SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 123 



greater certainty to the exporter of prompt and favorable sales, in her 

 markets, than in those of any other nation. France possesses the advan- 

 tage of maritime contiguity, for securing the raw product of the nations 

 bordering on the Mediterranean ; and therefore, in some instances, as in 

 the case of Turkey, she receives more of that product, in proportion to her 

 manufacturing consumption, than England. But in one respect the latter 

 has the advantage in securing the trade of the Levant. Between the na- 

 tural products, and, of consequence, the exports of France and those of 

 the otlier nations bordering on the Mediterranean, there exists a great simi- 

 larity. She cannot send her wines to Hungary, nor these nor her silks to 

 I'taly, in exchange for wool. Her fruits, and indeed all of her natural pro- 

 ducts are the same with those of the whole south of Europe. England, 

 the producer, and the great mart of the products of Northern Europe, can 

 offer these in the Mediterranean on better terms than France ; and in the 

 manufacture of cotton goods, the main article of dress, and consequently 

 one of the great ones of import throughout the whole Levant, the former 

 possesses a decided superiority. All these natural and artificial circumstances 

 have their weight, sometimes in favor of one, and sometimes the other of 

 these nations, in determhiing the course of trade — and habit, ancient com- 

 mercial associations, and even national predilections also throw their weight 

 into the scale. In looking at the subject as a whole, however, all these 

 facts, unless in a very few instances, so far offset each other, that in obtain- 

 ing a view of the wool trade of England — her imports — we obtain a suffi- 

 ciently accurate picture or index of the proportionahle exports of all the 

 nations of the Old World. 



Before proceeding to ascertain the actual facilities of the several coun- 

 tries named in the Table, for the purposes of wool-growing, it may be well 

 to briefly glance at that of England herself. 



Mr. Luccock* estimated the produce of wool in England and Wales, in. 

 1800, to be 393,236 packs,t or 94,376,640 lbs. ; and in 1828, Mr. Hubbard f 

 placed it at 463,169 packs, or 111,160,560 lbs. According to a Table 

 formed by order of a Committee of the House of Lords, the same year, 

 the quantity produced on an average of years, in England, is 111,160,560 

 lbs. Accordnig to Mr. Luccock's estimate, (in 1800,) the number of sheep 

 in England and Wales was 26,148,463, It is not thought to have varied 

 much since. The Encyclopaedia Americana,] | (published 1835,) on the 

 authority of the Edinburgh Encyclopa?dia, sets down the then present 

 number of sheep in the United Kingdom as follows : in Scotland 3,500,000 ; 

 in Ireland jgrobably under 2,000,000 ; in England and Wales the same 

 number as in the time of Mr. Luccock; — so that the aggregate number 

 would be about 32,000,000. It will thus be seen that England and Wales, 

 with an area much less than that of Virginia,§ have almost 7,000,000 

 more sheep than the whole number in the United States in 1839 ! 



Large as is the amount of wool produced in the United Kingdom, it 

 does not meet, in the number of pounds, the amount required for woolens 

 consumed in the United Kingdom alone.^ It is true that England has 

 exported some combing wool, of her own growth, to meet the wants of a 

 certain class of maimfactories (of worsted) in France, which could not ob- 

 tain stock of equal (pialily in any other quarter; and she has also exported 

 considerable quantities of her own coarse short wools. Of the latter, I 

 am ashamed to say, the United States hare been considerable purchas 

 The w hole export of England, in 1824, amounted to ])ut little over IS, 



* .See Lnccock on Wool. j). MX nnd Table. t A pack of wool is ?40 lbs. 



I Quoted by Mr. Hisrihotf— See vol. ii.. Appendix. I| Encyrlopaidiu Americnna— art. Sheep Raising. 

 % The men of Virginia is 70.000 square miles, that of England and Wales tiO.OOO. 



II See Bipchotr, vol. ii., p. 171. 



(2.;?) 



asers. 

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