SHEEP HUSBANDRY Ii\ THE SOUTH. 125 



and therefore indicates, as well as the case admits of — home manufactures 

 remaining the same — the rise or decline of wool-gz'owing, in the several 

 nations, for the period indicated. 



It will be seen from the above, that Spain, (and we may include the 

 whole Peninsula,) once so famous for her wools, has sunk to a fifth or 

 sixth rate wool-producing country, and that her exports are still constantly 

 declining ; that Germany and Prussia have reached their climax, and are 

 on the wane ; that Russia, Italy, Australia and the East Indies are the 

 most rapid increasers. 



The high prices of land and provisions — nearly double those on the Con- 

 tinent* (far more than double those on many portions of it) — the onerous gen- 

 eral taxes and parochial assessments, will not allow wool to be grown in 

 England for its own sake. The sheep must be reared, as a matter of pure 

 necessity, to sustain her present system of convertible husbandry. A sheep 

 fitted for that object, and to make the most meat in the shortest time, is 

 the main desideratum. AVool is but a secondary consideration. None 

 but the coarse, early maturing breeds will, therefore, ever be grown there. 

 Unless some great revolution should take place in her Agriculture, these 

 are not likely to ever materially increase or diminish from their present 

 number. If any effect is produced on this husbandry by the abolition of 

 the Corn-Laws, I think it will be to diminish rather than increase the num- 

 ber of sheep. 



France, especially in some of her Southern Provinces, is admirably 

 adapted to Sheep Husbandry. In 1825, the number of sheep in the King- 

 dom was estimated to exceed 30,000,000, but it is supposed to have mate- 

 rially diminished since that period, by reason of the division of landed 

 property, and other causes.^ With a population variously estimated from 

 163i to 168 to the square mile,:j: a soil a fair portion of which is well 

 adapted to the growth of bread-stuffs, and the remainder to the vine, fruits, 

 the mulben-y (for silk), etc., France finds it better economy to cultivate 

 these, and draw a considerable portion of her supplies of wool from other 

 countries — her fine wools from GeiTnany and Spain, her coarse ones from 

 the regions bordering on the northern shores of the MediteiTanean, the 

 Gulf of Venice, and the Black Sea. France exported 84,799 lbs. of wool, 

 costing less than 7 cents a pound, to the United States in 1846. |1 This 

 small amount might have been of her own growth, or derived from her 

 transit trade. By the statistical Tables appended to his description of 

 France, by Malte Brun, it appears that of the 51,777,000 hectares§ which 

 he estimates to comprise the surface, 22,818,000 are in arable land, while 

 the entire extent of meadows and pastures (which are divided about 

 evenly) but little exceeds 7,000,000 hectares.^ 



Spain, it appears from the Table, now exports less wool to England 

 than Italy or Russia ! and is still (as late as 1840) on the decrease. This 

 is not owing to the increase of her manufactures,** or by a diversion of her 

 exports into other channels. The export to France would, undoubtedly, 

 show a similar falling off. That to the United States is but nominal. In 

 1836 it was but 20,730 lbs., ft and as this was wool costing less than 7 cents 

 per pound, and came from the MediteiTanean side of Spain, it was prob- 

 al)ly in her ports merely in transitn. The Gibraltar trade, given in the 

 Table, I take to be exclusively or mainly a transit one. From the Balan- 



* See Circular of John Maitland and other.?, Committee of the Woolen Trnde in London — BiachofT, vol. 

 ii., p. a'i. . t Hischnt?; Youfitt. 



t Mitchell fipsumcs the former, nnd Morse the latter to be the population. 



II Report of Secretary of the Trea.sury, 18-lfi. ^ A hectare is 2 acres 1 rood nnd about '■l'y4 rods. 



i\ Malte Brun. Am. ed. vol. iii.. p. lOilit. 



** Spain is not cftimafed to tnanufacture more than one-twentieth of the woolens consumed by her. Eu- 

 cyclopifilia Amcr., art. Spain. tt Ueport Sccretarj- Treasury, 1846. 



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