Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1857-05-08
Fine Wool the product of single family
of Sheep.

hon JACOB COllamer OF VT. delivered
the Senate of the United States, Feb. oct
1887, on the Tariff and the Wool interest
There are no fine wools in the world
raised anywhere on the earth, which are no
oil from the same family of sheep. By lin
wool, l mean such wool as ia sometime
called spinning wool, winch is spun AN
woVe into broadcloths, and kcrscymercs
especially those which are required to tax
hnlsh that is, after they are wove an
inlled there is face raised upon them b.
either carding or teasleing, and then the,
are sheared and pressed and calcndered, 70
the purpose of making a finish on them
mat can be done only with fulling wool
Now, where do the fullng woods come from
say they are all from the same family o
sheep.
AT the period of our earliest acquantanc
with Spain, there was found Il certain
breed of sheep called mcrino sheep. We DE-
not know how early they were there w
have some inklings that they were ther,
at as early a period as the Romans had con
troll o! the country. Where they came from
we know not but the word " merino .
means { over the sea-" and it was connect
ed with the idea that thos, sheep came ovei
the sea, so that probably they were no
indigenous to Spain originally. This i,
the family of sheep out of which all the
line WOO. sheep of the world were produced
For number of centuries these sheep were
entirely owned by the nobility and roya
family OF Spain. They were pastured and
driven north in summer, and south in the
winter so that they were always kept on
green fields They were kept in large Gocks
| They roamed south into Andalusia, and
north into CASTLE. For many centuries
men were prohibited, under severe penal
ties. from carrying any sheep out Of the
kingdom. a man who exported sheer
was sentenced to the galleys for life. None
OF these sheep were obtained in the rest Of
Europe. In l7S4 or l7S5-I will not be
exact in the date, but at any rate between
1880 and l790-the king of Spain gave a
flock of these sheep forty in number, to
George the Third. The English King gave
him, as royal present in return, six Eng
lish coach horses. These sheep We're placed
at Windsor, under the care of Sir Joseph
Banks, and utmost exertions were made
to induce the use of that kind Of fine sheep
among the farmers of England To this
day England does not raise pound of wool
out OF which you can make yard of broad
cloth that any gentleman in this house
wears. For long time all her fine wool
has come from abroad. After Spain went
into the business of digging gold In South
America, all her wool was exported to
England there manufactured, and sent
back to Spain to be sold and they dug
gold to pay for it. The result has been
that while they have run down, England
has run up.
wish to show why that flock of sheep
did not succeed in England, and to show the
difference between their condition and ours,
to see why fine woods succeed here and can
not there. At the same time that that pre-
sent was made to ueorge the Third, SINH
lar present was made to Louis the Sixteenth.
The flock given to the X ny of France was
put on the RambouiIlet farm, which was
tren the royal farm, and is still, B)naparte
having always kept it. That Aock Of sheep
bred in, as | shall hereafter mention, is the
French merino of the present day.
At the same time the same present was
made to the ElectOr of Slxony,-
The flock which went to the
Elector of Saxony was attended to
and selected all the time for the finest
wool, without regard to size. The French
selected with regard to size The Germans
selected for fneness of wool merely. The
flock given to the Elector of Saxony is the
basis, the origin the parentage of all the
Saxon wool of the world, now to be found
all over Bavaria, Siesia, Hungary, and
Russia, and this country-as shall directly
show.
About the latter part Of the last century,
there was introduced into England that
part of farming called the turnip culture,
which is the basis Of prosperity to the Eng
lish agriculturist at the present day. Ey-
erythng in England which sustained hui
man life, every thing that the people could
eat, was very dear, as we all know, until
a recent period, since they have taken off
their sliding scale of duties on wheat, and
allow foreign provision to be introduced for
the benefit of manufacturers. The turnlp
culture was this they sOwed large field,
especially on the downs of England, with
turnips-geneIally Swedish turnips-and
then in the fall Of the year they would put
upon the turnip field flock of their native
long wool sheep-the best improved breeds
of which are the South downs and the Leic-
estershires. Those sheep ate the turnips on
the ground, There was no gathering them
no cutting them up. When they exhaust
ed one field they went to another, and so on
through the winter. The climate being
mild, they wintered in the fields on the tur-
nips, and were in fine condition for NUT
ton in the spring a mutton sheep in En-
gland at that day and now, averages from
eighty to one hundred pounds dressed off
The French merinoes, with all the improve
ments they could give them by breeding in,
do not average more than forty pounds dres-
sed off The mutton of the English sheep
would command in the British market, and
has all the time for thirty years back, from
ten to twelve cents pound. 1t is very
superior mutton.
That is not all. When piece of land has
been titled in the manner | mentioned, and
the sheep herded upon it, it would produce
twenty-five bushels of wheat to the acre,
and that wheat averages from two dollars
TO two dollars and fifty cents a bushel in
England at all times. Bearing these facts
in mind, you will see how fruitless was the
attempt to introduce into England these lit
tie merinoes, small sheep, which shear about
three pounds and half in their natural
condition as thev came from Spain. Even
the French merinoes, as they have improved
them, yield but six, and ours from three to
three and half or four pounds. The farm
ers were told by the nobility. The king has
made me present of some fine wool sheen,
and we want you to attend to them, so as
not to be dependent on foreign countries for
our supply Of fine wool. The farmer saw ut
once that the wool from these sheep would
not bring him moro than two shilings ster-
ling pound for three pounds, while the
long wool sheep would shear eight to ten
pounds of wool and then the inquiry was
how much will that little sheep bring NUT
ton Not a cent. You can never make
valuable mutton of it, In Vermont, where
we have so many fine wool sheep, our peo-
pie use little or no mutton, though we have
a little lamb occasionally, never saw any
mutton there that compared at all with the
| Virginia mutton, which see here Indeed
am reminded of an anecdote of an old
neighbor Of mine who was rather fond o.
mutton. lie used to talk about these little
merno sheep, and said, when you got
quarter of it dressed off, you could see the
| light between the ribs In good old times
when we had the large sheep, man NIGH
go out and steal sheep sand bring HON,