118 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



outside of the large towns liad been inured, and the less artificial 

 wants of all, compared with those of the present generation, are takeu^ 

 into account, it may be questioned if the people of that day were not' 

 as really independent of other countries for such necessaries as their 

 descendants at present." 



While as a general thing the home manufacture of the extreme 

 South was of cotton, it must be noted that South Carolina paid great 

 attention to the increase and improvement of wool and was the first to 

 propose the introduction of the Merino sheep. This was in 1785, and 

 at that time, or very soon thereafter, fulling-mills had been erected in 

 Pendleton district and a fulling and dressing mill 011 Fishing Creek, 

 near the Catawba Eiver, where dyeing, fulling, and dressing were done 

 by operators from Great Britain. The wool of the country was very 

 fine and it was mixed with cotton as an experiment. 



The woolen manufacture made an appreciable advance when a manu- 

 factory was put in operation about 1788 at Hartford, Conn., by Col. 

 Jeremiah Wadsworth and others, encouraged by the State authorities. 

 We are informed that between September, 1788, and September, 1789, 

 about 5,000 yards of broadcloth, cassimeres, serges, etc., were made at 

 this establishment, some of which sold at $5 a yard. Gen. Washing- 

 ton, who made a tour of the East in the latter year, visited this man- 

 ufactory, in company with Col. Wadsworth, Mr. Ellsworth, Col. Jesse 

 Koot, and others, on the 26th of October, at which time it was in full 

 operation. Washington pronounced the broadcloth good, not yet of 

 the first quality, but he ordered some of the broadcloth for his own 

 wear and a piece of serge to make breeches for his servants. He is 

 said to have read his speech to Congress, in the ensuing January, in a 

 full suit of broadcloth made at this factory and presented by the own- 

 ers. Col. Wadsworth, an active patron of domestic industry, John 

 Jay, the minister to France, and Baron Steuben, besides other promi- 

 nent gentlemen, set the example of wearing the mixed gray or pepper- 

 and-salt cloths made at this factory, which were exceedingly durable. 

 Washington recorded in his diary that " all the parts of this business 

 are performed at the manufactory, except the spinning; this is done by 

 the country people, who are paid by the cut.' 7 " Robert Pierpont, a 

 cloth-dresser of Hartford, in the seven months following September, 

 1789, finished at one press 8,134 yards of cloth, of which 5,282 yards 

 were fulled cloth." 



A woolen manufactory set up at Stockbridge, Mass., about this time 

 made between 5,000 and 6,000 yards of fulled cloth annually. Another 

 was in operation at Wartertown in 1790, and in 1796 Middlesex County 

 had twenty-four fulling-mills. Many of the interior towns produced 

 large quantities of woolen cloth, which kept many fulling-mills and 

 small establishments employed in dressing and dyeing it. In Worces- 

 ter County, preeminently agricultural, fulling-mills and clothiers 7 estab- 

 lishments had increased in 1792 to between thirty and forty in number, 



