EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI EIVEE. 55 



broadcloth made at the Hartford fVictory and presented by the proprie- 

 tors. 



From some correspondence between Washington and some prominent 

 farmers of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, seeking information 

 which he was coUecting for Mr. Arthur Young, we learn that sheep 

 were worth from 6s. to 12s.; mutton 3d. per pound, and wool Is. per 

 pound. Turkeys were 2s. each, and chickens 3s. per dozen. He writes 

 again to Young from Philadelphia, June 18, 1792: 



Sheep thrive very well in the Middle States, though they are not exempt from dis- 

 eases and are often injured by dogs, and more so, as you approach the mountains, hy 

 wolves. Were we to use horses less and oxen more on our farms (as they do in the 

 New England States), we should, unquestionably, find our account in it; yet, strange 

 as it may seem, few are in the practice of the latter; and none push the raising of 

 sheep to the extent they might and ought to do. The fact is we hare, in a manner, 

 everything to learn that respects neat and profitable husbandry. 



Bakewell's breed of sheep are much celebrated, and deservedly, I presume ; but if 

 intrusted to a common bailiflf (or with us is called an overseer) they would, I should 

 apprehend, soon degenerate, for want of that care and attention which is necessary 

 to preserve the breed in its purity. But the great impediment is in the British stat- 

 utes ; these discourage men of delicacy, in this country, from attempting what might 

 involve the master of a vessel in serions consequences if detected in the breach of 

 them. Others, however, less scrupulous, have attempted to import English rams with 

 success, and by this means our flocks in many places are much improved — mine, for 

 instance, though I never was concerned, directly or indirectly, in the importation of 

 one, further than by buying lambs which have descended from them. 



Mr. Young, in reply to the various papers sent him by Washington, 

 giving price of land, stock, cereals, and other produce, with the mode 

 and cost of farming, remarks: 



You have the unaccountable circumstance, I see, as well as England, of mutton be- 

 ing dearer than beef. Horses, not oxen, being almost universal with us, makes it yet 

 more stange. I know from experiments made with considerable care that if they 

 were at the same price the farmer would have more profit by producing mutton than 

 by producing beef; yet is mutton by many per cent higher priced ; but sheep give you 

 another profit in their wool, and a third in their fold. The former with us is infa- 

 mously depressed in price, but not in America,for your wool at Is. per pound is 33 per 

 cent higher than it would sell for in England. Why, then, surely you should raise 

 those products that sell well, and wool sells better (of course in quantity) than any- 

 thing else you have. With mutton at 3d. per pound and wool at Ig. there can be no 

 comparison between sheep and any other application of land. But there must be a 

 market for mutton, and to efi^ect that yon should get Bakewell's breed, which fatten 

 so readily on very good land that a common application of it is salting, to use in- 

 stead of bacon. The provincial assemblies of France have emijloycd smugglers to get 

 (badly chosen; English sheep. Half the kings of Europe have done the same, to get 

 Spanish sheep; both very wisely. I hope your American assemblies will be equally 

 wise and take care that the food produced in the State is applied in the breeds that 

 will best pay for it. 



This and other letters on the same subject, which were submitted to 

 Thomas Jefferson, then Washington's Secretary of State, for his com- 

 ment and information, had such an effect upon that gentleman, who 

 also raised sheep, that he concluded to " push the number of sheep " 

 on his own plantation, acknowledging that he " had never before con- 

 sidered, with due attention, the profit from that animal." 



