SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 263 



supremacy, lost for nearly twenty years, and again became the popular 

 favorite. It was generally adopted by those who were commencing flocks 

 in the new Western States, and gives its type to the sheep of those re- 

 gions. 



It will be seen froin the preceding facts that the supply of fine wool* 

 has proportionably decreased, and that of 'medium and coarse increased. 

 This has driven the manufacturers to make a juster discrimination in 

 prices. They now realize that their own short-sighted economy has been 

 all but fatal to fine wool-growing in the United States. And they cannot 

 but feel that in destroying this interest, tlicy destroy tJiemsclves. Our 

 manufacturers arc not so miserably blind as to dream of drawing their raw 

 material from foreign countries — of paying an import duty of 30 per cent, 

 and then competing with the English manufacturer who pays an import duty 

 not exceeding two pence per pound ! It is doubtful, in my mind, whether 

 the home supply will not fall considerably short of the home demand for 

 fine wool /or tiiis year !\ The point has been already reached where but 

 a little more discouragement, or a little longer continued discouragement, 

 would have banished these wools from the country ! So far, the manufac- 

 tories have not felt this evil, for they have not been compelled to import. 

 Neither pampered nor persecuted by the Tariff' of 1846 — called for by the 

 consumption of the country — with solid capital and greater experience 

 and skill at their command — they are rapidly increasing, and rising on a 

 solider basis than ever before. So, to sustain our manvfact2iring interest, 

 (that engaged in the manufacture of fine cloths,) it is absolutely necessary 

 that the diminution of y/we wools be not only immediately arrested, but 

 that the growth of them be immediately and largely increased. These 

 facts now first beginning to be clearly appreciated by the ^manufacturer — 

 will deter him from resorting to his former suicidal policy. Instances have 

 recently come to my knowledge of manufacturers offering to contract 

 with fine-wool growers for their entire clips, for a term of years, at an ad- 

 vance on present prices — prices, be it remembered, higher than they have 

 been except for two years (1839 and 1844) since the overthrow of 1837. 

 Should the manufacturer, however, again forget his own interest, the fine- 

 wool grower has it in his power to teach it to him most effectually. In- 

 stead of being discouraged and driven from the business, he has but to 

 withhold his wools for a season — say for a few months, to compel the for- 

 mer to import wools at a ruinous cost — stop his machinery, or pay fair 

 prices at home ! I believe in no combinations to control pj-ices. Some- 

 thing far better than vague report, however, says that several of the large 

 manufacturing establishments of New-England employed the same agents, 

 last season, to buy much, if not all of their wools — and that these wools 

 were subsequently divided by bidding or otherwise, among the parties to 

 the transaction ! Is this denied ? I think it will not be denied. If 

 this was so, what was it but a combination to control prices ?| But whether 



* To mnkp myself clearly understood, I will, in the remarks which follow, classify wools as follows : su- 

 perfine, the choicest r|uality of wool grown in the United States, and never prown here excepting in com- 

 paratively small quantities ; fine, good ordinary Paxon ; good medium, the highest quality of wool usually 

 known in the market as Merino; mrdium, ordinary Merino : nrdinnrii. crade Merino and perhaps selected 

 South-Down fleeces ; coarse, the English long wools, ifec. This subdivision is not minute enough, by any 

 means, to express fully the number of wcUdetined classes which exist in wool. A farther multiplication 

 of them here, however, I have thought would only tend to confusion. 



1 The position has been all along taken that the general supply was under the demand, but the deticit 

 hitherto has been principally in medium and coarse wools. See Table 9, Letter IX. 



X And before leaving this (JOint, I will a.sk another question : Why were most of the wools of New- York 

 and New-England untouched and unlocked at by the agents of the manufacturers this year, contrary to 

 all preceding cus'oma for two or three months subsequently to shearing ? These same agents flocked in 

 droves to the Western States and bought up their entire clip immediately after shearinc, while reports 

 .were constantly coming back tbiit this manufactory and that bad purchased its entire KUi>ply for a year, or 

 perhaps two year.i ( Was this because the Eastern growers demanded exorbitant ))rices ? Was it because 

 anything like an approach to a supply of line wools could be found in the West ? Or was it the result of a 

 (551) 



