Wool Depot. 261 
tenance, and which produce a lighter fleece, but of much finer 
quality. 
Where the facilities for selling have been such that the intrinsic 
value of the fine fleece could be obtained, (I think I am not 
hazarding too much by saying) that the profits arising from the 
growth of fine wool have been greater than on the lower grades; 
but where these facilities for selling have not been enjoyed, the 
profits have been in favor of the grower of medium and low quali- 
ties. As a proof of this, I refer you to the success of the fine 
wool-growers in those sections of the country, where, by reason 
of their superior clips and large flocks, great inducements were 
held out to fine w^ool purchasers to visit them for the purpose of 
buying; and thus a competition was created which resulted in 
fair prices; while in other sections, where equally as fine w^ool 
was produced, but in less quantities, or where the low medium 
and high grades were grown promiscuously, those producing the 
fine qualities have been under the necessity of selling their fine 
wool at 2 or 3, or at most 5 cents only above the price paid for 
the common or low grades, and that too, when the superior con- 
dition of the fine fleece alone, independent of its quality, would 
make that difference ; thus sustaining a loss of all their skill, 
care and expense in breeding fine instead of common or medium 
wools. 
Origin and .Arrangement of the Depot. — From facts that were 
ascertained by Hon. J. P. Beekman, (then President of the N. Y. 
State Agricultural Society,) at the State Fair held in Poughkeep- 
sie, in 1844, he became convinced that the growlers of Dutchess 
county, by reason of the superior facilities afforded them for the 
sale of their fine wools, were procuring from six to eight cents 
per pound more than many wool-growers in other sections of the 
State who produced the same quality of wool. The large quan- 
tity of fine wool grown in that county, offered great inducements 
for manufacturers and purchasers of fine wool to make that a place 
of resort to obtain their supplies, and thus a fair competition was 
awakened, which resulted in a just appreciation of the relative 
value of their wools, and remunerating prices to the fine wool- 
grower. Soon after Dr. B.'s return, the evils consequent upon 
the system of selling wools in our county as well as elsewhere, 
became a matter of discussion between him and other wool- 
growers in our vicinity and myself The result of which was a 
request from them that I would open what we now term a " Wool 
Depot." The principles involved in the depot system are not 
new, it being conducted upon those of a commission business ; 
but it is only the details and application of these principles to 
wool when received direct from the grower, that had never before 
in this country been applied in the same discriminating manner, 
