104 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



not very foud of submitting to government would soon tliiiik of putting in execu- 

 tion designs they had long harbored in their breasts. This will -Jot seem strange 

 when you consider what sort of people this country is inhabited hy." 



Cornbury's successors were equally urgent upon the point. Gover- 

 nor Hunter, in 1715, advised the Eaglish Government that the coun- 

 try people were clothed chieiiy in their home product, but to compel 

 them to wear imported goods would be too severe an expedient, and 

 that their attention should be drawn from the home manufacture to the 

 production of naval stores. A letter from New England to the board 

 of trade in the same year was in similar strain. It mentions that 6,000 

 barrels of tar, pitch, and turpentine were sent home that year by one 

 fleet, but that nine years before the great scarcity iind dearness of 

 Avoolen goods, which sold at 200 per cent advance, had forced them to 

 setup a very considerable manufactory, still in being, for "stuffs, ker- 

 seys, linsey-woolseys, flannels, buttons, etc.," by whit-ii the importa- 

 tion of the provinces of New England had been decreased £50,000 per 

 annum. That an Englishman had lost this opportunity for trade was 

 mortifying, and, that a like occasion should not again arise, the Ameri- 

 can market was ever after kept well supplied with English goods, and 

 the discouragement of American manufactures persiistently insisted 

 upon and avowed as the settled policy of the Government.. 



The cloth made at this time was chiefly of the stout imi coarser kind, 

 linen and woolen mixed, more remarkable for service than for show. 

 The material was mostly grown iipon the farms, the breaking of the 

 flax and gathering of the wool being done by the men, while the card- 

 ing, spinning, and weaving were done by the female portion of the 

 family. The kerseys, linsey-woolseys, serges, and druggets, made of 

 wool mixed with flax or tow, formed the outer clothing of a great part 

 of the population during the winter season. The richer class used im- 

 ported broadcloth, often white or undyed, manufactured in England, 

 and linens made in Ireland and Scotland and on the continent. 



From the early settlement, and especially at this time, many persons 

 wore the furs and skins of wild animals. These were <lressed in differ- 

 ent ways and formed into garments varioitsly ornamented. Elk and 

 deer skins, particularly, were much valued, being easily made into un- 

 tanned leather, soft and warm, and worn in extreme cold with the hair 

 next the person. Much use was made of this material, to which, in 

 fact, the early colonists were not unaccustomed, for in England at that 

 day leather, dressed as buff and in other styles and worn as doublets 

 breeches, or vests, formed a considerable part of the clothing of some 

 classes. The American colonists wore, for a long period, •waistcoats and 

 breeches of Indian-dressed skins, a custom which survived until the 

 Eevolution and formed the uniform of many of the Continental regi- 

 ments, the Buckskins. These garments continued in use until after 

 the era of Independence, and buckskin breeches, buckskm waistcoats, 



* Governor Cornbury to Lords of Trade. 1705. 



