No. 199.] 133 



facilities tor the accomplishments of your object than any other. la 

 a good season, and with great care, shearing them before their em- 

 barkation, providing good accommodations for them on board the 

 steamers, taking with them for their sustenance a sufficient supply of 

 the Alfelfa of the country, and allowing them to remain as short a 

 time as possible in the wretched atmosphere of the isthmus, I think a 

 purchaser of a small number of the Alpaccas might fairly expect to 

 land them safely in New York, at a cost not exceeding seventy-five 

 dollars each. Once arrived in the United States, I have great confi- 

 dence that they might be raised with success. Some of them, I am 

 told, have been found to thrive in Scotland, and there is no reason to 

 doubt a similar result upon the hills of New England and in the 

 pastures of upper New York. The cold in these states is often 

 quite as severe as they ever have to endure in Bolivia, and the heat 

 no greater than I have experienced at midday, even in the depart- 

 ments of Potosi and La Paz. Their greater change would be from 

 an atmosphere extremely dry to one comparatively very humid, from 

 the peculiar grass of their Andes homes to the richer nourishment of 

 our pastures in summer and our folds in winter, and from elevations 

 of more than four thousand yards above the sea to a country which 

 rises from the ocean only a few hundred feet. These difficulties 

 however can all, in ray judgment, be surmounted; and the experi- 

 ment of introducing the Alpacca to the United States, is, at all events, 

 worthy of a persevering trial. Larger than any of our sheep, bearing 

 heavier fleeces, affording much finer wool, and with no greater lia- 

 bility, so far as I can learn, to disease, whoever shall secure their 

 domestication among us, may well be regarded as a benefactor to our 

 agriculture. 



Without, however, trespassing further upon your time, I trust you 

 will find in this imperfect reply to the letter of Mr. Brown, if not the 

 exact information which you desire, at least some evidence of my 

 disposition to comply with his request, and of my sincere wish to 

 render any service in my power to the agriculture of the Unifted 

 States. I am, Sir, 



Very respectfully, 

 % Your ob't serv't, 



k^-vm.. ^ \ JOHN APPLETON. 



