292 
Sept. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
on the hairy wools, is three times as high as the 
duty on the fine wools, which rival our own ; three 
times as much coarse being required to make a square 
yard of carpets, as of fine to make a square yard 
of a fine plaid shawl, in the manufacture of which 
the fine wools of South America, east of the Andes, 
are used to the exclusion of domestic wool of all 
grades, sqch as cloths, cassimeres, &c. 
1st. Buenos Ayres’ native Mestizo, or grade wools 
and Merino. 
These wools bear the general character of the 
wools east of the Andes. I have fair samples be¬ 
fore me, which successfully compete with every 
grade of wool grown in the United States, some of 
which I send you with this article. 
The Buenos Ayres wools are generally imported 
unwashed, very dirty and burry. The fine, wastes 
from 60 to 70 lbs. to the 100 lbs. in washing and 
burring, and comes to the cards 15 cents per lb. 
cheaper than our own wools of the same grade. 
The expense of burring is about three mills per lb. 
I have these facts from a most reliable and intel¬ 
ligent source. From Buenos Ayres, (or the Argen¬ 
tine Republic,) we imported in 1848, 4,307,428 
pounds of wool, which cost there $267,419, or about 
6| cents per lb. This was over one-third of our 
whole importation that year. As long ago as 1835, 
great efforts were made to improve the native sheep 
in this region. In 1837-8, 1,100 Merino rams and 
ewes were imported into Buenos Ayres alone, (say¬ 
ing nothing of the adjoining States, where similar 
improvements were in progress,) under the direc¬ 
tion of enterprising foreigners. The natives, 
stimulated by their example, and encouraged by 
resident agents of foreign and domestic manufac¬ 
turers, commenced the improvements of their flocks 
by crossing them with the Merino, and have now 
made such progress in the production of fine wool, 
as to render it impossible for our wool growers to 
compete with them, under the present tariff of 30 
per cent on their wool, which amounts to two cents 
per lb., and about 15 per cent on its value here, (all 
expenses being paid,) compared with that of our 
own domestic wool. 
Indeed, one of the largest woolen manufactories in 
the country, which uses near two million pounds of 
wool per annum, a few years ago used almost exclu¬ 
sively domestic Merino and grade wools, now uses as 
exclusively the fine wools of the eastern part of 
South America. But a few years ago, this estab¬ 
lishment alone paid about $300,000 in one year for 
wool in the western part of Pennsylvania, and now 
it buys little, if any, domestic wool, but has since 
bought cargoes of Mestizo wool from this section of 
South America, and within twelve months, I was 
informed by one of its agents, that they were not 
using a pound of domestic wool. 
By examining, carefully, the official reports of the 
importations of wool from different countries, the 
fact will be fully established, that the wools grown 
in South America, east of the Andes, being all rival 
wools, cost not more abroad than the coarse hairy 
wools of Crimea, Smyrna, Syria, Africa, Chili, or 
Valparaiso. 
The native wool of Buenos Ayres is much like, 
in the fibre, our common wool, perhaps not quite so 
soft; the fibre has a spiral curl about it, which dis¬ 
tinguishes it from hairy wool; it takes color well; 
is generally dirty and burry when imported, wastes 
from 40 to 50 per cent in washing, and from 10 to 
15 per cent in burring. It is used generally for all 
purposes where our common and coarse wool would 
be used, and comes to the cards, relatively, as much 
cheaper as the Mestizo. Our own river washed 
wool wastes before coming to the cards, about 20 
to 25 per cent. 
Entre Rios, Rio Grande, Monte Video, wools are 
about the same quality, generally imported burry 
and washed. They waste in rewashing and burring 
from 30 to 35 per cent. Cordova wool is grown 
about 700 miles back from Buenos Ayres, in a 
mountainous country, and it is free from burrs. It 
is generally imported unwashed—wastes about 50 per 
cent in coming to the cards, and is probably the 
best long wool imported from South America. It 
is longer in the fibre than my sample of Leicester 
or Bakewell wool from Ohio; not so long as my 
Lincolnshire, or as soft as either, but would be used 
generally for similar purposes, principally for 
worsted goods. 
The Chilian or Valparaiso, is a long, coarse, hairy 
wool, imported free from burrs and dirty, wastes 
about 50 per cent before it comes to the cards, and 
is manufactured into the coarsest and cheapest 
goods, such as could not be made exclusively out of 
any grade of our wool, on account of the expense. 
The coarser part of the fleece, is often from 14 to 
18 inches long, and very different, from the wool 
grown on the opposite side of the Andes, and the 
vast pampas between them and the Atlantic. 
The coarser part of the fleece, resembles more 
the hair on the extremity of cattles’ tails, than any 
wool grown in the U. S. From the nature of the 
country and the character of the people, there is little 
ground to hope that such improvement will ever be 
made in the flocks as on the east side of the moun¬ 
tains, where single individuals often own from 40 to 
100,000 sheep, roaming the year round over vast 
and fertile plains, the richest grazing region in the 
world, with little trouble or expense to their own¬ 
ers, except to shear and properly crop them. The 
shearing is often omitted, the wool not being worth 
the trouble when labor is scarce and high. 
The Peruvian wool is long, coarse and hairy. It 
is imported unwashed, and wastes about 50 per cent 
in coming to the cards. The samples I have are 
shorter in the staple than the Chilian, free from burrs 
but dirty. This wool is used for the same purposes 
as the Chilian. Both the last named wools cost 
abroad, in 1846, according to official reports, made 
up from invoices filed at the custom houses under 
the oaths of the importers, the same as the Buenos 
Ayres and the adjoining States, from 6 to 7 cts. per 
lb. 
The African and Syrian wools have a general re¬ 
semblance. They have a reddish color, occasioned 
by the sands of the deserts being blown into them. 
They are coarse, harsh and hairy—about as long in 
the staple as our Bakewell, and are brittle. They are 
used principally for filling to negro cloths and car¬ 
pets. They are spoken of in price currents, as 
Syrian, Bengazi, Mogadore and Barbary wool. 
The Scotch black faced laid wool, is imported in 
small quantities. An immense quantity of it is 
grown on the Highlands. The sheep upon which it 
grows is hardy and thrives where the more delicate 
races would die, and makes the best of mutton when 
well fatted. Upon this wool the English carpet 
manufacturers draw for a large portion of their sup¬ 
ply at about 7 cents per lb., free of duty, and thus 
they are enabled to hold in check and defeat the 
prosperity of our domestic carpet manufacturers. 
The sheep are not housed on the Highlands, and 
for protecting them from the effects of the weather 
and storms, they are covered with a preparation of 
tar and grease, well rubbed on the fleece. The un¬ 
laid wool is from the same kind of sheep, on t,he 
south side of the Highlands. This sheep is housed 
