262 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



was not obtaining the actual first cost per pound of his wool. He clam- 

 ored loudly for an increase of duties on the foreign article, as the reduc- 

 tions of the " Compromise " Act were now approaching their ultimate 

 standard — 20 percent. — and he attributed the low prices to this cause: 

 Saxon wool continued low, and did not pay its first cost in 1841 and 1842. 

 Was this due solely to the reduction of the Tariff"? A reference to Table 

 11 (Letter IX.) will show that the import of foreign woolens was less from 

 1836 up to and including 1842, than for the six preceding years ! Where 

 then was the foreign competition which was driving the manufacturer to 

 keep down the price of wools ? The Tariff" of 1842 raised the duty on 

 wool 10 per cent, and added a specific duty of 3 cents per pound ; and it 

 raised the duty on cloths from 20 to 40 per cent. The import of foreign 

 woolens sunk, the succeeding year, to a lower point than it had touched 

 since 1821, and in 1844 and 1845 it did not reach the average of the six 

 years preceding the enactment of the Tariff" of 1842. A reference to 

 Table 9 (Letter IX.) will show that the import of foreign Jine wools also 

 largely fell off". This coincided with the expectations of the advocates of 

 a higher Tariff", but another and equally legitimate expectation entertained 

 by the great body of Northern wool-growers — that thaj were to share in 

 the benefits arising from the exclusion of foreign competition — was sig- 

 nally disappointed. The Tariff" of 1842 was enacted on the 30th day of 

 Au"-ust, and part of the clip of that year was sold under its operation. 

 Wool sold that year loiver than it had for the five preceding years, viz., for 

 30 cents. The next year it advanced one penny ! General discourage- 

 ment now seized upon the growers of fine wool. Tlie market was not 

 overstocked — foreign competition was light, but still iliey could not sell 

 their wool for its first cost ! To add to their mortification, the manufac- 

 turer, by a most short-sighted policy, would scarcely njake a discrimina- 

 tion of 6d. per pound between Saxon wool and medium Merino and grade 

 wools weighing nearly twice as much to the fleece. If the grower of me- 

 dium wool got 25 cents per pound for fleeces weighing 4 lbs. — thus real- 

 izing %\ per fleece — the ordinary Saxon grower would get but 30 cents 

 per pound for fleeces weighing 2i lbs., and thus realize but 75 cents ! * 

 When the Saxon growers found that the Tariff' of '42 brought them no 

 relief, they began to give up their costly and carefully nursed flocks. The 

 example, once set, became contagious, and there was a period when it 

 seemed as if all the Saxon sheep of the country would be sacrificed to 

 this reaction. Many abandoned wool-growing altogether, at a heavy sacri- 

 fice of their fixtures for rearing sheep. Others crossed with coarse-wooled 

 breeds, and rushing from one extreme to the other, some even crossed 

 with the English mutton breeds ! Some more judiciously went back to 

 the parent Merino stock, but usually they selected the heaviest and 

 coarsest wooled Merinos, and thus materially deteriorated the character of 

 their wool. As the preceding period had been distinguished by its mania 

 iox fine wool, this was, by its m.ania for heavy fiecccs !\ The English 

 crosses, however, were speedily abandoned.^ Tlie Merino regained his 

 • 



* And thouifli the larger, stronger eheep, bearing the medium wool, would eat mra-e, it was far hardier, 

 required less protection and care of every kind, and would increase more rapidly — circumstances which 

 would far more than counterbalance its excess of consumption 



t I make no claim of having possessed greater sagacity or foresight in these particulars than the mass of 

 breeders. 1 bi'can with the Merino. These 1 crossed with the Paxon, and I also bred the pure-blood Sax- 

 ons for several years. Unsatisfied with these, I made some experiments with the Knglish mutton breeds, 

 both as pure bloods and crosses. Findinj none of them equal to the Merino as a wool-producing sheep, I 

 returned to the latter, and I bred for hcavijflcer.es until tlie manufacturers saw fit to make a juster discrim- 

 ination in the prices paid by them for the'd'itierent qualities of wool. 



1 1 mean by those who sought to improve their fiiie-woolcd flocks by an English cross. English and all 

 other coarae-wooled sheep arc immen.st-ly and rapidly improved, for wool-growing purposes, by a proper 

 fine-wooled cross, as 1 have already and shall again huve occasion to mention. 

 (550) 



