44. FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 
Circumstances Affecting their Success. 
The earlier importations of Merinos into the United 
States, as has been already remarked, attracted but 
little public notice. The woolen cloths then made in 
the country were mostly spun and woven in families. 
The fine Merino wool was as little adapted to the 
instruments employed, as was so valuable a material 
to the cheap, common fabrics worn by our people. 
Both Livingston and Humphreys, however, patrioti- 
cally set the example of attempting fine cloth manu- 
factures, with the new wool; and the former, with his 
usual energy as a public improver, made and published 
the results of investigations and experiments on the 
subject, which were soon to prove of the highest value. 
When the great warlike struggle then shaking 
Kurope led, in 1807, to maritime regulations—the 
English Orders in Council and the French Milan 
decree—which converted American commerce into 
the mere prey of the belligerents, our government 
made an effort to save it by laying an embargo 
(Dec. 22d) which entirely shut our shipping off from 
the ocean. This was succeeded by the non-intercourse 
law, which prevented trade with England and France. 
France repealed her obnoxious decrees, and trade was 
restored with her, but the continued attitude of Eng- 
land rendered commerce with her neighbor precarious. 
A British outrage on an American national vessel 
(the Chesapeake) early in 1811, forced our country to 
begin preparations for war. This was declared in 
1812, and continued until 1815. 
Thus for a period of about eight years, our com- 
merce was virtually snspended with those nations which 
