BHEEP AND WOOL-GROWIXG. 201 



neither housed nor herded, and where they are ex- 

 clusively fed, at all seasons, on those native grasses 

 which are the spontaneous products of the soil. I 

 presume Wool is in those regions produced cheaper 

 than it can permanently be on any considerable area 

 of our own soil ; and yet I believe that the United 

 States should, and profitably might, grow as much 

 Wool as is needed for their own large annual con- 

 sumption. Here are my reasons : 



I. When the predominant interest of British Man- 

 ufactures constrained the entire repeal of the duties 

 on imported Wool, whereby Sheep-growing had pre- 

 viously been protected, the farmers apprehended that 

 they must abandon that department of their industry ; 

 but the event proved this calculation a mistake. They 

 grow more Sheep and at better profit to-day than they 

 did when their Wool brought a higher price under 

 the influence of Protective duties, because the largely 

 increased price of their Mutton more than makes up 

 to them their loss by the reduced prices of their Wool. 

 So, while I do not expect that American Wool will 

 ever again command such high prices as it has done 

 at some periods in the past, I am confident that the 

 general appreciation in the prices of Meat, which has 

 occurred within the last ten or fifteen years, and 

 which seems likely to be enduring, will render Sheep- 

 growing more profitable in the future than it has 

 been in the past. At all events, while our farmers 

 are generally obliged to sell their Grain and Meat at 

 prices somewhat below the range of the British mar- 



