SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 87 



whom will wear undervests and drawers, and allowing only one gar- 

 ment to each, three hundred and seventy-five thousand dozen, at $12 

 per dozen, of a total value of $4,500,000, will be required : making the 

 whole value of the above staple goods alone required for American, 

 consumption $42,750,000." 



This statement illustrates how slight an increase of the 

 consuming power of our population is required to expand the 

 wool manufacture, and to create a home demand for the raw 

 material such as never existed. 



But the production of wool at the South will be so gradual 

 in its increase that it will be a long time before it has any sen- 

 sible effect upon the markets. It should be gradual, to be 

 healthy and natural. It should spread, through the example 

 of intelligent and cautious farmers. A sudden and general 

 enthusiasm for sheep husbandry at the South would be as 

 undesirable as the morus multicaulis and silk mania of 1839, 

 which stopped the silk culture in many of the Southern 

 States, where it might otherwise have been now successful. 

 Despite the few brilliant exceptions in Texas, the bonanzas 

 in sheep husbandry are as much fictions of the imagination 

 as the pastorals of the poets. We do not tempt our Southern 

 friends with the promise of 



" A fleece more golden than that found in Greece, 

 Which venturous Jason on his Argo bore 

 From the lulled dragon and Colchian shore." 



But we would allure them to an industry more certain of remu- 

 neration, from a moderate investment, than any other which 

 can so easily be introduced upon their farms, and what is 

 far more important an industry which will be the precursor 

 of that diversified culture through which alone agriculture 

 can be made permanently profitable. 



In conclusion, we would express our obligations to Mr. Pe- 

 ters of Georgia, Mr. Watts of South Carolina, Mr. Young of 

 North Carolina, and Mr. Shaeffer of Texas, for the valuable 

 statements and information furnished to us ; and to Mr. C. W. 

 Jenks of Boston, for the high intelligence and zeal mani- 

 fested by him in the collection of much of the material em- 

 bodied in this paper. 



