APOLOGY OF THE PRAIRIES. 309 



APOLOGY OF THE PRAIRIES AS WOOL PRODUCERS. 



JoiiN S. Skinner, Esq. : Ottawa, Illinois, Nov. 12. 1847. 



Sir : Accidentally have fallen under my observation the Letters, published ia 

 your journal, from Mr. H. S. Randall, in which, with great appearance of candor, 

 he has undertaken to consider the relative advantages of the various sections of 

 the world as wool producers, and incidentally to compare, in this respect, the 

 prairie regions with the more southern States of this "Union. 



I should hardly have ventured to appear in your Journal, in defence of any- 

 thing Western, did I not anticipate from the agricultural community a more fa- 

 vorable reception than is generally accorded to us in social circles at the East, ia 

 which it is by no means a rarity for the lady, (as was the case with one of them, 

 recently cast among us,) Avho, though so ignorant of life's wants and duties as to 

 be compelled to ask whether the milk or the cream is churned to produce the 

 butter, and to call in a hand from the farm to decide for her when the kettle comes 

 to the boil, yet hesitates not to declaim against us, as wanting in the comforts and 

 knowledge of life, and lackmg in refinement of manners. Moreover, with some- 

 thing of pride for the land I love before all others, is mixed a desire to warn, 

 from the dangerous experiment of competing, at the South, with wool producers 

 on the Prairies, persons who might be misled by the remarks and statements of 

 Mr. Randall, in estimating the advantages against which they would have lo 

 contend. For nowhere have I met with more formidable statements of facts, ia 

 themselves partially or entirely true, which, when combined, produced so dan- 

 gerous a falsity ; one of the best instances to prove that however safe it may be 

 to speculate, and, with partial advantage, upon the capacities and political rela- 

 tions and destinies of countries, basing one's calculations and estimates upon the 

 statements of others, yet it is dangerous to venture a heavy stake upon the cor- 

 rectness of our conclusions — so fatal to our reasonings and, in practice, to our 

 profits may be variations or advantages, so slight or so minute in themselves as 

 to have escaped the observation either of narrator or of his auditor. 



The editors of the Prairie Farmer, published at Chicago, have laconically met 

 the assertion of the incapacity of the Prairies in this respect by the ancient argu- 

 ment, " We do it — doeth the South also?" and upon this proof are content to 

 rest. 



This reply, however conclusive it may be, is not such as the elaborate and well- 

 defined statements of Mr. Fiandall are entitled to, neither, indeed, in my opin- 

 ion, is it justice to the prairies themselves— since the question at issue is not 

 whether they can produce wool, but whether they can produce it in competition, 

 with the Southern States, if the latter shall choose to enter the lists. 



To my own idea, the first, most broad and notable objection to the chain of 

 reasoning adopted by Mr. Randall, in his comparison of the wool producing pow- 

 ers of the prairies and the South, is the fact that he does not apply to the'inves- 

 tigation of their capacities the same tests which he finds important in deciding 

 the relative claims of European countries, and which, in some cases, cause him 

 to reject them without farther investigation. Of these tests, the most prominent 

 is that of peculiarity of civil institutions. If, as he asserts, the character of the 

 political condition of Turkey and of Spain is sufficient, in the mind of Mr. Ran- 

 dall, to decide against their competing with Hungary in this branch of Agricul- 

 ture, I can account for his silence upon the same argument against the Southern 

 States of the Union, upon no other supposition thaii that of a previously formed 

 opinion having shut it from his sight. 



This point, to me, is the more remarkable, because it is generally understood 

 that we have yet to discover the first article, either of production or of manufiic- 

 ture, Avhich the climate or position of the Free States will tolerate, ia which the 

 Slave regions have been able to bring their "cheaper labor " successfully and 

 extensively lo bear against the great guns of superior sagacity, skill and econo- 

 my. And here I would remark that he errs vastly ia supposin<r that the South 



(629) / £ 1 sj . 



