106 
THE CULTIVATOR 
WOOL, AND ITS MANUFACTURE. 
One of the best papers we have seen on this important 
subject, is given in a late number of the Western Farmer, 
from the pen of Mr. Snow of Detroit. He has condensed 
from McCulloch’s Commercial Dictionary, and other 
sources, much valuable information, the more necessary 
at this time, as the subject is undergoing investigation in 
our national legislature, and should be understood by the 
people. We have abridged Mr. Snow’s paper, and added 
a few facts. 
From the earliest settlement of this country, the settled 
policy of Great Britain was to prevent all manufactures. 
In 1699, Parliament declared, “ that the erecting manu¬ 
factories in the colonies of America, tended to lessen their 
dependence on Great Britain .” In 1719, the increase of 
the domestic manufacture of woolens excited the atten¬ 
tion of the parent country, and a law was passed, “that 
no wool, yarn, or woolen manufactures of their American 
plantations, should he shipped there, or even laden, in order 
to be transported from thence to any place whatever .” In 
1732, a report was made by a committee in Parliament, 
stating that in New England, New-York, Connecticut, 
Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, they were 
taking to the manufacture of woolens, and recommend¬ 
ing that “an early stop be put to their progress .” In 1734, 
complaints were made in England, that the colonists 
made their own woolen hats; the Governor of Massachu¬ 
setts was written to, and he stated that the citizens were 
exporting large quantities of their hats to Spain, Portu¬ 
gal, and the West Indies. A law was immediately enact¬ 
ed in which the exportation of hats was forbidden under 
severe penalties; no person was allowed to make hats 
unless he had served an apprenticeship of seven years, 
and no man was allowed to have more than two appren¬ 
tices at a time. 
Up to the year 1790, there was no woolen factory in 
this country. In that year, one was put in operation at 
Hartford, Ct., “ and President Washington delivered his 
Inaugural address to Congress, in a suit of broadcloth 
from this factory.” Mr. Snow traces the course of Bri¬ 
tish legislation on this subject, from the v/0 of the revo¬ 
lution, to that of 1812, which found us destitute of the 
means of clothing our armies, of providing them with 
blankets, and at once forced wool up to from two to 
three dollars per lb., and broadcloths from $10 to $18 
per yard. In the first eighteen months after the peace, 
woolen goods to the amount of $17,000,000, were thrown 
into the United States, and Lord Brougham said in Par¬ 
liament, “ that it was worth while to incur a loss upon 
the first exportations, in order, by the glut, to stifle in the 
cradle, those young manufactories in the United States, 
which the war had forced into existence.” 
From the period of the last war, the woolen manufac¬ 
ture and wool business of this country has been continu¬ 
ally, but gradually increasing in magnitude. In 1830, the 
number of sheep in the country was 14,000,000. The 
present number exceeds 20,000,000, and the clip fifty 
millions of lbs. The following table will show the ca¬ 
pital at present engaged in growing wool in the U. States: 
20 millions of sheep, at $2,. $40,000,000 
7 million of acres of land for pasture and hay, 70,000,000 
Cafe of sheen, clipping of wool and transp’ta, 10,000,000 
Total invested in wool growing,. $120,000,000 
In 1840, there was imported into the U. States, princi¬ 
pally from the Mediterranean and Germany, eight and a 
half millions lbs. of wool. 
In 1830, both McCulloch and Marshall, estimate the 
number of sheep in Great Britain at 32,000,000. Average 
yield per head 5 lbs., making 160 millions of lbs. The 
same year about 30 millions of lbs. were imported, ma¬ 
king the consumption for that year, about 190 millions 
of lbs. In Great Britain the number of sheep is about 
two to each person; in France and Prussia, the number 
is about equal to the inhabitants; in the United States, 
about one and one-sixth to each inhabitant. It appears 
that the consumption of wool in the countries named, is 
as follows: 
In England in 1S30,. 190,000,000 
In France in 1834,. 116,000,000 
In the U. States, in 1840,-. 59,000,000 
According to the census, the number of persons en¬ 
gaged in the woolen manufactories is 21,341; those em¬ 
ployed in domestic woolen manufactures, 30,000. As 
these cannot on an average have less than three persons 
depending on each one for support, the number support¬ 
ed by the woolen manufactures equals 200,000: and at 
least one million in the agricultural class are interested 
in the growing of wool. 
“ Here then the farmer has a home market of two hun¬ 
dred thousand, to supply with his surplus products. Each 
will consume weekly of beef, pork, flour, butter, cheese, 
milk, eggs, wood, &c., at least 50 cents, which gives 
$100,000 a week, or five millions two hundred thousand 
dollars a year; a larger sum than one half the agricultu¬ 
ral exports of the U. States to all foreign countries, have 
averaged for the last five years, (excepting cotton,) as 
the treasury reports fully prove.” This question of home 
consumption is of vast importance to the farmer; and as 
a matter of fact, is worth all the abstractions and theo¬ 
ries ever engendered. 
British economists estimate the consumption of woolen 
and cotton goods annually in Great Britain, at $10 per 
head, for the population. There can be no doubt that 
the people of this country are as well clothed and fed as 
those of Great Britain; and this would give $170,000,000 
. for this country, at $10 per head, and at least one half of 
this is woolens, or 85 millions. Such statistics and facts 
prove that the woolen interest is one that cannot be 
lightly sacrificed; interwoven as it is with the prosperity 
of both farmer and manufacturer. 
HARVESTING GRAIN. 
Millers have long been aware, and farmers have ge¬ 
nerally admitted that wheat or other grain cut a few 
days before it is perfectly ripened, will make more and 
better flour than if suffered to stand too long before har¬ 
vesting. There seems to be enough of the developed 
juices in the stem and ear to perfect the filling of the 
kernel, while the envelope or bran does not become as 
thick, dark, and hard, as when the cutting is too long 
delayed. Grain that is lodged or struck by the rust or 
mildew, should always be cut with the least possible de¬ 
lay, as in the first case the straw becomes worthless while 
the kernel will not improve; and in the last instance, the 
longer it stands the more rapid and extensive will be the 
deterioration of both the straw and the grain. Cutting 
prevents the accumulation of more of the juices in the 
straw, where the already ruptured vessels and cuticle 
prove they are not wanted, and the appropriation of those 
that remain will be carried on by the kernel, until the 
stem is dried. Grain cut before it is fully ripe, threshes 
with more difficulty than that which stands till fully ma¬ 
tured, but since the general introduction of machines, 
this objection has not the weight that formerly belonged 
to it. There are Various ways of putting up the sheaves 
of wheat in the field to cure, before they go to the stack 
or barn. Some put six together, pressing their heads into 
as small a space as can be, and then capping them with 
a seventh; some put a dozen sheaves together by twos, 
and cover the tops with two sheaves placed butts toge¬ 
ther in the centre; but unless it is necessary the grain 
should stand a long time before carting, as good a way 
as any, perhaps, is to set up the sheaves by twos, merely 
leaning them gently against each other, and without any 
capping at all. This system is practiced by our most ex¬ 
tensive wheat growers, and while it requires less labor 
than any other mode of setting up, is found to occasion 
as little loss, and give full as much security to the grain, 
as any that can be used. When, however, it is necessary 
that grain should stand several weeks in the field, it 
should as soon as dry be put up in small stacks of six or 
eight shocks each, and well capped and seemed against 
rain. 
“ CHARCOAL AS A MANURE.” 
We wish to call attention to a paper under this title in 
the Transactions of the N. Y. State Agricultural Society, 
furnished by J. H. Hepburn, Esq. of Lycoming, Pa. The 
facts there stated, agreeing as they do with what every 
one must have witnessed to a greater or less degree, 
should secure for charcoal as a manure, a greater degree 
of consideration than it has yet received. As it is probable 
some of our readers may not meet with the “ Transac¬ 
tions,” we shall condense some of his statements for the 
benefit of such. 
“ During the last autumn, business called me into Har¬ 
ford Co. Maryland. While there, I was surprised at the 
exceedingly luxuriant growth of a crop of grain, but 
lately seeded into a field on Deer creek, and also at the 
peculiar appearance of the soil. The soil upon which 
the grain was growing, had a remarkably dark appear¬ 
ance, and appeared to be so mellow and friable as nearly 
to bury the foot at every step. * * I inquired 
if the field had not been covered with charcoal, and was 
told that it had been. I inquired when it was done, and 
was told that it had been spread upon it more than twenty 
years ago ! I then asked what was the general quality 
of the crops raised upon it, and was told they were inva¬ 
riably fine, both as to quantity and quality.” Mr. Hep¬ 
burn gives, among other experiments, one made by a gen¬ 
tleman in the iron business. He had a large quantity 
of coal that had become too fine to be used in his fur¬ 
nace, and not knowing what to do with it, concluded as 
the easiest way to dispose of it, to haul it out, andspiead 
it on his grass land. He spread it late in the fall, and foi 
many years, he informed me he observed the most as¬ 
tonishing effect produced upon his yield of grass. The 
quantity was nearly doubled, and the good effect continu¬ 
ed as long as he owned the property, which was at least 
ten years.” Mr. Hepburn also states the important fact, 
that “ wherever charcoal has been applied, rust never af¬ 
fects the growing crop of wheat.” 
Every coal burner is aware that a vigorous and healthy 
vegetation always surrounds the old hearths, or coal beds, 
as the place where the coal has been burned is called. 
We have known a blacksmith who made his own coal, 
that always used the hearth for an onion bed, and his uni¬ 
form success justified the use to which he appro'priated 
those places. In another instance a farmer who was re¬ 
markable for his gardening operations, told us that his 
practice was to make his garden beds for his onions, car¬ 
rots, &c., and then spread over them a layer of straw 
some ten or twelve inches in tnicliness, which was burnt 
on the ground. The charcoal and ashes made by this 
dressing was slightly raked in, and then the seeds sown. 
In this way, his crop never failed. 
Mr. Hepburn remarks that he shall not attempt to ex¬ 
plain the chemical action or affinities which impart such 
value to charcoal. We think the following quotation 
from Liebig, will exhibit one great cause of its efficien¬ 
cy. In speaking of the power of various substances to 
absorb ammonia from the atmosphere, he saysPow¬ 
dered charcoal surpasses all other substances in the pow¬ 
er which it possesses of condensing ammonia within its 
pores, particularly when it has been previously heated to 
redness. Charcoal absorbs 90 times its volume of ammo- 
niacal gas, which may again be separated by simply' 
moistening it with water.” The experiments of Lucas 
given in the appendix to Liebeg, are also most striking 
proofs of the value of charcoal to vegetation, and the 
manner in which it operates. They show that plants 
thrive in powdered charcoal, and may be brought to blos¬ 
som and bear fruit, if exposed to the influence of the rain 
and the atmosphere; a result almost impossible to obtain 
in any other simple substance, and which can only' be 
owing to the facility with which powdered charcoal ab¬ 
sorbs and gives out the gases, whether carbonic or am- 
moniacal. It is to this facility of absorption that charcoal 
owes its sweetening properties, as its effect on partially 
spoiled meat is termed. 
As charcoal is almost indestructible, and its effects as 
a manure remain as long as it exists in the soil, it is 
possible that charcoal may be found one of the cheapest 
as well as most efficient manures for some crops, and on 
some soils. It appears evident from the manner of its 
action, that plants requiring the greatest supply of nitro¬ 
gen would be the most benefited by its application, and 
hence its efficacy when given to wheat. It could pro¬ 
duce little effect on extremely wet soils, as alternations 
of dryness, to allow the contact and condensation of the 
gases, and of moisture to render such absorption availa¬ 
ble, are necessary to give effect to charcoal. Charcoal 
has a physical, as well as a chemical effect on soils, deci¬ 
dedly useful. It renders them as far as it is present, light 
and friable; and gives additional warmth to them by its 
color, which absorbs and retains readily the rays of the 
sun during the day. It is not surprising that those pre¬ 
parations of night soil, in which powdered charcoal con¬ 
stitutes a large portion, should be found more effective 
and durable, than those in which its place is occupied by 
peat or even common mold. 
THE TRUE DOCTRINE. 
Men may preach, or write, or talk about the respecta¬ 
bility of this or that profession, but it will avail little or 
nothing, unless that profession is taught to respect itself, 
to understand its true position and its claims, and true 
means of enforcing them. No man of sense can deny 
that the profession of agriculture is one of the most hon¬ 
orable, useful, and indispensable: that it is the eldest of 
the arts, and should—other things being equal—entitle 
those who practice it to the front rank in society. To 
what then is it to be attributed that the farmer has been 
kept in the back ground, and what by courtesy have been 
called the learned professions, allowed to take the prece¬ 
dence in all public matters, even to the legislation on to¬ 
pics which interest the farmer almost exclusively, and 
which he does, and should understand better than any 
one else? This question we have never seen more satis¬ 
factorily answered than in an address delivered at Gre¬ 
nada, Miss., by A. C. Baine, Esq., before a meeting con¬ 
vened to devise the ways and means of building and en¬ 
dowing a college at that place, and for a copy of which 
we are indented to the author. From this address we 
shall make a few extracts, confident the truths they con¬ 
tain will commend them to the readers of the Cultivator: 
“I confess it is one of the most lamentable marks of 
the present and preceding ages, that it is deemed unne¬ 
cessary to educate a man’s son for a farmer. If one of a 
family is to be educated, he is not designed to till the 
soil; but is to be placed in a learned profession. Why 
is not tilling the earth a profession as learned, and as 
useful, and as honorable, as any on the globe? Because 
you degrade it. Every boy whom you educate, you in¬ 
stil into him the belief that he is above the calling of 
his father. You teach him that the cultivation of the 
earth is servile. But educate him for this great employ¬ 
ment; talk to them of its usefulness and nobility while 
they are boys; and my word for it, the next generation 
will not have passed away until the profession of a planter 
will be a learned profession. And you will see the young, 
the generous, the talented, age and amibition, pressing 
into it with the same eagerness that they crowd what is 
at this day called the liberal professions. * * * 
It is one of the most astonishing, but tolerated errors, in 
the history of mankind, that it should be unnecessary to 
educate a farmer. Why the cultivation of the soil was 
the first employment of man ! It is a condition of his 
existence, and requires a high order of mind to manage 
it successfully. And it is a fatal mistake that has degra¬ 
ded the mass of intellect for centuries, to suppose that a 
farmer need not be educated. It is essential; no man 
can fill that high station and dignity—that first office 
within the gift of his Maker—with honor to himself, be¬ 
nefit to his race, and glory to his God, without an educa¬ 
tion ;—without some proficiency in the science of human 
happiness. He ought to be instructed in the physical 
sciences, and he ought to be able to analyze his soil, and 
tell you its composition; and the effect upon a given pro¬ 
duction, of the excess or absence of given constituents. 
He should be a good political economist. He should un¬ 
derstand the law of production, consumption, of distri¬ 
bution, of supply and demand. Every man should deem 
his son actually disqualified for this noble employment, 
until he has at least learned this much.” 
Let such sentiments as are inculcated in this address, 
become prevalent at the south, and they will offer a sure 
guarantee against opinions which are most ruinous and 
destructive; against the idea that all labor is of necessity 
servile and degrading. Teach mankind that there is 
such a thing as honest industry, honorable and useful; 
that success in any pursuit, involves knowledge, research, 
thought, education, and you do much to abate prejudices, 
and smooth the way for further conquests and acquisi- 
