1836.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



523 



demand has arisen for the combing qualify. The 

 relative value of the fleece has thus changed: both 

 the wool and the carcass of the heavy sheep, now 

 severally produce the most money; and it has 

 therefore become the interest of the farmer to 

 breed them whenever his land will allow it. 



It is impossible to read the evidence produced 

 before the Committee of the House of Lords, 

 without being convinced, that even if the quality 

 of British wool had not degenerated, it would still 

 have been superseded by the superior value of 

 the foreign wool for most manufacturing purposes. 

 The softness and felting properties of the latter, 

 are stated by the concurrent testimony of all man- 

 ufacturers who were examined, to be of such ad- 

 vantage in making fine cloth, that it. would still 

 continue to be used, even if the duty, which was 

 lately repealed, were continued. Nothing, in 

 short, but an absolute prohibition, can prevent its 

 consumption; while the effect of that, or even of 

 a continuation of the former duty, would unques- 

 tionably be to deprive us of the export trade. It 

 appears, also, that by the admission of foreign 

 wool into our manufactures, much of the British 

 growth is brought into use by being mixed with it. 

 Under these circumstances, it is hardly to be ex- 

 pected that the legislature will impose any further 

 impediment to the importation of the foreign woo!; 

 and a dispassionate review of them must render it 

 more than doubtful, whether, even were the prayer 

 of the wool-growers granted, it would afford them 

 the desired relief. 



The quantity of foreign wool consumed in our 

 manufactories, is supposed to be about 25,000,000 

 lbs. annually; of which the greater proportion is 

 German; yet the importations are stated to consist 

 principally of inferior and middling descriptions, 

 though there can belittle doubt that the best qual- 

 ities grown, are sent to the English market. The 

 proportions, if divided into parts, and the current 

 value in 1828, were stated to the Committee of 

 the House of Lords, as follows: — 



(2 from 

 Saxon wool, j 6 " 

 20 parts ) 6 « 

 16 « 



Austrian, or f 5 " 



Bohemian wool, < 10 " 



30 parts ( 15 " 



And the general average was calculated at 2s. 4d. 

 per pound. 



Spanish wool is imported in about equal propor- 

 tions; and that from New South Wales is consi- 

 dered to average 9d. to Is. 6d. for three-fourths, 

 and the remainder from Is. 6d. to 2s. 6d. per 

 pound.* 



The quantity of each of the above kinds, im- 

 ported in the year 1827, was as follows: — 



German 

 Spanish 

 Australian 



lbs. 

 21,220,788 

 3,898,006 

 512,758 



* Minutes of Evidence, &c. p. 279. 



And from Russia, and various other countries, dif- 

 ferent parcels, amounting altogether to 29,122,447 

 lbs. 



The above importation from New South Wales, 

 appears of very trifling importance; but it amount- 

 ed to more than double that quantity in the pre- 

 ceding year; and the breeders in that country are 

 making rapid strides both in the increase of their 

 flocks, and in the improvement of the fleece. The 

 Australian Agricultural Company are already in 

 possession of 12,000 fine-woolled sheep; the Van 

 Dieman's Land Company are making similar ex- 

 ertions; and many individuals of enterprise and 

 capital have embarked in the speculation of grow- 

 ing wool for the supply of the English market. 

 The wool produced in that climate, acquires a re- 

 markable degree of softness, superior to that of 

 any other kind. This has been proved by the 

 comparison of fleeces shorn in England, from 

 sheep which were alierwards sent out to New 

 South Wales, with fleeces from the same sheep, 

 shorn twelve months after their arrival, and sent 

 there to ascertain the fact; and cloth of the finest 

 quality that has ever been manufactured in this 

 country has already been made from it.* 



With such advantages, and with an unlimited 

 range of pasturage, to an unknown extent, it is no 

 extravagant speculation to calculate that, at no 

 very distant period, we shall receive our largest 

 supplies of fine wool from thosesettlernents. 



From the Maine. Farmer. 

 MAKING MANURE. 



Mr. Editor — A year ago last June I carted 

 into my barn-yard about fifty loads of muck or 

 mud turf, and loam. I dug it over a number of 

 times during the season, with a hoe fork, yarding 

 my cattle during the night time, and when I carU 

 ed it out the succeeding autumn, it was "all of a 

 color," black as animal manure itself, and I have 

 not the least doubt that the materials I made use 

 of to increase my manure were equally as good, 

 after lying in the barn-yard a few months, as 

 dung from the stable. I did not keep an exact 

 account of the expense of carting the same, but 

 I should think that one man with a yoke of oxen 

 and cart would easily haul ten loads per day. At 

 most it did not cost me more than one week's la- 

 bor of one man and a yoke of oxen to haul fifty 

 loads, which quite doubled the quantity of my 

 manure, and by keeping the animal manure co- 

 vered as much as possible with loam,&c. prevent- 

 ed much of its virtue from escaping into the at- 

 mosphere. After clearing out my manure the 

 last autumn, I carted into ray barn-yard forty 

 loads of loam (common dirt) from banks and 

 other places where there were but few stones, 

 and spread it evenly over the yard, with this ex- 

 ception, my yard slopes a little wrong, which, 

 when great rains happen, lets off much liquid ma- 

 nure, the most part of which is lost, (and I have 

 not yet had "time" to fix my yard, which, should 

 slope from every part towards the centre,) so I 

 formed a little dam across the lower side to pre- 

 vent the virtues of the manure from escaping. 



*M nutesof Evidence, Stc. passim. 



