28 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



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good homespun clothes. The sheep were mostly of the kind raised in 

 New York. In February, 1703, John Clarke received a grant of 20 

 acres of land on the southern branches of the Eahway Eiver " for his 

 encouragement in fitting up a fulling-mill " in that part of the province. 

 This is supposed to have been the first fulling-mill set up in the limits 

 of the State of New Jersey. 



As in New York and the New England colonies, so in east and mid- 

 dle Jersey, the industries of the family were of the most complete char- 

 acter, and each homestead produced enough to supply the necessities 

 of all the members. In farming communities the women of the house- 

 hold made all their own garments, and most of those wornby themen; 

 spun their own yarn from the wool of their own sheep, wove the family 

 linen and woolen goods, and at spinning parties supplied the minister 

 and his family with their winter's outfit. Oaken cases in the roomy 

 garrets were filled to bursting with woolen outer garments, woolen pet- 

 ticoats, woolen stockings, and woolen caps and tippets. After the 

 family wants and those of the minister were supplied, the surplus was 

 taken to the nearest town and either bartered for other goods or put in 

 the hands of storekeepers to be sold on commission. 



The breeds to which the early sheep of New York and New Jersey 

 belonged are not certainly known, but they were doubtless varied, 

 depending particularly on what part of the Old World the settler came 

 from, the Swedes probably bringing the indifferent, long-legged, long- 

 bodied sheep of their homes; the Dutch the sheep of Prieslandandthe 

 Texel, while the English brought those of the country adjoining the 

 ports from which they sailed. As the two provinces passed under the 

 English nile, English sheep gained the ascendency, and the Swedish 

 and Dutch sheep had neai'ly disappeared at the end of the seventeenth 

 century. A writer early in the eighteenth century says of the sheep 

 of New York and New Jersey : 



They are of the large English sort. They are washed whenever convenient, and 

 then immediately shorn, once a year, towards the end of April. Their wool is re- 

 garded as better for stockings than the English. The flesh is generally very strong 

 in its taste, especially in old sheep. Some persons are unable to eat it. 



Great improvement was made upon the sheep thus described, espe- 

 cially in New Jersey. Lying between the two cities of New York and 

 Philadelphia, whose markets demanded good mutton, the country ad- 

 joining them soon yielded a good table meat. Indeed, it is very doubt- 

 ful if at that day tlie mutton of Gloucester, Burlington, and Salem 

 counties could be equaled anywhere in the colonies, nor could it be 

 greatly surpassed in England. The wool improved with the flesh, but, 

 like the wool of other colonial flocks, was certainly only adapted to the 

 coarser purposes to which it was applied in the household manufacture 

 of plain, strong fabrics for common wear. There was a great diversity 

 in the sheep of the two provinces, diversity when the provinces were 

 compared with each other, and diversity when counties of the same 



