ANCRUM OX WOOL MATTRESSES. 305 



Mr. J, O.' Lewis's Tamosa estate, that in 1840 he took with him from Green- 

 ville a few sheep, 



Among which were 4 ewes, worth $4 DO 



They had 4 lambs, worth ....... 4 00 



Thinks he sheared 3 Ibs. per head, but say 2, which is 8 Ibs. at 20 cts. 1 GO 5 GO 



In 1848, from 8 sheared 14 Ibs. woo* at 20 cents, - - 2 SO 



And had 8 lambs, worth - - - - 7 00 9 SO 



$15 40 



Salt and shearing was the only expense. He had only offered to feed 

 them once in the two years, and then they refused to taste corn shelled to 

 them. 



H. ANCRUM ON WOOL MATTRESSES. 



ASHLEY, Pike county, Mo. 



A sound man in one night of seven hours' sleep, generally perspires fifty 

 ounces avoirdupois or four pounds troy weight ; we cannot wonder at that, 

 since there are above three hundred thousand millions of pores in the body 

 of a middle-sized man, and that in the last hours of sleep one perspires 

 most ; hence the impropriety and the weakness of lying too long in a soft 

 bed, and the necessity of lying on a comparatively hard elastic bed, such as a 

 wool mattress. In France, wool mattresses are generally adopted, conse- 

 quently you never meet with a bad bed there. I have travelled all over 

 France, and never met with a bad bed, and a very recent intelligent Ameri- 

 can traveller of great observation, mentions, on his removal from England 

 to France, that he found the French beds delicious, because the beds are 

 wool mattresses. 



Mode of Making a Wool Mattress, The first thing to constitute a good 

 healthy bed is, that it must be absolutely flat, therefore all bedsteads should 

 have wooden laths instead of sacking, which always gives and forms a hol- 

 low ; the wool is carded by hand, and all knots and extraneous matter taken 

 out ; the great point is to make it thick enough. The best bed I slept in, 

 in my life, had sixty pounds of wool in it, but the bed was a very large extra 

 size ; half that quantity will make a small bed, but if you wish to lie 

 luxuriously, yet hard, do not stint the wool, that makes all this difference ; 

 it lasts for ever the covering is washed once a year ; the wool is carded, 

 and a few pounds of wool added, and the bed is sweet and new. However 

 luxuriously he may be, let any gentleman have a good wool mattress made, 

 and let him ride forty or fifty miles and thoroughly fatigue himself, he will 

 then know the value of such a bed. My object is also to increase the home 

 consumption of our wool. There are twenty odd millions in the United 

 States ; say five to each family, four millions ; say three beds to each 

 family, taking the whole population, twelve millions ; say thirty pounds oi 

 wool to each bed, three hundred and sixty millions of pounds of wool ; sa" 

 thirly-four millions of sheep in the United States, say eighty million pounds 

 of wool ; this will consume more than four years' clip of our wool. This 

 ought to be promulgated to increase the consumption of our wool, and such 

 wool as cannot be sold abroad. Independent of the benefit to all in theii 

 health, who adopt wool mattresses on account of their cleanliness and dura- 

 bility, in the end, they are cheaper than any other bedding. 



Every thing that increases the home consumption of our wool is of na- , 

 tional importance, as is every thing that will promote the general health ol 



