NORFOLK SOCIETY. 303 



almshouse, until he becomes acquainted with our country, our 

 manners, customs and pursuits, and is able to provide for him- 

 self in a better manner. Experiments of this sort have been 

 made with good success, and in the actual scarcity of native 

 labor to be hired for moderate yearly or daily wages, — such as 

 the farmer can afford to pay, — the foreign supply which is 

 forced upon us can be used in this manner, without taking 

 bread from the mouths of our own people, while the poor for- 

 eigners will be enabled not only to get their own living, but 

 to become a source of profit to, instead of a burden ujjon, the 

 country of their adoption. 



The manufacturers of Norfolk county present a different as- 

 pect. Their total value in 1840, was |5,982,400, and in 1845, 

 they had increased to $8,748,400, showing a gain in five years 

 of f 2,766,000, — or nearly fifty per cent. Some of the leading 

 articles stood comparatively as follows, viz. : 



Cotton. Wool. Straw. Leather. Stone. Metals. 



In 184.5, (580,908 6-23,01.3 050,097 2,873,1.50 492,500 1,307,347 

 " 1840, 524,100 257,000 404,613 1,993,291 360,900 403,800 



Gain, 150,808 300,013 245,484 879,859 131,000 903,547 



In the manufactures of straw, boots and shoes, cotton, and 

 wool, the number of females employed, exceeds 6,500, and for 

 this reason they are undoubtedly the most profitable to the 

 county, inasmuch as a very large portion of this labor would 

 be otherwise nearly useless. And prominent over all, stands 

 the straw business, producing in 1845, the sum of $650,000 

 almost entirely the result of female labor. 



Whether our manufactures have increased in the aggregate 

 since 1845, is a matter of doubt ; those of iron and wool have 

 felt severely the pressure of foreign competition, produced by 

 the tariff of 1846, and the profit arising from them has been es- 

 sentially decreased, if not entirely destroyed. The same cause 

 has produced a somewhat similar effect, though not so serious, 

 perhaps, upon many other branches of our manufacturing in- 

 dustry, and these facts give more force to the remarks made 

 under the head of agriculture, upon the impolicy of abandoning 

 a pursuit so sure in its results, and rushing into other employ- 

 ments which, however profitable in the outset, may be totally 



