^0 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH 



aypecrancc with heavy sheep's gray, excepting in the quality of the 

 wool. That is inf'iiior to any I ever saw in a single piece of the former. 

 It appears t«.) be -jf two qualities, the finest about lilie the Asia Minor or 

 Afiican ("Smyrna" or " Mogadore ") wools; and this intermixed with 

 occasional still coarser sharp 2^ointed hairs, which could come only from 

 an animal not many removes from the wild Argali.* In both, there is a 

 peculiarly dry, harsh, wiry feeling, not found in North American wools, 

 and which is more indicative of an inferior staple — of brittleness, and want 

 of felting properties — than even their coarseness. The staple is not appa- 

 rently a very long one. 1 conjecture that it is Iceland wool — or that, 

 mixed with Orkney, or some of the coarsest short or medium staple wools 

 of Scotland. 



The Chelmsfords, (31 inches wide,) twilled, undyed,t cost, you inform 

 me, 58 cents, per yard. The plain article, (?. c. untwilled,) 28 inches wide, 

 costs 50 cents per yard. The sample of the twilled, forwarded by you, is 

 a thicker, decidedly stronger cloth, with larger and far more tightly 

 twisted yain, than the sample of Welsh plains. The wool is of about the 

 same quality, though at first view it strikes you as decidedly coarser, as 

 the longer nap shows more of the coarse fibres on the surface, and these 

 are rendered more conspicuous still by their variety of color. But on re- 

 solving portions of each cloth back into unmanufactured wool, I can detect 

 little or no difference in its fineness, unless it be that the stock of the 

 Chelmsford plains possesses none of those peculiarly coarse fibres or hairs 

 which characte-ize the other. The wool used in the Chelmsfords is ap- 

 parently of a 1 )nger staple. It is probably South American, though il 

 may be Smyrna or Mogadore, as it bears a strong resemblance to the w^ c 

 of the broad-tailed sheep of Asia and Africa. You state that the Welsh 

 is generally thought to outwear the Chelmsford plain. This may be true 

 of the ordinary articles, but I think it cannot be of the samples forwarded. 

 Of these, the latter possesses nearly double the strength of the former 

 and is much the heaviest cloth. 



The slave blanket, 6 feet 11 inches long, by 6 feet 5 inches wide, weigh- 

 ing 41 lbs., you state cost about $3 121 by the. piece (a piece containing 

 16 blankets costs S50). It is manufactured of a very coarse and a long 

 stapled wool — not much fulled — with a long nap raised on both surfaces. 

 The wool in quality resembles that used in the Chelmsfords. 



On the receipt of these samples, I forwarded a specimen of the Welsh 

 plains to two manufacturers of experience and perfect pecuniary respon- 

 sibility, asking them at what price per yard they would contract to furnish 

 me 100,000 yards of cloth of the same style and equal quality with the 

 sample. The question was put to both of these gentlemen and received 

 by them, as purely a commercial one — the opening of a commercial nego- 

 tiation. Each stood ready to enter immediately on the fulfillment of a 

 contract, based on his offer. 



The following is the answer of one of the above named gentlemen : 



flXNRY S. Randall, Esq. Mobkisville, N. Y., April aCi 1847. 



Dear Sir: Yours of the 13th is at hand and dulj- noticed. I have no wool of tlie tjuality of th« 

 nraple sent and do not wish to work foreiirn woo! I would like to make for you 100,000 yards 

 like the sample, out of our American or domestic wool. I wonld make it as thick ami tight as the 

 Mniple sent, 32 inches wide, at 40 cents per yard. 1 could not say how much less it would cobI 

 to gel up the article from the same kind of wool with that used in the sample I do not know 

 what that kind of wool is now worth in market. I have not worked any of it 1 »r two years paA 



Yours, truly, C. TilXINGHAST. 



• Many of the vinimpioved breeds have, as is common with wild animals, a coating of hair over a finer p» 

 Inge beneath, iind it is diflicult to perfectly separate them. 



1 A small ponion iif iho wool employed in ihe filliny is black, giving the cloth a diily drab or a*h colut 

 Bat this 1 lakr to be the natural color of the wool 



