No. 4.] SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 105 



much upon the red, others were cloth colored thin skins for 

 gloves. In the "Boston Evening Post," February, 1748, 

 are advertised "two lulling mills for the fulling of leather." 



As fast as the settlers could produce the materials and 

 provide the men and means, they had spun and woven for 

 clothing flax of their own growing, the cultivation of which 

 they had commenced early ; cotton from Barbadoes, and 

 wool imported from Malaga and some other ports. All these 

 textile goods for more than a hundred years were spun and 

 woven and dyed in the homestead ; every house had a spin- 

 ning-wheel, and every other house a loom. The price of 

 spinning worsted or linen we are told was usually two shillings 

 per pound ; for knitting coarse yarn stockings, half a crown 

 a pair ; for weaving linen half a yard wide, ten to twelve 

 pence per yard. The cost of manufacturing eighteen pounds 

 of wool into twenty yards of cloth was $21.24, or $1.06 per 

 yard three-quarters wide. In the earlier days very little 

 cloth was on sale, it was largely consumed in the family or 

 used in barter with the neighbors for other necessities ; and 

 almost the only attainable way of getting at a price is to read 

 some dead man's inventory. In 107 1 worsted was worth 

 sixty-six pence per pound, and woollen thirty-two pence. 

 Much linsey-woolsey was made for men's wear, of linen 

 warp and wool filling, valued at eighteen cents per yard. 

 Homespun garments or cloth were seldom inventoried ; a 

 piece of homespun is valued at three and sixpence in 1681, 

 justifying a statement of a letter writer of that day, that in 

 1675 "there is no cloth made worth four shillings and no 

 linen over two shillings and sixpence per yard;" perhaps 

 not, but it covered a race unsurpassed for bravery and 

 fortitude. I might perhaps truthfully say that they were 

 men of great understanding, for among the outfits provided 

 for the colony in 1629, "a great store of shoes is ordered of 

 neats leather of sizes from ten to thirteen." 



Domestic manufactures began early, especially spinning 

 and weaving; for in 1639 home-made cloth is found in 

 Peter Branch's inventory, and appears in increasing quanti- 

 ties, though probably insufficient to keep pace with the 

 increasing population, for in 1640 a bounty was offered for 

 home-made cloth. In 1656, finding the supply still short, 



