572 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



ket. for eight or nine cents a yard.* I know of a manufacturer, at no great 

 distance from me, who tluis takes a manufactory worth perhaps $8,000 or 

 $10,000, and furnishes the chjth (of the above stamp,) fitted for market, for 

 nine cents a yard, the owner furnishing the wool, the use of the manufac- 

 tory, and the dyeing matter.t The supply of water at this establishment 

 fails during two or three months each year ; and one competent to judge 

 informs me that seven cents would be better pay per yard, if the machine- 

 ry could be kept in motion the year round. It is probable that it would 

 cost rather more at the South to provide the necessary fixtures, obtain 

 machinery, etc. ; and it would also cost more, for a period, to carry on 

 manufacturing, from the greater difficulty of obtaining operatives in case 

 of losinf any of those attached to the establishment. All these disadvan- 

 tages, however, not of much importance at the first, will soon disappear. 

 Slaves should, as rapidly as the nature of the case admits of, be converted 

 into operatives, and when the number becomes once adequate to the end, it 

 mifirht be indefinitely multiplied, without those embarrassments which so 

 commonly attend the attempt to mingle white and black labor. 



It is cheaper to manufacture by hand,| (with the exception of carding, 

 fuUiu"-, and dressing,) than to purchase your slave cloths at present prices, 

 'if slave costs no more than free labor. 



On the average, 15 knots of warp, and 15 of filling, make one yard of 

 flannel about 5 quarters wide. The ordinary shrinkage of this, in fulling 

 it into cloth, is one quarter in length and width. It would theref 're re- 

 quire 40 knots to make a yard of fulled cloth. The carding here in small 

 parcels costs 3 cents per pound, and 18j cents per pound for fulling, dye- 

 ino' and dressing. In considerable quantities, the carding can be hired done 

 for 2 cents per pound, and the other processes for one shilling per yard. 

 Spinning (by considerable quantities and for " cash-pay, "||) can be hired 

 done for 7 cents a run (20 knots) for warp, and 5 cents for filling — averag- 

 ing 6 cents for both. Weaving can be hired done for 6 cents per yard (of 

 flannel), which brings it, in the dressed cloth, to 8 cents per yard. The ac- 

 count would then stand thus : 



1 lb. of wool 



Carding same 



Spinning 



Weaving 



Dyeing, fulling and dressing 



Total 



Making 55\ cents the price of a yard of domestic cloth, estimating the 

 wool at market price : estimating the latter at cost of production (S cents), 

 the price of the finished cloth would be 42^ cents per yard, and it is a 

 better article for wear than either the Welsh plains or Clielmsfords.§ 



* I have no doubt it could be done at a fair profit in the North for 7 cents per yard. I am understood, of 

 course, to mean that the manufacturer pays no rent, insurance, nor for repairs. The stockholders furnish 

 the wool, which is worked up by the former, at the stipulated price. ' 



f Modem ingenuity has reduced the e.vpense of this to a mere tritle. Most of the " sheep's crays," you 

 have observed, are of ferrucinous hue. Those of this color are dyed principally by tan bark—Xhe bark of 

 the hemlock (Abies canadensis), which is sold here at $1 T.') to $2 a cord ! 



I I am aware that to "manufacture" is to make bi/ hand, but I u.se the word in its popular and more gen- 

 eral ei<;nification. It would have liocn lictter to have compounded a word from tlie Latin machina and 

 facio fmachinfactun; ?) to signify made by viachincrij, and thus expressed the two ideas by properly de- 

 rived and dt;finitive words. 



II This word " cash-pay " is one of mighty import in the regulation of prices in the interior, where a very 

 general (but now decreasing) system of barter prevails, and under which Wealth too often dictates to 

 Want what it shall receive for its labor, and also prescribes the priceji of the commodities in which it pays. 



5 Home-made fabrics are usually stroncer and wear better than those made by machinery, (or, in other 

 words, maniifai-tiirrd cloths outwear macldiifactiind ones !) but this is not necessarily so. The several 



Eroces'ses can be done undoubtedly, and probably, generally are more perfectly by machinery than by 

 and. But in machiniMiiadi; cloths the yarn is commonly spun liner, so there is less slock in a yard. And 

 they are submitted to processes, described in a previous Note, whicli further impair iheir strength. 

 (1142) 



