■ -.*wT* ..-.■ -.. ~ 



Wf— W—WWM II I i| I ■!! ■ ■! ibiii i ii I l l gW IIIIMW— ■■— ■— 1 



Agriculture is the most Health)- and Honorable, as it is the most Natural and Useful pursuit of Man. 



VOL. X. 



ROCHESTER, N. Y. — JUNE, 1849. 



NO. 6. 



WOOL AND WOOL-GROWING DM THE U. STATES. 



Our excellent friend, T. C. Peters, Esq., of 

 Buffalo, in his " Wool Grower, and Magazine of Ag- 

 riculture and Horticulture," has indulged in some 

 speculations on the ''amount of wool for the coming 

 clip," (1849,) and the present number of sheep in 

 the United States, which differ somewhat from our 

 own views on the same subject. He assumes that 

 inasmuch as the number of sheep in the State of 

 New York increased about 25 per cent, from the 

 census of 1840 to that of 1845, all the. other States 

 in the Union have, on an average, done as well. 

 The fleeces of this year are estimated to weigh two 

 and three-fourth pounds each, throughout the country. 

 He supposes that the census of 1850 will show " about 

 thirty millions of sheep in the United States." Had 

 we not seen the kind of sheep, and of sheep-hus- 

 bandry that prevails at the South, as well as at the 

 North and West, our opinion would not differ mate- 

 rially from that of the " Wool Grower," aforesaid. 

 But " with the lights before us," if the official returns 

 of next year exhibit the existence of more than 

 •27,000,000 sheep this side of New Mexico, we shall 

 be disappointed: and still more so if the average 

 weight per sheep exceeds 2£ lbs. 



In about half the States, wool is clipped without 

 washing the sheep, and weighed in the dirt. There 

 is in Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and other 

 Southern States so much of foreign matter in wool 

 that it shrinks nearly half in cleansing; and it is 

 regarded as no better than South American wool, 

 which is sold in New York at from 7 to 9 cents a 

 pound. There is a woolen factory within six miles 

 of this city, (Augusta,) that annually consumes a 

 good many thousand pounds of both foreign and 

 native wool: and it seldom, if ever, pays over 12 

 cents for the latter. All sheep run in the forests the 

 year round, and are usually black with burrs. Many 

 shear them every six months to save a little more 

 wool from being torn off in briars and bushes. 

 They are generally kept not so much for their fleeces 

 as for their meat and tallow. 



No branch of productive industry in this country, 

 is susceptible of greater extension and improvement, 

 than that of growing wool. In connection with 

 raising lambs and fat sheep for market, the produc- 

 tion of wool can be made profitable in every State 

 in the Union. Fat lambc sell in this city at from 

 two to three dollars a head. A friend has raised and 

 sold over eighty at an average of the price la.st 



named, this spring. He is an exception to the gen- 

 eral rule, and takes good care of his sheep — some 

 die from an apparent excess of fatness. As a gen- 

 eral thing, sheep are quite healthy in the "piny 

 woods." Hungry, thievish dogs are the principal 

 impediment in the way of keeping sheep in this 

 region, although one would have to grow white 

 clover, (which is indigenous,) grasses, peas, rye, 

 oats, corn, turnips or potatoes as food, at least six 

 months in twelve. 



The longer we investigate the capabilities oi 

 South for producing cheap food for domestic animals, 

 the better satisfied we become that stock-raising and 

 wool-growing can be made profitable. In no other 

 quarter of the Union are fine sheep, cows, horses, 

 mules and swine sold at so high a figure. The 

 climate is about like that of Spain — being perhaps a 

 little colder here in the mountains, than there. In 

 the Highlands of Texas, stock-raising is beginning 

 to command particular attention. Such is not the 

 case in any of the Southern Atlantic States. 



Somehow wool-growing appears to prosper best 

 where there is a dense population. France, with 

 36,000,000 souls, on a comparatively small territory, 

 keeps 40,000,000 sheep. According to McCulloch, 

 it had 39,000,000 at the census of 1840. England 

 has about the same number in proportion to popula- 

 tion; as have also the people of this country. We 

 have a small excess, as compared with France. 

 But our facilities for sheep husbandry, when compar- 

 ed with those Of Great Britain and the French Repub- 

 lic-, would seem to warrant our trying to keep at least 

 two sheep to every inhabitant — or over forty millions. 



The consumption of cotton, however, increases 

 much faster than that of wool. As the one 

 very exhausting, and the other an improving 

 we hope the "Wool Grower" will do good sei 

 in extending a branch of business which is generally 

 so much neglected. Our friend Peters must remem- 

 ber that "this is a great country;" and that he must 

 not take New York, Ohio, Vermont and Michigan, as 

 a fair average of the States, neither in the yield per 

 fleece, nor in the increase of shei 



A Mr. J. F. Nelson, of Weehaw, .let:' 

 Va., in a letter to the editor of the "Plow, • • 

 and Anvil," states that he "has weighed fleeces of 

 the flpck of Richard K. Meade, and that two bucks 

 about 16 months old, clipped thirty-two and a halt' 

 pounds of wool, equal to 3 or g merino." Allowing 

 this to be half dirt and gum, the yield was hi 

 He does not say whether it. had been washed or 



