AMERICAN POTTERY. 97 



or some other offering greater inducements of location or of pecuniary assistance 

 may anticipate a promotion of its general interests in various and unex- 

 pected directions. A permanent sign in one of the main streets of Trenton 

 points the way to one of its many potteries, with this additional notice to the 

 farmer "Oat straw bought." So apparently insignificant an item (yet straws 

 show which way the wind blows) points the farmer which way his interest lies. 

 Without a diversification of industries, the straw may rot, (or even, as has been 

 the case, be burned to get rid of it,) the clay lie inert and valueless in the bank, 

 the building materials never be assembled to form cosy homes, no coal be mined, 

 no railroads built, and no enhanced value put upon the farmer's acres. With 

 the pottery established, comes also a demand from its operatives for every varied 

 product of the farm: " walk- aw ay crops," such as cattle, are needed and kept at 

 home; the full-uddered cow lows for the milkman; and they do say that even 

 water to thin down her lacteal richness comes into demand ! 



As has been proved by J. W. Foster, Esq., the "pre-historic races of mound- 

 builders" maintained a dense population in the Mississippi Valley; but we can 

 never reproduce this condition if we separate the producer from the consumer 

 by long distances, as is enforced by remaining a purely agricultural people. By 

 all means, then, invite the potter, the tanner, the shoemaker, the spinner, the 

 clothier, the hatter, the sugar-refiner, the butcher, the baker, the candle-stick 

 maker in short, all classes of manufacturers to come and make their abode 

 close by the Western farmer. 



As yet, we have made scarcely more than a beginning of the 

 pottery manufacture in this country _, which is peculiarly rich in all 

 the elements requisite for the successful and permanent develop- 

 ment of the ceramic arts. Even as early as 1770 it became evi- 

 dent to the British potters that the pottery industry might be 

 started in America to the detriment of their trade ; and Wedge- 

 wood, whose name is identified with the growth of artistic pottery 

 in Britain, wrote as follows : 



The trade to our colonies we are apprehensive of losing in a few years, as they 

 have set on foot some pot-works there already, and have at this time an agent 

 amongst us hiring a number of our hands for establishing new pot-works in 

 South Carolina. They have every material there, equal if not superior to our 

 own, for carrying on that manufacture. We can not help apprehending such 

 consequences from these emigrations as make us very uneasy for our trade and 

 prosperity. 



In Great Britain the ramifications of the manufacture are quite 

 numerous, embracing, as they do, thirty-nine distinct trades en- 

 gaged in the potter's and connected arts, besides seventeen other 

 occupations employed in supplying raw materials or machinery. 

 With due Protection we may expect to reach a still higher degree 



