The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-12-28
EVENING. DEC. IS, 1871.

The reported proceedings of the Con-
vention of Wool Growers, which was held
at Syracuse, New York, this month, is very
interesting to all who wish well to home
industry, and gratifying to those who would
protect our American operatives from
rllinous competition with the cheaper labor
OF European countries, and our farmers
from unrestricted importation of foreign
woods.
The statistical information which is found
in the address, is highly encouraging, and
exhibits in most favorable light the active
efforts which our manufacturers are MAX
ing to develope home production of wooden
goods. The following figures will illustrate
the magnitude of these efforts -
y,, 1850 1860. 1865.
manufactures
impored.... $l7, l57,5o9 ss7 1887 100 ss2 4os, 1859
Value of do
nestle wool
manufactures $40, ,76I Sos, s65 1853 SI75OoO 90
Making liberal allowance for advanced
estimates of value in 1868 over 1860. caused
by deprecated currency, the exhibit is
most gratifying; and the manufacturing
establishments in the West alone have in
creased from $50 with $l,616,74O capital,
in 1860, to 557 with So, las, 900 capital in
1865.
The demand for homegrown wool, to
supply the mills, has made sheep-raising
profitable to our farmers and from home
sources must the supply come if wooden
manufactures are to continue prosperous.
In the language of the address "Ameri-
can sheep husbandry is not merely an adj
junct Of the home wooden manufacture, it
is its very foundation. Nearly three-quar-
tcrs of all the wool consumed in our mills
is Of home growth.o
Feeling, as the address expresses it, that
if sheep husbandry is neglected in the Uni
ted States, the factories must curtail, in
stead of expanding, their operations, the
convention announces the opinion that
1.-THE capacity of our country for sheep
husbandry is happily boundless, and even
greater than our needs" Texas is alluded
to as possessing vast areas of land suitable
for sheep-raising, and possessing the extra
ordinary advantage of aointer grazing.
and the great Appalachian valley of
Virginia and Tennessee with its unrivalled
b'u' grass pastures, equable and mild cir
mates, cheap lands, and proximity to mar
kets, is spoken Of as an inviting but hither-
to scarcely unimproved field for nation
production and the very finest merino
wool husbandry. The Importance Of sheep
as subject of profit on thousands up on
thousands of acres of land III Virginia is
well worth the careful attention of our far
mers, enabling them. as it would if success
fully carried on, to make lands profitable
which are now dead annual loss, and at
the same time improve the lands. AT
present there are many drawbacks to sue
cess in this business of sheep husbandry
in Virginia, chief among which is permit
ting prowlng, untaxed, worse than worth
less ours, to depredatc upon flocks, killing
as they always do the best stock, and dis
turbing the pasturage of the others.
We speak feelingly on this question, and
hope that the Legislature will not adjourn
without enacting a law to regulate the
keeping of worthless ours and if those
kept are detected worrying sheep, that
their owners shall respond in damages for in
jury done, and the cur be dispatched to some
State other than Virginia, alive or dead -
Between worrying dogs, and other maraud-
ers, sheep are entirely disappearing from
many counties in the State, which formerly
grazed large focks; to the great detriment
of the farmers pocket and table, and entire
stoppage of the home spinnng-wheel.
The Virginia farmer has difficulty in ma.
king ends meet, even if he has ordnar
luck and is personally Industrious.
The lamb, fleece, and mutton of a flock
should be secured to him, even at the cost
of temporary objection, against a stringent
dog law.