90 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH 



appearance with heavy sheep's gray, excepting .in the quality of the 

 wool. That is inferior to any I ever saw in a single piece of the former. 

 It appears to be of two qualities, the finest about like the Asia Minor or 

 African ("Smyrna" or " Mogadore ") wools; and this intermixed with 

 occasional still coarser sharp pointed hairs, which could come only from 

 An animal not many removes from the wild Argali.* In both, there is a 

 peculiarly dry, harsh, wiry feeling, not found in North American wools, 

 and which is more indicative of an inferior staple of brittleness, and want 

 of felting properties than even their coarseness. The staple is not appa- 

 rently a very long one. I conjecture that it is Iceland wool or that, 

 mixed with Orkney, or some of the coarsest short or medium staple wools 

 of Scotland. 



The Chelmsfords, (31 inches wide,) twilled, undyed,t cost, you inform 

 me, 58 cents per yard. The plain article, (i. e. untwilled,) 28 inches wide, 

 costs 50 cents per yard. The sample of the twilled, forwarded by you, is 

 a thicker, decidedly stronger cloth, with larger and far more tightly 

 twisted yam, than the sample of Welsh plains. The wool is of about the 

 same quality, though at first view it strikes you as decidedly coarser, as 

 the longer nap shows more of the coarse fit>res on the surface, and these 

 are rendered more conspicuous still by their variety of color. But on re- 

 solving portions of each cloth back into unmanufactured wool, I can detect 

 little or ns difference in its fineness, unless it be that the stock of the 

 Chelmsford plains possesses none of those peculiarly coarse fibres or hairs 

 which characterize the other. The wool used in the Chelmsfords is ap- 

 parently of a unger staple. It is probably South American, though it 

 may be Smyrna or Mogadore, as it bears a strong resemblance to the w<_c"i 

 of the broad-tailed sheep of Asia and Africa. You state that the Welsh 

 is generally thotight to outwear the Chelmsfcrd plain. This may be true 

 of the ordinary articles, but I think it cannot be of the samples forwarded. 

 Of these, the latter possesses nearly double the strength of the former 

 and is much the heaviest cloth. 



The slave blanket, 6 feet 11 inches long, by 6 feet 5 inches wide, weigh- 

 ing 41 Ibs., you state cost about $3 12^ by the piece (a piece containing 

 16 blankets costs $50). It is manufactured of a very coarse and a long 

 stapled wool not much fulled with a long nap raised on both surfaces. 

 The wool in quality resembles that used in the Chelmsfords. 



On the receipt of these samples, I forwarded a specimen of the Welsh 

 plains to two manufacturers of experience and perfect pecuniary respon- 

 sibility, asking them at what price per yard they would contract to furnish 

 me 100,000 yards of cloth of the same style and equal quality with the 

 sample. The question was put to both of these gentlemen and received 

 by them, as purely a commercial one the opening of a commercial nego- 

 tiation. Each stood ready to enter immediately on the fulfillment of a 

 contract, based on his offer. 



The following is the answer of one of the above named gentlemen : 



HINBY S. RANDALL, Esq. MOBRISVILZ.E, N. Y., April 2C\ 1847. 



Dear Sir : Yours of the 13th is at hand and duly noticed. I have no wool of the quality of the 

 sample sent, and do not wish to work foreign wool. I would like to make for you 100,000 yards 

 like the sample, out of our American or domestic wool. I would make it as thick and tight as the 

 Mmple sent, 32 inches wide, at 40 cents per yard. I could not say how much less it would cost 

 to get up the article from the same kind of wool with that used in the sample. I do not know 

 What that kind of wool is now worth in market. I have not worked any of it for two years past 



Yours, truly, ' C. TILLING HAST. 



* Many of the unimproved breeds have, as is common with wild animals, a coating of hair over a finer p* 

 lAge beneath, and it is difficult to perfectly Feparate them. 



T A small portion of the wool employed in the filling is blnck, giving the cloth a dirty drab or ash color 

 Rot this I take to be the natural color of the wool. 



