SHEEP AND WOOL 



ucts did indeed come down to such recent times. Un- 

 doubtedly most of the manufacture of woolen goods, 

 especially of all kinds of woolen cloth, had been taken 

 from the homes into small factories, as we shall pres- 

 ently see, but during and after the Civil War many 

 farms produced their own wool, and it was spun at 

 home into yarn for the stout, home-knit stockings, tip- 

 pets, wristers, and mittens. 



An old lady, who died many years ago, told me in my 

 childhood as we stood by a great thorn tree near her 

 home, that when she was a girl, about 1830, after the 

 sheep were sheared the fleeces were put in a great linen 

 sheet and were firmly pinned into a bundle to send to the 

 carding mill. "And because pins were scarce in those 

 days we girls always used to come down to this thorn 

 bush and cut off the long, slender thorns to fasten the 

 bundle. Father never cut this bush when he trimmed 

 the roadsides." 



The wool, when back from the carding mill, was 

 deftly spun by the women of the household on the great 

 wheel — and a more graceful occupation never engaged 

 the attention of woman. Back and forth the spinner 

 would walk, holding the roll lightly in her left hand, 

 while with her right she kept the wheel in motion; and 

 the whir of the wheel and the hum of the spindle, as it 

 wound upon itself the just made yarn, made a pleasant 

 accompaniment to the song of the spinner. There 



IT 93 3 



