SHEEP. 109 



the consumption of wool in 1864 was nearly double tliat of 

 1859. While the whole of the production of the country 

 amounted to 100,000,000 pounds, the consumption was 

 160,000,000 pounds, leaving 60,000,000 pounds to be supplied 

 by the foreign farmer, for which we have had to pay gold. 



"We have a number of enterprising manufacturers who have 

 commenced the manufacture of worsted dress goods, worsted 

 braids and other trimmings. The production of these goods 

 requires a kind of wool which has been sparingly produced in 

 this covmtry, and for a supply our manufacturers have been 

 indebted to the Canadian farmers, and have paid them the past 

 season from 40 to 50 cents per pound, gold, or from 65 to 70 

 cents, currency. We cannot give a better idea of the importance 

 of this class of goods, and the necessity of producing the class 

 of wool required for their production, than by quoting a para- 

 graph from the " Mark Lane Express," on the changes in the 

 value of different wools : — 



" An extraordinary change, in fact, has taken place in the 

 trade, by virtue of which the long and the fine short wools have 

 changed places, the former having advanced and the latter 

 receded in price, especially lamb's wool of native growth. This 

 description has fallen to about 14 pence or 28 cents per pound, 

 while Leicestershire teggs or hoggets wool from the same sheep 

 will fetch or has fetched 2s. 6d., or 60 cents per pound, the 

 fleece weighing fourteen pounds. The causes for so strange an 

 alteration in the wool trade are various, but may be traced to 

 the introduction of the Alpacca or Lama wool, from Peru. The 

 length and fineness of this material enabled the manufacturer to 

 make a kind of fabric entirely new to the British market, 

 namely, those light gossamer stuffs, known as alpaccas, so much 

 prized and worn by our fair countrywomen. The success of this 

 material set the manufacturers to work to attempt imitations of 

 it from the long wools of British growth. In this they suc- 

 ceeded, especially since the invention of combing wool by 

 machinery, about fourteen years ago. By the use of this 

 machine wool can be combed two and a half incites long, but it 

 is the long Lincolnshire, Leicester, Yorkshire, Romney Marsh 

 and Cotswolds wool that has so much increased in value since 

 the introduction of Alpacca wool. The facility for perfecting 



