EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 29 



province were compared, but it may be stated in general terms that 

 I these old sheep, so strong in taste that some persons could not eat 

 I them, were the progenitors of the stock of common sheep in the middle 

 j colonies about 1800, known as "native sheep," which by continued ad- 

 [ mixture probably contained, the blended characteristics of the several 

 I originals, still further modified by crosses with smuggled importations 



made between 1783 and 1799. 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



It is uncertain when sheep were introduced into the colony of Penn- 

 sylvania; presumably, it was at its first settlement, for William Penn, 

 in August, 1683, writing to the Free Society of Traders, says the colony 

 had no want of horses, some of which were good and shapely enough; 

 i two shiploads of them had gone to Barbadoes, and they had also "plenty 

 of cow cattle and some sheep." 



Among the first branches of industry that Penn sought to ingraft 

 upon his new colony was the manufacture of Linen and woolen cloth. 

 One of his first legislative acts, after his arrival in 1682, was to invest 

 with all the right of. citizenship the Dutch, Swedes, Finns, and other 

 foreigners amounting to about 3,000 then in possession of the coun- 

 try. To furnish a ready market for the domestic products of his people, 

 especially woolen and linen, fairs were at once established, to be held 

 at stated times, in several of the towns, where the people were brought 

 together for the purposes of trade. 



Sheep, for the support of this industry, multiplied exceedingly by the 

 end of the century, and in 1698 fulling-mills were erected to treat the 

 wool, and woolen stuffs are mentioned as one of the domestic or house- 

 hold manufactures, and ten years before this (1688) weavers, spinners, 

 and dyers were in demand; spinning worsted being paid for at 2 shill- 

 ings per pound, and knitting coarse wool stockings half a crown a pair. 

 Wool combers or carders received 12 pence per pound; the pay of 

 journeymen tailors was 12 shillings per week and "their diet." The 

 earliest mention of stocking weaving is in 1723, when one Matthew 

 Burns, of Chester County, Pa., is mentioned as having served John 

 Camm one or two years at stocking weaving, during which time Camm's 

 stockings obtained some repute. In 1730 it was estimated that the 

 farmers made nine-tenths of their own wearing apparel from the hemp, 

 flax, and wool of their farms, and in addition to this homespun manu- 

 facture, wool and flax were brought from Maryland and Virginia. At 

 this time Stephen Atkinson was erecting a fulling-mill at Lancaster, 

 and many were in operation at Columbia, Ephrata, and in Chester and 

 Bucks counties, and other parts of the province. Wool was less 

 abundant in Pennsylvania and the southern provinces than in New 

 York, New Jersey, and New England, because for articles of clothing 

 they paid more particular attention to the raising of flax, hemp, and 

 cotton. 



