108 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



In 1750 a factory of woolen hats in Massachusetts was declared a nui-j 

 sauce and suppressed. "Parliament could club down the ripening! 

 fruit which hung in plain sight on the branches, but the million buds 

 forming in secret under the bark, which a favoring time would eventu- 1 

 ally bring out into bloom, were beyond its reach. 77 Although the tex- 

 tile inventions of Arkwright and others were early adapted to the 

 spinning and weaving of woolen fabrics in England, the British statute 

 of 1750, prohibiting the exportation of tools and utensils used in the 

 silk and woolen manufactures under severe penalties, rendered it nearly 

 impossible to obtain them. Few improvements were made, therefore, 

 in the manufactures of wool, although an occasional attempt was made 

 to produce fine cloth. Even the dressing of the common cloth in full- 

 ing-mills of that day was performed imperfectly and with great labor. 

 Gig-mills for teazles were scarcely used here up to the end of the last 

 century. The price to farmers for fulling and dressing homespun cloth 

 was 40 to iQ cents a yard. 



An English writer of this period (1759- 7 60), referring directly to 

 Massachusetts, says : 



Like tlie rest of the colonies, they also endeavor to make woolens, but have not 

 yet been able to bring them to any degree of perfection ; indeed, it is an article in 

 which I think they Avill not easily succeed, for the American wool is not only coarse, 

 but, in comparison to the English, exceedingly short. Upon the best inquiry I 

 could make, I was not able to discover that anyone had ever seen a sample of Amer- 

 ican wool longer than 7 inches, whereas, in the counties of Lincoln and Leicester, 

 they are frequently 22 inches long. In the southern colonies, at least in those parts 

 where I traveled, there is scarcely any' herbage, and whether it is owing to this or 

 to the excessive heat I am ignorant; the wool is short and hairy. The northern 

 colonies have, indeed, greater plenty of herbage, but are for some months covered 

 with snow, and without a degree of attention and care in housing the sheep, and 

 guarding them against accidents and wild beasts, it would be difficult to increase 

 their numbers to any great amount. The Americans seem conscious of this fact, and, 

 notwithstanding a very severe prohibition, continue to procure from England every 

 year a considerable number of rams in order to improve and multiply the breed. 

 * * * I think, therefore, upon the whole, that America, though it may with par- 

 ticular care and attention produce small quantities of tolerably good wool, will yet 

 never be able to produce it in such plenty and of quality as to serve for the necessary 

 consumption of its inhabitants.* 



The reverend author was apparently not aware of the fact that the 

 staple of 7 inches that he condemned was better for carding and felting 

 in the goods generally made in Massachusetts and the middle colonies 

 than the 22-inch Lincoln and' Leicester wools which he recommended. 

 And, although it is true that the Americans did not make woolen cloths 

 to any great degree of perfection, they did make coarse, strong, and 

 durable goods, wearing equal to any imported from England. And this 

 manufacture or household work was general throughout the colonies, 

 and had our author the good or bad fortune to preach to any congrega- 



* Travels through the Middle Settlements in North America, 1759-'GO. Rev. An- 

 drew Burnaby. 



