184 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



Mr. Charles Bull, wool agent, Lewes. — " Fonnerly it [South-Down wool] was used for 

 clothing purposes ; now it is impossible to sell it for that manufacture ; . . . . it is used for 

 baizes and flannels in a very large way." 



Mr. William Cunnington, wool-stapler, Wiltshire. — " The public will not wear the 

 South-Down cloths, they are so very coarse." 



Mr. Jabies Fison, wool dealer, Thetford. — " There has been deterioration in the quality 

 of (South-Down) wool ; the general weight of the fleece 20 years ago was 2 pounds to 2^, 

 and it is now 3 j)ounds to 3^, oui- wool used to be made into cloths, and returned into Nor- 

 folk, and used by myself and the agriculturists. We do not get the same cloth now ; neither 

 myself nor the farmer would wear it, because of the deterioration of quality." 



Mr. James Hubbard, wool agent, Leeds. — South-Down wool is not "now employed for 

 the purpose of making cloth ; it lias been forced down two or three steps in the scale of wool, 



and is now used for flannels and baize The wool gets more frothy and open, and in 



manufacturing it does not ielt and improve so well ; it works more flannely." .... 



Mr. John Brooke, manufacturer, Howley. — " Manufacture princiiDally blue cloths from 7s. 



to 24s. and 25s. per yard, and also narrow cloths Had the Duke of Norfolk's wool, Mr. 



Ellmau, junior's, clip from 1817 and 1822, and Mr. Ellman, senior's, fiom 1817 to 1821 



Kept to English wool longer than any house in the neighborhood Ceased to manufac- 

 ture it entirely in 1823 or 1824, .... found our neighbors were sending out better cloths 

 than we were, not only at the same price, but better manufactured cloths, and we lost our cus- 

 tomers." 



Mr. Benjamin Gott, merchant and manufacturer, Leeds. — " I formerly used 150 packs 

 of English wool weekly ; the disuse of English wool was gradual, commencing about the 

 year 1819, contmuing to 1823 and 1824, about which time I began to manufacture exclu- 

 sively from foreign wool. The disuse of English wool arose fiom the quality and the ad- 

 vantage of using foreign wool compared with our own. I could not now make an article 

 which would be merchantable at all for the foreign market, (that remark applies equally to 

 the home trade,) in certain descriptions of cloth, except of foreign wool." . . . These wools 

 (the domestic and foreign,) " have different properties." 



Mr. William Ireland, Blackwell Hall factor, London. — " We have been using English 

 wool for second and livery cloths, but recently they have been so very much lowered in 

 quality we have not been able to make use of them at all, and have been obliged to make 

 use of low Gennan and low Spanish wools ibr that purpose." 



Mr. J. SuTCLiFFE, wool-stapler, Huddersfield. — " South-Down wool was formerly ap- 

 pUed for making cloth for home consumption regulaily, ibr the clothing of servants, &c. It 

 was also used for army clothing. It is now no longer used for those purposes. It makes a 

 fiirzy, soft, hairy piece ; it has not that fastness in it that foreign wool has." 



Many other individuals testify to the same effect, and the extremely low 

 character of South-Down wool for carding purposes may be regarded as 

 definitely settled. But as it has deteriorated it has increased in length of 

 staple in England, and to such an extent that improved machinery enables 

 it to be used as a combing wool — for the manufacture of worsteds. Where 

 this has taken place it is quite as profitable, in England, as when it was 

 finer and shorter. In the United States, where the demand for combing- 

 wool is so small that it is easily met by a better article, perhaps thi 

 would not be the case. And it may be problematical whether the proper 

 combing length will be easily reached, or at least maintained in this coun- 

 try, in the absence of that high feeding system which has undoubtedly 

 given the wool its increased length in England.* 



The average weight of fleece in the hill-fed sheep is 3 lbs. ; on rich 

 lowlands a little more. Mr. John Ellman, Jr., testified before tlie Com- 

 mittee of the House of Lords that he was then " keeping his sheep better 

 than formerly — fattening them, which rendered the fleece heavier — that 

 they then averaged about 3 lbs. of wool."t " But the Down is cultivated 

 more particularly for its mutton, which for quality takes precedence of all 

 other " (from sheep of good size) " in the English markets. Its early maturity 

 and extreme aptitude to lay on flesh, render it peculiarly valuable for this 

 purpose. The Down is turned off" at two years old, and its weight at that 

 age is, in England, from SO to 100 lbs. High fed wethers have reached 



* Nearly or quite every individual who testifies to the deterioration and increased length of the Soiuh- 

 Down wool before the Lord's Committee, assign this as the cause of the change. 

 t Bischoft; vol. ii., ]>. VM. 

 (376) 



