In considering this matter, the producer of wool should not overlook the competition with clothing or merino wool of a material which was not known in manufactures until the present century. I refer to shoody, or rather that variety of shoody known in England by the name of mungo. The term "shoody," strictly speaking, is the name applied to fibre made from soft rags, from flannels and blankets which were first used in manufacture of cloth. The use of this material originated at Bately, in England, in 1813. Mungo is the fibre obtained from hard rags of fine broadcloth, such as clippings from the tailors' shops. This was not introduced until later, and the manufacturers of Bately were quite incredulous of its being utilized. The Yorkshire man, who first conceived the idea of using the fibre of hard rags, obstinately replied to the objection that the material could not be introduced, "It mun go,” (it must go.) It did go, and a new substance was introduced into the arts, and a new word into the English language. Of shoody and mungo 65,000,000 pounds are consumed in England, more than our whole clip of wool in 1860. It is estimated that 25,000 persons are employed in converting shoody into cloth, and that the value of the product is five or six million pounds sterling. The fact, however, to which I wish to call attention is, that shoody comes in competition with fine or cloth wool only. It is not used in the manufacture of worsted, and does not take the place of combing-wools.

When we look at the facts as to prices before given, we find that the English combing-fleeces were worth in 1855 only 18. 14d.; in 1864 they were worth 2s. 4d.; that is, they had more than doubled in 10 years, while cloth-wools had just about held their own in respect to price. England is the only country which has devoted itself exclusively to the production of the long combing-wools required for the manufacture of worsted. She cannot, or does not, produce any fine wool. There are, in fact, no merino sheep in England. It is believed, however, that England has attained to the utmost production of this wool of which her limited territory is capable. The manufacturers of Bradford are already alarmed, and have issued circulars to induce a greater supply of lustre wools. England is the only country which now produces, to any extent, the long combing-wools. It is found that in Australia the combing-wools cannot be grown; and they cannot be grown at the Cape. I have the authority of Mr. Bowes for saying that the experiment has been fully tried, and has signally failed; that Leicester, Cotswold, and Lincolnshire sheep have been repeatedly carried to Australia and the Cape, and every effort made to introduce the culture of long-woolled sheep; but it has been found that after a little while the wool is converted into hair, and it is now admitted that the long combing-wools cannot be grown in Australia or at the Cape. But the combing-wools can be grown in the United States. The fact of the fitness of this country for the growth of combing-wools is completely established by the success which has attained the production of that kind of wool in Canada. The amount of comb

ing-wools now produced in Canada is between five and six million pounds. The quality, in the English market, is not regarded as by any means equal to their own combing-wools, because the same care is not taken in its production, and the English complain that the wool is full of burrs. In England the most extraordinary care is taken. The fields are actually swept, that the fleeces may receive no injury from dirt. But our worsted manufacturers have found the Canada wools perfectly good substitutes for the English wools, and have paid as high as $1 40 currency for wool worth five years ago only 28 cents. The attempt has been made in this country to manufacture alpaca goods from this long combing-wool, for which, by reason of its lustre, it is peculiarly fitted. There was some failure in the first experiment, and the manufacturers supposed that the wool was not suitable. They then sent to England, and imported 1,000 pounds of the best combing-wool; and, upon a comparison of that with the combing-wool of Canada, it was found that the Canadian wool was equal to the English in every respect. I have here some specimens of this fabric, which is called "alpaca" because it is an imitation of the fabrics made from alpaca wool. (The speaker held up the specimens to the view of the convention.) This stuff is made of a filling of the long combing-wool of Canada with a warp of cotton. The fabric is equal in finish and lustre to any imported from England.

The question is eminently worthy of the consideration of our farmers, whether the long-wool husbandry may not be profitably introduced into this country. This is a question upon which we, as manufacturers, pretend to give no opinion. We can only assure the farmers of the United States, that there is a growing demand for this material, that there will be less competition in the growth of this wool than in any other, and that the prices are certain to be higher than for any wool which can be grown in this country. To determine the question of profit, it will be necessary that experiments upon an extensive scale be tried, and will be doubtless necessary that a system of husbandry should be developed in this country analogous to the four-field system in England, but fitted for the peculiar necessities of our soil and climate. I can conceive of no subject more worthy of the attention of the National Association of Wool-Growers, formed here to-day, or of the boards of agricultural colleges in the several States.

It may be said that the introduction of long-wool husbandry will interfere with that already established in this country. I see no force in this objection. It is probable that this kind of sheep husbandry can be profitably carried on only in those districts where there is a demand for mutton, and where the mutton will be as much an object as the wool. It seems to me, Mr. President and gentlemen, that the development of this species of sheep will not interfere with the branches of sheep husbandry which are now pursued, but will give an increased demand for the peculiar kind of merino wool now being produced by the intelligent skill of the Vermont breeders. Dr. Loring this morning quoted some remarks

of mine in reference to the peculiar value of the American merino fleece. I am convinced that the fabrics to which the coarse merino wool that seems to be in favor here is best adapted, have not yet been manufactured in this country to any extent. The class of goods to which that wool is peculiarly fitted are the fabrics somewhat analogous to the goods called "coburgs" and the goods called "merinoes" and "thibets," the soft stuff goods for women's wear. Now, in that branch of manufacture, or that of stuff goods as distinguished from cloth goods, France employs 300,000 persons. In this country, there were not 5,000 employed in 1860. The remarkable development of that branch of industry in France is attributed to the peculiar qualities of the merino wool which the French possess. This wool is long in staple, the sheep are of unusual size, and the fleeces heavy, having, in fact, the very characteristics of the American merino. M. Benoville, a very eminent manufacturer and a practical man, who has written a work on the combing-wool industry of that country-one of the most learned works that has ever been written upon any branch of the practical arts-describes these fabrics in detail, and gives the reasons why France has obtained such eminence in their production. The most important reason which he gives is in these words:

"The first fact that we ought to proclaim abroad is, that without the introduction of the Spanish race into our flocks, and without all the skill of our agriculturists, we should still vegetate in dependence upon neighboring nations, and should be reduced to clothe ourselves with their stuffs. It is to the admirable revolution in the raising of ovine animals that we owe the beautiful industry of spinning the merino combing-wools. It is to this that we owe the splendor of the industries of weaving combingwool at Paris, at Rheims, at Roubaix, at Amiens, and St. Quentin."

Now, I wish to enforce this position. In order that the worsted manufacture should be developed in this country-and by the worsted manufacture I mean the manufacture of stuff goods in their infinite variety for female apparel and furniture trimmings, &c., as distinguished from cloth goods-there must first be a supply of long combing-wool from sheep of the English breed. The development of the manufacture created by the supply of these wools will be the most certain means of creating the demand for the long merino wools for soft stuff goods, for which I have shown they are peculiarly fitted. We are as yet but in our infancy in our manufactures. The work before us, as wool-growers and manufacturers, is to clothe all the people of the United States with our wool and our fabrics. We have but just commenced the work; and when a full supply of raw material is furnished, and grower and manufacturer are encouraged by a stable system of protection, the imagination can hardly conceive the grand field which will be opened in this country in the industry of wool and woollens.

Mr. GEORGE W. BOND, of Massachusetts. In my position as chairman of the committee on raw materials, I have given some attention to

this subject. Our annual import of worsted goods from Great Britain is about fifty million yards, besides a very large amount, of which we have no accurate record, from France. Those from France are principally of a character for which our long merino wools are admirably well adapted. We need to make all the varieties of goods that we consume in this country, of all the varieties of wool that we produce. Had I known, before I left home, that this question was to come up in this form, I could have prepared myself with an approximate statement of the quantity required of the different kinds of wool. In round numbers, we require some fifteen million pounds of wool, in the state in which it generally comes to market. A little of the grade of wool such as it is unprofitable to grow here is grown on the plains west of the Mississippi; but the amount is trifling. The great bulk of the wool which we require is of the merino grade, which we use for our cassimeres, flannels, and delaines; and I trust that as we increase in the development of the length of the staple of the merino, the fabrics which the secretary has referred to will soon be added. Experiments are being made now which I think will lead soon to their extensive manufacture. The other great branch of manufacture is that of worsted goods, of which there is a great and immensely increasing consumption, requiring a class of wool, the value of which alone seems to have been increased by the advance in cotton. We have now no hindrance to that manufacture in this country, save a supply of the raw material. As has been stated, we have hitherto imported from three to five million pounds from Canada; and from that supply we shall be cut off, if the reciprocity treaty is closed the coming spring. What those concerns will then do who have embarked in the manufacture I cannot foresee. We should readily and promptly consume in this country, I think, not less than twenty million pounds of such wools, if we had the supply.

Another class of wools for which we require, for our present consumption, the equivalent of ten or fifteen million pounds, at least, of washed wool-say twenty to thirty million pounds in the condition in which we receive it—are the finer wools, grown in South America, Australia, and the Cape, for the manufacture of goods requiring a close filling and superior finish, which we have been unable to obtain hitherto from any considerable amount of wool grown in this country. Some of the wools grown in Virginia have had these qualities; and when Virginia and East Tennessee come to be settled by Northern men, I hope we shall, from that source, and possibly from some parts of Texas, be able to obtain wools which are adapted to these uses. Until then, we must depend upon foreign markets for our supply. But it is the earnest wish of all connected with the woollen and worsted manufacture, so far as I know, that the growth of these wools should be undertaken; that experiments should be made to ascertain what part of the country is best adapted to them; and that we should have a supply of our own growth. While I am up, I would allude to a question, the importance of which

I have felt for a great many years; that is, the necessity for a careful study, scientific and practical, of the influence of climate and soil upon wool. All of us here present know that they have an immense influence. What that influence is, has never been settled, I believe, nicely, thoroughly, in this country or any other. In a country so extended as ours, with every variety of climate and soil, it is of more importance than it can be to any other nation in the world. When Professor Agassiz first established his museum of comparative zoology, it was a part of his plan to connect with that institution the study of this important subject. The plan he laid out was so vast, that, in bringing it into practical order, he had not reached that when the war began. The war took off a number of young men upon whom he depended to enter with him upon this department of science, and it has thus been delayed. But I hope, when he returns, he will soon be able to take it up there; and the Institute of Technology, also, hopes to devote a part of its attention to the study of that and other matters connected with the practical arts.

Mr. R. G. HAZARD, of Rhode Island. When I was up on a former occasion, I referred to the direct interest the wool manufacturer had in the ability of the wool-grower to produce his wool in the cheapest and most economical manner. Perhaps the wool-grower has an equal interest in the ability and skill of the manufacturer to work up the raw material into goods of the greatest possible value. And upon this subject of worsted wools, I think the producer may find encouragement in the fact that the manufacturers are acquiring skill in that direction perhaps more rapidly than in any other. Some of them have alluded to that subject, and seem discouraged in regard to their ability to produce that kind of wool. But the experiments on which this opinion is founded were probably tried when such wools were very much lower in proportion than they are now. There is, however, an important consideration connected with that; and I think it very desirable that this subject should be seen in all its bearings. That consideration is, that those kinds of wools are grown upon large sheep. Now, in this country, the mutton seems to be comparatively a small object. In Great Britain the mutton is the main object, and the wool merely an incidental production. I have no doubt that many of their farmers, if they should hear of our keeping sheep merely for their wool, would appear as much astonished as some of ours are when they hear of Russian farmers keeping pigs for their bristles. That may affect the production of this kind of wool; but, when we become more a mutton-eating people, it may be more judicious for us to raise these large sheep.

Connected with that subject there is a merely theoretical view, which I should like to state, and learn from practical men how far their experience bears out the theory, in regard to the size of sheep, or any other animal. We are all aware that the surface upon which the wool grows increases as the square of the linear dimensions; while the carcass, which has to be sustained to produce that wool, increases as the cube. For