PREFACE. 



in large quantities from abroad, because it is of a kind we cannot pro- 

 duce in England : our colonies on the continent of North America, 

 South of New York, produce a wool entirely similar to the Spanish. 

 No staple they could produce would, therefore, be more advantageous 

 to Great Britain. It is well known that a piece of fine broadcloth 

 cannot be made without Spanish wool ; it is also known that the 

 Spaniards have of late years made great efforts to work up their own 

 wool ; if they should succeed, or if they should by any other means 

 prevent the export of it, our woollen fabrics, though they might not 

 be stopped, would at least be burdened with a fresh expense and a 

 new trouble ; all which would be prevented by encouraging the import 

 of wool from America : and at the same time that this good effect was 

 wrought, another would be brought about, in cramping the manufac- 

 tures of the colonies" 



Unfortunately for the agricultural interest of our country particu- 

 larly, the desire to " cramp the manufactures of the colonies," here so 

 candidly avowed as the settled policy of England, not only survived 

 the Revolution, but has been so well fostered by our own subserviency 

 to it, as to render our independence, in resnect of this and other no 

 less important industrial pursuits, rather nominal and fictitious than 

 substantial and true ; nevertheless, with the odds of pauper labor and 

 immense capital against us, thanks to the ingenuity and enterprise of 

 our people, we need not despair of final success with any thing like fair 

 consideration on the part of our own government. For this opinion 

 we need have no better authority than that of SAMUEL LAWRENCE, 

 the enlightened and liberal proprietor of the Middlesex Mills, at 

 Lowell, who says, the business of manufacturing wool in this coun- 

 try is on a better basis than ever before, inasmuch as the character, 

 skill, and capital engaged in it are such as to defy foreign competi- 

 tion." Occasional revulsions, such as the present, will occur from 

 causes abroad over which we have no control, but let not the wool 

 grower relax in the care of his flock, for the same far-seeing manu- 

 facturer has declared that he could point to articles of wool now im- 

 ported, that will require thirty millions of pounds of medium and fine 

 quality to supply the demand. 



After all, then, on viewing the importance of the inquiry to nume- 

 rous friends for whose welfare we profess to entertain unaffected con- 

 cern, and the great extent of the district which seemed to us to be so well 

 adapted to the growth of sheep and wool the magnitude of the interest* 

 involved swelled upon the contemplation, begetting a conviction that as 

 a question of practical agriculture, it was not to be worthily and well 

 treated by a few hasty and superficial essays, or by more elaborate 

 compilations in relation to the oft-repeated natural history of the ani- 

 mal, its prominence in scriptural annals, &c., unsustained by that 



