EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 97 



and other breeds of sheep known to the first settlers of the coiintry 

 furnished this " long wool," which was prepared for spinning by a proc- 

 ess of combing, which is either manual or mechanical, its object being 

 to disentangle the fibers and tufts and dispose them as nearly as pos- 

 sible in paral]el form. 



Th6 ordinary cloth manufacture, on the other hand, employs a short, 

 fine wool, the filaments of which are capable of being failed or felted 

 together without loss of elasticity in the fabric. This wool, previous 

 to being spun, undergoes the operation of carding, like cotton, whereby 

 the fibers are disentangled and arranged in a light, orderly lap or roll, 

 ready to be drawn out into regular threads. The beauty of the woven 

 fabric depends upon the fineness and smoothness of the yarn, and this 

 upon the regularity and perfection of the carding, which again ismainly 

 influenced by the quality of the cards and of the wool. 



The fulling of cloth is commenced by scouring the fabric in water 

 holding in suspension an aluminous clay called fullers' earth, or other 

 detergent, to absorb the grease. It is then washed and beaten by 

 heavy wooden mallets in a trough, soap and hot water being copiously 

 used in the oj)eration, whereby the cloth acquires body and thickness 

 by a shrinking or condensing of the web nearly one-third in its length 

 and one-half in its width. This milling or felting which cloth under- 

 goes in the fulling stock renders the web close and compact, and in- 

 creases its beauty and firmness, and is due to the peculiar imbricated 

 or serrated structure of the filaments of wool, which become thereby 

 closely and inextricably united, as is more perfectly seen in bat bodies 

 and the felted cloths now made without spinning or weaving. 



At the present day in regular woolen factories, many of which in the 

 United States are very large and complete establishments, conducted 

 with the same system that prevails in those of cotton, all the operations 

 of scouring, carding, spinning, weaving, dyeing, and fulling are con- 

 ducted on the p emises. But in early times, and in some States and 

 most rural parts at this day, where much of the domestic wool is spun 

 and woven in families, sometimes all, and at others a part, of these 

 processes were carried on in the household, the wool being carded by 

 hand-cards, spv>n, woven, and dyed in the family, and worn without 

 fulling or dressing. In other cases the wool, after being sorted, picked, 

 and oiled, was sent to the carding-mill and returned in roUs to be spun 

 and woven, aftei which it was again sent to the mill to be fulled, dyed 

 (if not dyed in the wool), and finished.* 



The manufacture of avooI in the colonies properly began with the first 

 erection of fulling-mills, the woolen webs of the handlooms of the private 

 families being carried to these mills to receive body and thickness and 

 abetter finish. This wool from inferior sheep made homespun cloth of 

 the coarsest kind, but it was durable and comfortable. Fulling-mills 

 increased very rapidly in number until every neighborhood seems to 



* In troduotiOB to the EigWb Cens^s, Mamifftotwes. I860. 



23990 7 



