618 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



'* Our two time-hoiiorpd competitors in tlie protluction of fine wool, Spain and Germany, 

 li'ive been fairly beaten out of the field. 'J'he climate and pasturage of ihcse colonics, and of the 

 congenial settlement at the Cape of Good Hope, backed by the energies of their Anglo-Saxon 

 race of flock-masters, have more than compensated for our greater distance from British mar- 

 kets. We have been enabled to 8upj>ly a good article — in vast aiid ever-increasing quanti- 

 ties — and at prices which, notwithstanding the cost of carriage, have, through our facilities of 

 proiiuction, left us a remimerating profit, but which our ancient rivals have fomid to be in- 

 sufficient to replace prime cost. 



" But although Spain and Gennany have ceased to vie with us as sellers of the raw mate- 

 rial in England, they have done so only to renew the contest in another form. They have 

 enlarged their manufacturing operations. Since they can no longer sell their fleece at a profit, 

 they have resolved on working it up in their own looms. To that extent, therefore, they will 

 cease to import wrought woolen fabrics ; and in so far as their imports were from Great 

 Britain, there vvill be a corresponding decrease in the Brirish consumpuonof our wools. The 

 woolen cloths imported into those two countries from Great Britain, in the year 1841, amounted, 

 in declared value, to £1,026,481 sterling: and if we add die quantities imported in the same 

 year into Holland and Belgium, the amount would liave been about a million and alialf. We 

 must therefore be cautious, as prudent men, not to allow our spirits to be too much exhilarated 

 by the apparent victory we have gained over ' our hereditary enemies,' seeing that, though 

 seemingly vanquished, they have but shifted theii- prjsition and varied their tactics. 



" A judicious writer .says, in 1844 : ' Of late years cottons have, from their cheapness, in a 

 great degree superseded the lower qualities of cloths — a circumstance which, joined to the 

 increasing rivalry of France, Germany and Belgium, renders it improbable, unless new mar- 

 kets shall be opened in China or elsewhere, that much extension will in futiire be given to 

 our mantifacturc of woolen cloths.'* 



" While, however, the Spanish and the Gemian wool-growers have tlius ceased (or are 

 e.xpected very shortly to cease) to compete with us as exporters to England, another com- 

 petitor has sprung up in a new and quite unexpected quarter. In addition to corn, bread- 

 stuffs, rice, tobacco, cotton, sugar, and an endless catalogue of ' notions,' in which Brother 

 Jonathan has hitherto prided himself as a mighty producer, he has now taken it into his 

 head that he can breed sheep and expoi-t wool on a large scale. And it would seem that in 

 England hi.s whim lias by no means been thought whimsical. For, say certain Liverpool 

 brokers to him, under date of 3d September, 1846 : ' The arrivals of wool from the United 

 States last year, for the first time to any extent, made quite a sensation in this country, as it 

 was generally considered that you required to import these qualities, and there was no 

 knowledge that your gi'owtli of wool Avas of such importance. We have seen it estimated 

 at sixty-Jive million pounds ;\ and irom your vast (and to us almost incredible) means of 

 production, we believe it u-iU cause a kind of revolution in the wool trade.' 



" Jonathan's own opinion of the matter is thus expressed through the medium of the New- 

 Orleans Commercial Times : ' Wool can be grown as cheaply, and to as great advantage, in 

 the cotton-growing Stales as in any part of the world. There is nothing in the climate to 

 })revent it. If it may be found desirable to grow that of the finest grades, it can be done 

 without fear of the animals becoming covered with hair in a few years.' He has evidently 

 some misgivings, however, as to the policy of his attempting the finest grades, lor he imme- 

 diately subjoins, ' However, we are inclined to thuik that wool of a coarser quality will be 

 found most profitable, mutton being also an object with us.' 



" If the United States already produce four times the quantity of wool that we do, and if 

 there is a reasonable chance of their producing it of a quality equal to ours, and at no greater 

 Cfist, then have we indeed much to itvdv from their fonnidable rivahy. The vast extent oi' 

 their territory, the almost iHimital)le resources of their soil and climate, the indomitable spirit 

 of their citizens, combined with their proximity to the British market, will render their com- 

 petition, if successful at all, successful in no ordinary degi-ee. 



" ' Wool,' says another Liverpool correspondent, addressing an American, ' requires in its 

 production <rrcat atteution in crossing the breed, otherwise the quality degenerates very 

 quickly. The maintenance of its fineness depends also very much on the nature of the pas- 

 turage on which tlie sheep gra7.e. And we may remark that your own samples are of a par- 

 ticularly good kind.' " 



Here is a word of encouragement for the Americans, with a word of caution for the Aus- 

 tralians. Of the two requisites for the production and preservation of a superior staple, one, 

 suitable pasturage, is bountifully supplied to the Australian grower by Nature, while the 

 other depends upon his own industry and skill. In this, it is to be feared, he has scarcely 

 been just to himself. He has possibly presumed too much upon the natural advantages of 

 the fine sheep-sustaining country in which his capital is' staked. It will be well if this note 

 of warning from the land of Stars and Stripes shall rouse him to a more vigilant attention. 



[Simmonds's Colonial Magazine. 



* Waterton'a Cyoloptpdia of Commerce, p. 672. 



t The quantity of wool exported from New South Wales, including the district of Port Philip, in the year 

 1843, was 17,564,734 Iba. 

 (1138) 



