1850, 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
293 
in cold weather. The laid wastes about 40 and the 
unlaid about 15 per cent on coming to the cards. 
The nearer wool approaches hair, if it will take 
colors, the better it is for carpets, because it is more 
clastic, retains the dirt less, and sweeps better. 
The coarse hairy wools of a. brittle staple, are 
generally used for filling the carpets and negro 
cloths. With this cheap material for filling, carpet 
manufacturers could afford to buy our own coarse 
long wool for warps, but inasmuch as by official re¬ 
turns, (the importation from Crimea and Buenos 
Ayres, for example,) this pays three times as much 
duty as the fine, according to what it will produce 
in money when manufactured,- the carpet business is 
retrograde, and the demand for our coarse long wool 
of strong staple, very much curtailed, for it is a 
fact worthy of the greatest consideration, that in 
proportion as the coarse, brittle, hairy wool is im¬ 
ported for filling, (if foreign long wool is not im¬ 
ported for warps) a demand is at once created for 
our domestic long wool. 
Smyrna, Salonica, and Adrianople wools, are 
coarse and hairy, rather harsh; staple of medium 
length. They are imported, washed and unwashed, 
and waste, in cleaning for the cards, from 40 to 50 
per cent, and cost abroad about the same as the 
best wool east of the mountains in South America. 
Crimea wool, grown in the south of Russia, and 
imported limed and unlimed from Crimea and the 
Black Sea, is free from burs, and wastes from forty 
to sixty percent. Calcutta wool is much the same 
thing, both resembling dog’s hair, more than any 
wool grown in this country. It is used for filling to 
carpets, See. 
Cape of Good Hope wool is mostly imported on 
the skins, called hair skins, which are valuable to, 
and eagerly sought by morocco dressers. The 
wool or hair, on nine-tenths of them, is of no value, 
except to masons. It will not dye or take colors. 
The native sheep is very large. 
In taking this general survey of foreign wools, 
with their bearing upon the sheep husbandry of the 
United States, the conclusion to which I have ar¬ 
rived is, that all wools grown in the United States 
are depressed in the market from six to ten cents per 
lb., by the present importation of foreign rival 
wools, principally grown in eastern South America. 
Considering the fact that a cent a lb. on our annual 
clip, makes the odds to our wool growers of $900,- 
000, this is a matter for grave consideration ; and 
that if Congress remodels the present tariff, they 
should put a duty high enough on foreign rival wools 
to give our domestic wool an equal chance with 
them in our own markets. The immense amount 
invested in sheep husbandry, the little attention 
Congress has ever given to the agriculture of the 
country, and the little aid they can ever render it, 
under any tariff, justify the farmer in demanding of 
Congress, in tones not to be mistaken, substantial 
relief from this ruinous competition with foreign 
wool. A duty on any of his products, except wool, 
(say butter, cheese, beef and pork or grain) is as 
useless as a duty on ice; but that on wool is a vital 
matter. Will it be overlooked, if the tariff be re¬ 
modified? Nous verrons. H. C. Meriam. North 
Tewksbury , Mass. June 25, 1850. 
P. S.—Since I wrote the above article, I have 
received from Washington the report of the com¬ 
merce and navigation of the U. S. for the last fiscal 
year, from "which I take the following: 
The importation of foreign wool, the last fiscal 
year, amounted to 17,869,022 pounds, and cost 
abroad, as invoiced, $1.177,347, that is at an ave¬ 
rage price of less than 7 cents per lb. Over two- 
thirds of this whole importation, 12,603,094 lbs. 
came from Buenos Ayres, invoiced at 769,106 dol¬ 
lars, that is but a fraction over 6 cents per lb. 
Sheep Husbandry, 
Dr. Fitch in his survey of Washington county, 
N. Y., made under the direction of the State Agri-, 
cultural Society, furnishes a valuable chapter on 
the sheep husbandry of that section, from which we 
take the following, believing that our readers who 
are engaged in that branch of farming, will be in¬ 
terested and benefitted by his remarks. Eds. 
Adaptedness of this county to fine wooled 
Sheep. —No section of our country can be better 
adapted for the convenient and profitable keeping 
of fine wooled sheep than the eastern half of Wash¬ 
ington county. From the Bald mountain range of 
hills on the west, to the State line on the east, al¬ 
most every farm contains a portion of interval or 
permanent meadow, from which hay for winter con¬ 
sumption is gathered; and the remainder consists 
of hilly upland, yielding a short, sweet, nutritious 
grass for summer pasturage. To the west of this 
tract, the level lands towards the Hudson river fur¬ 
nish no such pasturage; and to the east of it in Ver¬ 
mont, the lands become more broken and mountain¬ 
ous, with no intervening valleys supplying the re¬ 
quisite amount of meadow lands. 
Most of our hills it is true are susceptible of cul¬ 
tivation to their summits, and at the present period, 
would be more profitable if given up to tillage. But 
although the prices of wool render its production 
little lucrative, it can here be grown to such advan¬ 
tage, that these hills now are covered with flocks, 
and it is probable they will so continue in all com¬ 
ing time. 
After various intermediate remarks in regard to 
the statistics of sheep and wool for the county, 
Dr. F. observes : 
This will continue to be a wool-growing 
distict. —--This section of country, including this 
county and the adjoining parts of Vermont, is cur¬ 
rently, and so far as we are able to determine, cor¬ 
rectly regarded as being by its climate, its inland 
location, and the inequalities of its surface, more 
closely assimilated to the kingdom of Saxony than 
is any other part of the American continent. Its 
character as a wool-growing district has been amply 
tested. And all things considered, it must be ad¬ 
mitted that it has every prospect of remaining con¬ 
spicuous as it now is for the number and fineness of 
its flocks. Naturally adapted as it is for the keep¬ 
ing of fine-wooled sheep, extensively introduced and 
acclimated among us, as this species of stock now 
is, and experienced in its management as our popu¬ 
lation has become, there is every probability that 
this will continue to be a wool-growing district, 
second to no other in our land. 
But of this county it may confidently be affirmed, 
it will never be occupied exclusively in the produc¬ 
tion of wool. Agriculture will always form a large 
part of its business. Susceptible of easy cultiva¬ 
tion as nearly all the lands of this county are, the 
relative prices of grain and of wool, will at most 
times, it is probable, pay better for the production 
of the former than of the latter. It may hence be 
expected that so much of his land as the farmer can 
till within himself, that is, with his own personal 
labor and that of his household, will always be un¬ 
der cultivation; and at the same time, a flock of 
sheep, requiring as it does, but little time and at¬ 
tention during the busy period of the year, will oe« 
