47 



ican shipping with the raw material for cordage and canvas ? 

 According to the Hon. Justin Ely's statement, hemp in Hamp- 

 shire county has been found to produce from four to eight 

 hundred weight to the acre, and from six to nine bushels of 

 seed. It is worth, at this time, about nine and a half dollars per 

 hundred, and the seed probably a dollar and fifty cents per 

 bushel. The labour of cultivating, pulling and rotting it, can- 

 not be more than is usually bestowed on an acre of Indian corn. 

 An expert workman can dress 3 cwt. in a week. Should it 

 ever be raised in large quantities, it might undoubtedly be 

 dressed by water, at a much cheaper rate. It must therefore 

 I think prove a profitable crop. Were this not the case, it 

 would notwithstanding be worthy the attention of American 

 farmers, who ought to endeavour to supply the market with 

 every thing which they can cultivate, without involving them- 

 selves in debt : for by so doing they will plant the seeds of re- 

 sources, which some time or other will afford them a rich har- 

 vest. 



Wool. I have no wish to renew the merino speculations 

 which proved so ruinous to many a few years since. I think 

 however that we have much reason to regret the indiscriminate 

 destruction of fine flocks which followed. For although I do 

 cot believe that it will ever be good policy for the farmers of 

 this county to go largely into the raising of wool, a commodity 

 more worthy tbe attention of those who inhabit the interior 

 and more mountainous parts of our country, still I think that a 

 few sheep may be profitably kept on almost every farm. If a 

 farmer has plenty of wool in his house, his wife, daughters, or 

 female domestics, will generally be disposed to manufacture ify 

 although they would not urge him to go and buy it for this pur- 

 pose, and would be seldom gratified if he did. Or he might 

 make an exchange with the woollen manufacturer, and thus ob- 

 tain his clothing easier than he otherwise would, although he 

 might, by pa}'ing cash, get cloths at a nominally cheaper rate. 

 What kind of sheep, generally speaking, would it be most prof- 

 itable to keep for these purposes ? Livingston says, half-blood- 

 ed merinoes ; and there is but little reason to doubt his correct- 

 ness, when we take into consideration the value of the mutto» 

 as well as the fleece. 



