92 
PAULAR MERINOS.—NO. II. 
produce fleeces of clean washed wool weighing 14 lbs., 
nor yet 12 lbs., nor even 10 lbs. Neither do I believe 
that his coarse sheep cut even the lightest of those 
weights, unless gummy and dirty, and perhaps after 
being for a length of time highly fed, and kept in a 
< c hog-fat” condition. 
With full knowledge of all this, I should of course 
not think of denying that Mr. Jewett has in his pos¬ 
session fine-woolled sheep producing wool fine enough 
to satisfy any reasonable demand for fineness, and to 
justify, I dare say, the price which he says he gets for 
his wool. But I beg leave to pity and condole with 
the buyers, if they have to take, in the lot, many of 
his precious “ Paular ” fleeces resembling that of the 
ram in question ! 
And here I cannot in justice avoid remarking, on 
the unfair, not to say deceptive, character and effect 
of giving out and publishing to the world, the value or 
price obtained for his wool, in such manner as to give 
the impression that it was the fair market value of 
such stuff as comes from the “ pictured” ram in ques¬ 
tion. It certainly might very naturally convey that 
idea, to the generality of hasty and careless readers, 
though I will not say that such was its intention, for 
it is to be presumed that Mr. J. is too honorable a man 
to wish or even be willing thus to mislead the public. 
Surely he does not mean to say, nor be understood, 
that the covering that grows on that ram, or anything 
of like character, would have sold in July last, (the 
date at which he wrote,) for 37 cents per pound ! No, 
not to any man in his senses ; nor for over half that 
price, to any shrewd-judging or intelligent buyer, at all 
acquainted with the quality of wool. I do not hesitate 
to affirm this. I proclaim it as being true , knowing 
that it is due to the public at large, and especially to 
many wool-growers, who have an interest in knowing 
the truth of the matter. Mr. Jewett says that his 
“ Paular wool is filled with gum, yolk, or oil before 
cleansing”—and afterwards , too, I presume he might 
have said, without overstepping the fact, so far as the 
gum is concerned, if that ram is to be taken as a fair 
specimen, and if, by cleansing Mr. S. meant, (as he 
doubtless did,) washing in pond or brook water be¬ 
fore shearing. This is, however, to do him justice, a 
candid admission on his part, for which he has due ac¬ 
knowledgment. I have myself always been accus¬ 
tomed to make a distinction, and a pretty broad one 
too, between “ gum , yolk, and oil,” so called, as ex¬ 
isting in the wool of Merino sheep. But not intend¬ 
ing this for a learned disquisition, I will not now en¬ 
large on, nor go into an analysis of, the nature and 
qualities of those substances. 
Lest I should be thought by any one to have written 
in a harsh or unfair spirit toward Mr. J. and his sheep, 
I would, in proof of the truth and literal correctness of 
what I said before, and of what I have now said here¬ 
in, as to the extreme coarseness and bad quality of the 
covering of that Jewett ram, refer you (and any of 
your readers who feel an interest in the subject,) to 
the sample of his wool in your own possession, which 
I presume, by your leave can now be seen and exam¬ 
ined at your office in New York, by those who are, 
like myself, curious in those matters, and fond of see¬ 
ing with their own eyes. As to the fairness of the 
sample, it is probably enough to say that it was, as I 
understand, furnished by Mr. Jewett himself, who 
would of course not be likely to select the worst locks 
of wool as a specimen of his favorite sheep. By ex¬ 
amining some of the finer samples of Mr. Jewett’s 
wool, on the same card, and furnished by him at the 
same time, you, and those among your readers who are 
familiar with the subject of wool, and critical judges 
of the article, will find in its peculiar character abun¬ 
dant and satisfactory evidence of its having partaken 
of the Saxon mixture. To all good and close judges, 
it tells its own story; indeed, so plainly, that “the 
man who runs may read.” Look at, and examine it 
for yourself, Mr. Editor ; and let your readers and the 
public call at your office and do the same. Let them 
examine, and then say whether those sheep are of any 
particular or pure breed ; and especially, whether those 
different samples are, or by any possibility could be, 
the produce of one and the same breed. 
If any of your readers want to know what is gum in 
distinction from yolk, in wool, let them examine and 
feel your sample from that Jewett ram, which he says 
yielded a fleece weighing 14 pounds! (Fourteen 
pounds of what ?) They will then, after seeing for 
themselves, be able to judge not only of its quality , but 
also, if they happen to be Yankees, can give a pretty 
good guess as to its probable degree of cleanness—or 
in other words, whether the 14 pounds was mostly 
made up of wool, or of gum, dirt, or foreign matter, 
which does not enter into the composition of cloth, and 
for which our wool-buyers and manufacturers can not 
afford, and will not any longer consent, to pay. They 
can also then judge whether such wool has been worth 
in market, at any time within a year past, 37 cents 
per pound. 
Speaking of gum, a person with his eyes shut, a blind 
man, having any sense of touch in his fingers, one would 
think might easily be able to feel the gum in that ram’s 
wool. Though brook-washed, on the sheep’s back, it 
would, after being shorn, lose at least one half its 
weight, (and probably considerable more,) by anything 
like thorough cleansing, such as a manufacturer has to 
give it before working: and then what would be left 
of it, would be of a grade worth a good deal less than 
37 cents per pound. Facts are stubborn things, I well 
know; but still we farmers and wool-growers, who 
have a living to get, want to see and look at things 
somewhat as they really are. You, Mr. Editor, must 
not only permit us to do so, but as far as in your power 
to do it, lend us a helping hand. 
I find that I have not yet even fully “ opened” Mr. 
Jewett’s case, and that of his Vermont Paulars. In¬ 
deed, I have as yet hardly begun. To do them any¬ 
thing like justice, so as to satisfy Mr. J. and the pub¬ 
lic, will require more space than you can at this time 
afford to the subject, which I assure you is very far 
from being exhausted; on the contrary, depend on it, 
the vein will grow richer as we go deeper and proceed 
farther in working it. All this is but prefatory. I 
propose to handle the subject (now I am hold of it) 
“ without mittens,” as the saying is, though of course 
with all possible courtesy which the case admits of, 
consistent with what is due to truth and the public in¬ 
terest. 
Examiner. 
New York, Nov. 1 8th, 1843. 
Indigo in Louisiana. —The article has been pro¬ 
nounced by competent judges as being not inferior to 
the best Caraccas indigo, selling at $2 per pound. 
The editor of the Baton Rouge Advocate says : One 
acre of ground well cultivated, in West Baton Rouge, 
will yield from forty to sixty pounds; that it requires 
only from July until October for cultivating it; that 
there is not connected with it one third of the expense 
or time that is generally required for the cultivation of 
cotton. He therefore intends in future to turn his at¬ 
tention to the cultivation of indigo in preference to 
cotton. 
