, and Michi- 

 gan, first improved by sheep, have become too valuable for 

 growing sheep for wool mainly ; and these States are becom- 

 ing producers of sheep for mutton and combing wool, and 

 rams for breeding. High production of wool in one quarter 

 of the world is usually attended by diminished production in 

 another. While Australia has increased the numbers of her 

 sheep so wonderfully, Germany has fallen off from 50,000,000 

 in 1850 to 25,000,000 at present, and France from 32,000,000 

 in 1839 to 24,000,000 in 1872. Thus, with all the supposed 

 rapidity with which the production of wool has been increased 

 throughout the world of late years, the actual consumption 

 of raw wool, in the United Kingdom, the continent of Europe, 

 and North America, has increased at the rate of but about 

 two per cent for each year of the last decade. The consump- 

 tion of clean wool in the United States is set down, for 1875, 

 at four and one-third pounds per head of our population. 

 This is far short of what we ought to consume for the re- 

 quired comfort of our whole population; and of what we 

 would consume, if the producing and consuming power of 

 our people were adequately developed. It is doubtful if half 

 of our population wear the woollen underclothing required 

 for health and comfort. Persons well informed in the trade 

 in articles of this description have made the following curi- 

 ous estimate : 



"With a population of thirty -five millions, we may suppose that 

 there are eight millions who, from poverty, mildness of climate, or 

 other causes, do not wear stockings ; leaving twenty-seven millions who 

 will use at least three pairs per annum, requiring eighty-one million 

 pairs, or six million seven hundred and fifty thousand dozen, the value 

 of which, at $3 per dozen, would be $20,250,000. Estimating that 

 there are eighteen million males, one half of whom will wear knit 

 shirts and drawers, and allowing one shirt and one pair of drawers to 

 each of the nine million males per annum, one million five hundred 

 dozen will be required, at $12 per dozen, of the value of $18,000,000. 

 Estimating that there are seventeen million females, one quarter of 



