126 Extracts from the Journals. [July, 



voluminous correspondence, giving ample details, and all the par- 

 ticulars required. It is from this correspondence and the results 

 of those actual sales, as well as from personal observation and in- 

 formation, that I venture the opinions already expressed. I trust 

 that the past errors may be avoided in the future: and I now have 

 done with the preparations and shipment. 



■ The production of wool in the United States, until recently, has 

 not equalled the consumption, but the low price of grains and pro- 

 visions since 1840, has caused a rapid increase in the number of 

 sheep; which, under very favorable circumstan(?fes, may double 

 each three years; and they now surpass, and are likely still fur- 

 ther to surpass, all previous estimates. The quantity of wool be- 

 came so unwieldy last year, that the value fell full twenty per 

 cent, notwithstanding the foreign shipments, the abundance of 

 money, the high tariff, and the prosperous condition of the manu- 

 facturing interest. We now have the promise of considerably in- 

 creased quantities in this year's clip, especially from some of the new 

 States, with money more in demand, the protective policy in more 

 danger, and lower prices of cloths. If the home markets were 

 solely relied upon, wool, like all other articles, when produced in 

 excess, w^ould long rule low in price. An abundant supply will 

 hereafter enable manufacturers to purchase at their leisure, and to 

 choose their qualities; and henceforth prices must be regulated, 

 like those of cotton, in the open markets of the world. The 

 growing of wool in this country is receiving from year to year 

 more and more attention. Men's minds have been turned in that 

 direction. Hundreds of thousands of sheep, instead of being 

 slaughtered as formerly, are now annually driven from older and 

 cultivated lands, as fast as their increase exceeds their pasturage 

 to newer grounds, where they are distributed to emigrants from 

 the older States accustomed to take care of them, and there they 

 form the germs of other flocks growing up in millions. An im- 

 petus has thus been given which must long continue, because con- 

 sistent with the interests of those concerned. The room and the 

 inducements are sufficient. In the North West, between the Al- 

 leghany and the Rocky Mountains, we have a vast region stretch- 

 ing over the extent of empires, where the soil is composed mostly 

 of vegetable mould, the accumulating deposit of various herbage 

 from year to year since the creation. The earth contains nothing 

 approaching it in vastness and fertility. This deposit is a mine 

 of material which may be turned into wheat, only by planting 

 wheat upon it, or into wool only by pasturing sheep upon it. It 

 lies open to every hand that will partake of it. Its position is se- 

 cure from the desolation of wars. Its extent and quantity are 

 such that it must pass to other generations of men before exhaust- 

 ed. But like all great tracts of interior territory, the transporta- 



