HUSBANDRY FOR THE REGION OF THE BLUE RIDGE. 101 



gooils the wool is imported from tlie Continent. The great plains of the East of Europe 

 support vast flocks of sheep, whence we derive our Silesian and Saxon wool. The dry 

 plains of South Australia ai-e also favorable to the growth of fibre — and hence has been cre- 

 ated, within a few years, a branch of trade most important to that Colony. It has been an 

 object with English wool-growers and landed proprietors to jiroduce this felting-wool ia 

 England, ;uid thus get rid of the necessity of purchasing abroad ; but it has been found im- 

 possible, after the most expensive experiments in importing sheep of particular flocks. It 

 has been found that in two or three generations, even of the pure breed, the uifluence of the 

 climate and food totally changed the chai'acter of the wool, and brought it to the same quality 

 as that of the native animals. With regard to woolens, this countiy [Ireland], like Eng- 

 land, must import wool, and hence will be under the same conditions of access to raw mate- 

 rials as the sister kingdom." 



Ill these statements of Doctor Kane we have the utmost confidence. They are 

 derived, doubtless, from the best sources, and put forth with that care and dis- 

 crimination which characterize him as one of the ablest writers on INational In- 

 dustry that has appeared in any age or country. It will be recollected by your 

 readers that Von Thacr — in my judgment the most philosophical, profound and 

 comprehensive of all writers on Agriculture — speaks of the adaptation of high, 

 dry pastures for sheep, and estimates the expense of pasturage and keep of sheep 

 as compared with cows as ten to one. 



In mechanical industry, the cost of the motive-power of machinery bears but 

 a small proportion to the other elements of cost of the manufactured article, but 

 that of water-power is not put down at more than one-tenth that of steam. "An 

 eminent manufacturer in Leeds," says Doctor Kane, " said to me that water- 

 power is cheaper than steam at the mouth of the coal-pit" — and hence, wherev- 

 er water-power is to be had, it is used in preference to steam ; and it is al- 

 leged, moreover, that cotton spun by water-power bears and always has borne a 

 higher price than cotton spun by steam-power. 



After all, suppose the legislator for Virginia to desire to know the extent of 

 the water-power of the State as connected with questions of Industry, and where 

 would he get the information ? But raise a question of one-tenth as much im- 

 portance in any way connected with War, and Congress Avould appropriate hun- 

 dreds of thousands for the survey. It would be quite easy to get a survey and 

 map of any wild Indian or Mexican country, but quite impossible to get one dol- 

 lar for laying down the mountains and water courses and power within the 

 bosom of the old States. 



Why, at all events, should not this noble old State, instead of persisting 

 forever in the application of her slave labor (the best of which is culled 

 and sent away) to objects for which neither that species of labor nor their 

 climate nor locality are adapted — why should she not appropriate for the 

 increase of her own resources her own peculiar advantages, even to the per- 

 fect manufacture of the wool, as Georgia is beginning to avail herself of the pos- 

 session, in like manner, on the spot, of the great staple of another manufacture. 

 Slaves must all — big and little, young and old — be maintained throughout the 

 year, while the cliief staple in these counties — wheat — demands their labor not 

 more than one aggregate month in the year. Let them, then, betake themselves 

 to cheese-making and to rearing stock and fattening it for market, where that 

 can be done profitably. These pursuits call comparatively for little labor — and 

 with wool-growing as an incident of tiiis system they should combine the woolen 

 manufacture, which ofl'ers employment for operatives of all ages and sizes, day 

 in and day out, throughout the year, so that every consumer may be also, to some 

 extent, a producer. As to the spirit that is beginning to animate even her more 

 southern neighbors, let her sons read the following from the Charleston Mercury: 



" We luive been informed that a Cotton Mannfactorj' at Columbus, Ga., has within the last 

 three yearn cleared tjiiu hundred and lil'ty per cent, upon its capital, and that its net profits 

 during the last twelve months amounted to ().") per cent ; and otlier factories have been do- 

 ing 11 very successful business. We trust the day is rapidly ap]iroaching when a hir^e pro- 

 portion of die cotton crop of the South will be exported in the shape of cotton cloth." 



With similar signs of enterprise and improvements on every side — on the East 

 and the West, ilic North and the South — will this old " Motlier of States " never 

 wake up to avail herself of the bounteous offerings of Nature for her own sup- 

 port and aggrandizement ? 

 ^24^) 



