One of the most important of these insensible influences is that which the wool manufacture exerts in its demand for the material for its fabrics. The merino, as I have observed, when introduced into France was a small, short-woolled sheep. The higher feeding naturally given to the precious animals necessarily tended to increase the size, and at the same time to lengthen the fibre, it being the fixed law that woolly fibre is increased in length but not in diameter by increased nourishment. French industry, with that creative genius which is its highest attribute, saw in the newly acquired fibre a means for creating new, soft fabrics for female wear, in place of the coarse and stiff serges which were the characteristic stuffs of the former country. Here was a fresh raw material for the novelties in dress which the world of fashion is perpetually calling upon France to supply. Remember that before the present century no female stuffs were made of fine wool. In 1801, Dauphinot Pallotan invented the most beautiful of all woollen tissues, the French merino, at present, or recently, the chief product of Rheims and its fifty thousand workmen, and the sole product of a single establishment at Cateau, with ten thousand workmen. In 1826, M. Jourdain invented all-wool mousselines de laines for printing, the material being long merino fleece. In 1838, he created challis, a fabric with a warp of silk organzine and a weft of merino wool. Since then the dress fabrics of which merino wool forms the chief component material have been infinitely varied to meet the insatiable demands of fashion for change. The Exposition of 1867 demonstrated that of all the fabrics which the art of man has produced, there are none which bear comparison in tastefulness, variety, and perfection of workmanship, with the French dress tissues of merino wool.

The demands of the wool industry of France gradually and insensibly converted the fibre of her merinos into a combing wool. The wool could not be made to acquire the length required for combing without increasing the size of the animal. The merinos of France are the largest animals of their race in the world. They are said to be, as compared with the American merino, bred for a different purpose," what the great, pampered short

horn of England is to the little, hardy, black cattle of the Scotch Highlands." The influence of French manufacturers has extended even to the sheep husbandry of the southern hemisphere. As the fine combing-wool industry of France was extended, her own wools became insufficient to supply her looms. Regenerators of the Rambouillet stock were largely introduced into Australia, originally producing only clothing wools. The wools of Australia have becom elengthened in their fibre, and the exports of Australia, according to M. Moll, are now principally destined for the combing-wool industry.

The peculiar neccssities of the French woollen industry have led to one of the most remarkable zootechnic achievementsand one which could not have been effected without the auspices of the manufacturer,-the creation of a new race of sheep and of an absolutely new fibre. The enormous prices of Cashmere shawls stimulated the French manufacturers in the early part of this century to emulate the Indian tissues. They succeeded perfectly in the fabrication. They induced, also, the importation of a large number of Cashmere goats, the animals furnishing down from which the Indian shawls are fabricated. It was found, however, that the goats could not be cultivated with profit, as each animal produced only three or four ounces of down. In 1828, there was accidentally produced at the farm of Mauchamp, cultivated by M. Graux, a ram of the merino race, which besides other peculiarities or monstrosities was provided with a wool remarkable for its softness, and above all for its lustre, which resembled that of silk. By a system of careful breeding, M. Graux succeeded in obtaining a small flock of animals from this stock whose wool was perfectly silky. He at first met with but little encouragement. The ordinary manufacturers, to whom he offered his wool, complained that it was so pliant and slippery that nothing could be done with it. Fortunately the silky wool attracted the attention of M. Davin, a wool manufacturer familiar with the fabrication of the Cashmere fibre, and distinguished for his zeal and skill in introducing new material into the textile arts. Taking the silky wool in hand, he succeeded in making magnificent stuffs which won the admiration

of connoisseurs. Merinos, mousselines, satins of China, and shawls, made of this material, equalled, if they did not surpass, analogous products made of the finest Cashmere "The yarns. silky wool," says a report of the Imperial Society of Acclimation, "is destined to replace completely in our industry the Cashmere wool which comes from Thibet. It is fully as brilliant as Cashmere and as soft, while it costs less as a raw material, and requires less manipulation to be transformed to yarn."

The Mauchamp or silk-woolled race of sheep is now definitely established. I need not say that this beautiful creation could not have been effected in a country where the arts were not already developed to apply it.

The merino sheep, introduced into Germany about the same time as into France, received an improvement in an opposite direction. This direction was mainly given by the demands of the German wool manufacture, though partially due to a dry climate and unfruitful soil. Germany was already provided with sheep producing coarse clothing wool. They continued to suffice for the clothing of the great mass of the people, who were not elevated and wealthy as they have since become through the influence of the protective Zollverein, nor educated, as they have since been in Prussia, through the wise counsels of the immortal Humboldt. The early woollen manufacture of Germany was directed to the supply of cloths for the more wealthy classes. The combing-wool industry had been scarcely attempted. The first demand of the manufacture, therefore, was for fine clothing wools. The German flock-masters, being generally wealthy landholders, possessed the ability and intelligence to respond to this demand. The ideal in sheep husbandry became the production of the finest possible fibre. The ideal has been completely attained. The characteristic wools of Germany, those of the Electoral race, are much finer than those produced from the original Spanish stock; and the animals are much smaller in size, while the fleeces are correspondingly small. The extremely fine fibre, designated in Germany as noble wool, is marked by the distinctness and great number of its curves or wrinkles. The wools are distinguished not only for their fineness, but the

extreme shortness of their staple, which give the felting qualities essential for the fine broadcloths and doeskins, for which German manufactures are so celebrated. These wools bear the highest price of any known, although the profitableness of their culture exclusively is questioned even in Germany. Still they form a leading source of German wealth. Eighteen per cent. of all the exports of wealthy Prussia consists of woollen manufactures, and those principally fine cloths. Thus we have a manufacturing industry acting directly upon agriculture; this reacting in its turn upon manufactures, until a distinct physiognomy is impressed upon the German national fabric, and the chief agricultural distinction of Germany has become that of possessing the most perfect fine-wool husbandry of the world.

Results quite different, but no less distinctive, have been effected by the influence of the woollen manufacture in the United States. Sheep husbandry in this country has been hitherto pursued exclusively with a view to the production of wool, mutton being a mere incident, and manure hardly a matter of consideration. The character of our sheep husbandry has, therefore, been wholly determined by the demand of manufacture. The American manufacturers have found it more profitable to run their mills upon the classes of goods in demand by the mass of our people. The masses of American consumers, although not demanding superfine cloths, require goods of a better and finer class than would content the masses of European population. Sound and sightly cloths, but of medium fineness, are in the greatest demand. Medium wools, produced by merino grades, of considerable length of fibre, are well suited to the production of flannels and fancy cassimeres, our principal products in the clothing-wool manufacture. It is true that the fine broadcloth manufacture was attempted under the fostering influence of the protective tariffs of 1824 and 1828, and was further extended under the tariff of 1842; and the culture of Saxony or superfine woolled sheep was pursued with enthusiasm. The horizontal tariff of 1846 destroyed the broadcloth manufacture, and at the same time swept away our Saxony sheep or merged them into coarser flocks. The demand for broadcloth wools

having ceased, the American breeders of merinos, adapting themselves to the wants of manufactures, sought to produce a coarser and longer staple than had been in request at an earlier period. They have produced, through these influences, a race of sheep designated as the American merino and now recognized as a distinctive variety, like the Saxon merino or French merino: The most complete account of the American merino is the elaborate paper furnished to the report "On Wool and Manufactures of Wool," at the Paris Exposition, by Dr. Randall, the highest American authority on sheep husbandry, and no less favorably known as author of the Life of Jefferson. The remarkable improvement in productions of wool, effected by American husbandry upon the original Spanish stock, is the most interesting fact brought out in this excellent paper. From facts and experiments in scouring which he details, Dr. Randall says: "It appears, first, that prime American merinos produced more washed wool, in 1844-46, than was produced of unwashed wool by the original stock in Spain, at their palmiest period; second, that prime American merinos produce about as much scoured wool now as they did of washed wool in 1844-46, and nearly twice as much as the picked merino flock of the King of Great Britain from 1798 to 1802. They undoubtedly produce twice as much scoured wool as the average of the prime Spanish flocks of that period." By breeding to produce heavy fleeces, the wool of the American merino has become elongated so as to make it a true combing wool. No use of this quality has been made until very recently, except in delaines, a comparatively low fabric. The American Commissioner at the Paris Exposition, in the department of woollens, who, though largely interested in manufactures, had at that time but little practical experience in fabricating, was fascinated by the magnificent French merino fabrics at the Exposition. Upon his return to this country his attention was drawn to a fleece of American merino wool, which had been sent from Ohio to the office of the Association which I serve, to illustrate the combing qualities of the American staple. He instantly resolved to emulate in the mill of which he had the direction, with our merino combing wools, the French fabrics

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