574 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



appearance with licavy sheep's gi'ay, excepting in the quality of the 

 wool. That is inferior to any I ever saw in a single piece of the former. 

 It appears to be of two qualities, the finest about like the Asia Minor or 

 African ("Smyrna" or " Mogadore ") wools; and this intermixed with 

 occasional still coarser sharp pointed hairs, which could come only fiom 

 an animal not many removes from the wild Argali.* In both, there is a 

 peculiarly dry, harsh, wiry feeling, not found in North American wools, 

 and which is more indicative of an inferior staple — of brittleness, and want 

 of felting properties — than even their coarseness. The staple is not appa- 

 rently a very long one. I conjecture that it is Iceland wool — or that, 

 mixed with Orkney, or some of the coarsest short or medium staple wools 

 of Scotland. 



The Chelmsfords, (31 inches wide,) twilled, undyed,t cost, you inform 

 me, 58 cents per yard. The plain article, [i. e. vintwilled,) 28 inches wide, 

 costs 50 cents per yard. The sample of the twilled, forwarded by you, is 

 a thicker, decidedly stronger cloth, with larger and far more tightly 

 twisted yarn, than the sample of Welsh plains. The wool is of about the 

 same quality, though at first view it strikes you as decidedly coarser, as 

 the longer nap shows more of the coarse fibres on the surface, and these 

 are rendered more conspicuous still by their variety of color. But on re- 

 solving portions of each cloth back into unmanufactured wool, I can detect 

 little or no difference in its fineness, unless it be that the stock of the 

 Chelmsford plains possesses none of those pecidiarly coarse fibres or hairs 

 which characterize the other. The wool used in the Chelmsfords is ap- 

 parently of a longer staple. It is probably South American, though it 

 may be Smyrna or Mogadore, as it bears a strong resemblance to the wool 

 of the broad-tailed sheep of Asia and Africa. You state that the Welsh 

 is generally thought to outwear the Chelmsfoi'd plain. This may be time 

 of the ordinary articles, but I think it cannot be of the samples forwarded. 

 Of these, the latter possesses nearly double the strength of the former, 

 and is much the heaviest cloth. 



The slave blanket, 6 feet 11 inches long, by 6 feet 5 inches wide, weigh- 

 ing 41 lbs., you state cost about '$2 12i by the piece (a piece containing 

 16 blankets costs $50). It is manufactured of a very coarse and a long 

 stapled wool — not much fulled — wit^ a long nap raised on both surfaces. 

 The wool in quality resembles that used in the Chelmsfords. 



On the receipt of these samples, I forwarded a specimen of the Welsh 

 plains to two manuficturers of experience and perfect pecuniary respon- 

 sibility, asking them at what price per yard they would contract to furnish 

 me 100,000 yards of cloth of the same style and equal quality with the 

 sample. The question was put to both of these gentlemen and received 

 by them, as purely a commercial one — the opening of a commercial nego- 

 tiation. Each stood ready to enter immediately on the fulfillment of a 

 contract, based on his offer. 



The following is the answer of (me of the above named gentlemen : 



Henry S. Randall, Esq. . Morbisville, N. Y., April 20, 1847. 



Dear Sir : Yours of the 13tli is at hand and duly noticed. T have no wool of the quality of the 

 sample sent, and do not wish to work foreign wool. I would like to make for you 100,000 yards 

 like the sample, out of our American or domestic wool. I would make it as thick and lij^Iit as the 

 8am|)lc sent, '.ii! inches wide, at 40 cents per yard. I could not say how much less it would cost 

 to g(;I up the article from the same kind of wool with that used in the sample. 1 do not know 

 what that kind of wool is now worth in market. I have not worked any of it for two vears pasL 



Vour9,Uuly, C. TILLINGHAST. 



* Many of tho unimproved breeds have, as is common with wild imimals, a coaling of hair over a finer pe- 

 lage beneath, and it is difficult to perfectly separate them. 



t A small portion of the wool empli<yed in the tilling is black, giving the cloth a dirty drab or ash color. 

 But ibia I take to be the natural color of the wool. 

 (1144) 



