50 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



from abroad and by greater care of those already possessed. Much 

 was done in the latter respect, but England was too jealous to permit 

 any of her improved sheep to be used for the purpose of increasing the 

 wool product of her rivals, and prohibited by stringent laws their ex- 

 portation from the kingdom. At the dictation of the English manu- 

 facturers old acts were revived and condensed into a new act which 

 passed the English Parliament and received the royal assent in 1788, 

 whereby the exportation of sheep (except wethers for sea stock, upon 

 special license) was prohibited, under the penalty of forfeiture of the 

 sheep and the vessel carrying them, together with £3 sterling for every 

 sheep, and also three months' solitary confinement, to be inflicted on 

 every person concerned or assisting for the first offense, and heavier 

 fines and imprisonment for repeated transgressions. Nor could sheep 

 be carried across any tide river or inlet of the sea within the kingdom 

 without bond being given that they should not be exported. Means, 

 however, were found to evade this law, and numbers found their way 

 to our Atlantic i^orts, but it is extremely difflcult to trace them ; nor is 

 it a matter of much moment, for they left but small mark upon the 

 native flocks, save in one or two recorded instances. 



Tench Ooxe, writing in 1794, regretted the inattention paid to the 

 raising of wool, but thought it must become much more abundant as 

 the country became populated. Mutton, he contended, was the best 

 meat for cities, manufactories, seminaries of learning, and poor-houses, 

 and should be given by rule, as in England. The settlement of new 

 lands, remote from water carriage, must introduce much more new 

 pasturage and grazing than had been before necessary, as sheep, horses, 

 and horned cattle would carry themselves to market through roads im- 

 passable by wagons. The foreign restrictions upon our trade would 

 also tend to increase the number of sheep. Horses and horned cattle 

 formerly constituted a great part of the 'New England cargoes for the 

 English West India Islands ; then these animals were exported to those 

 places in smaller numbers, as American vessels were excluded from the 

 ports. The farms, capital, and men formerly employed in raising them 

 would want a market for theii' usual quantity, and the nature of that 

 country being unfit for grain, sheep of necessity would occupy a great 

 proportion of their lands. Though sheep were bred in all parts of 

 America, yet — 



The most populous scenes in the Middle States and the Eastern States have been 

 long settled, and, particularly the latter, are the places where they thrive best. In 

 the Eastern or New England States they form one of the greatest objects of the farm- 

 er's attention and one of his surest sources of profit. The demand for wool, which 

 has of late increased exceedingly with the rapidgrowth of our manufactures, will add 

 considerably to the former great profits of sheep ; and the consumption of their moat 

 by the manufacturers will render them still more profitable.* 



A New England writer, three years later, treating of the sheep of the 

 *" A View of the United Statesof America." Tench Coxo. Philadelphia, 1794. 



