Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/780

770 F. P. Goodwin tion, for straw hats, and every article which [is] import [ed but] can be manufactured in Cincinnati. Let the two hundred thousand dollars which we send over the mountains be paid the manufacturers in Cincinnati for the above articles. This would keep so much of our wealth at home ; thereby increasing its productive manufacturing industry. It would increase the value of lands and houses and sup- port a greater population than we can now otherwise possibly sup- port. This two hundred thousand dollars would be added to our capital every year and increased in a proportional ratio." ' Dr. Drake probably expressed the situation more clearly than any other contemporary when he said: To convert into manufacturers the hands engaged in clearing and improving a new country, would be a mistaken policy; and if adopted must soon correct itself. In the case in which a new country is con- tiguous to an older, of dense population, which can e.xchange manufactures for subsistence, it may even be advisable to defer manufacturing in the former to a late period. But where a new country must transport its sur- plus agricultural products to a great distance, and import the necessary manufactures from shops equally remote, it may be advisable to com- mence manufacturing much earlier. It must not, however, attempt to convert its farmers into tradesmen. They should be imported instead of their manufactures. The ranks of agriculture would then remain entire; the simple process of barter at home be substituted for expensive and hazardous commercial operations ; and the immigrant manufacturers with their increase, become an addition to the population. The situa- tion of Ohio seems to recommend this policy and it is already adopted. - In answer to the question : " What articles can we manufacture to best advantage ", one very popular reply was " Woollen cloth ". As early as 1802 the United States minister to Portugal sent to his home in Connecticut one hundred merino sheep, and in a very few years sheep-raising and the manufacture of woollen cloth became important allied industries in New England.' The industry spread to" Ohio and within a few years the farmers were raising wool, in limited quantities, but with so much success as to suggest the estab- lishment of woollen manufactures in the Miami Countrw A writer in Liberty Hall declared : " We have the best climate and soil in the world for raising merino sheep. We can feed ten sheep to the acre for eight months in the year, while New England does not feed more than three or four sheep to the acre for seven months in the year. We can raise wool cheaper than it can be raised either in England or in New England." In support of this statement, he said that General Harrison, on his farm at North Bend, ^Liberty Hall, August 14, 1815. = Drake, Natural and Statistical I'ien' of Ciiiciiiiiali. p. 3. ' McMaster, III. 503.