[ [1] Encyclopedia Britannica, 7th Edition, Article Agriculture.
[ [2] For further information on this subject, see that excellent paper on the Natural History of the Sheep and Goat, by James Wilson, Esq. in No. IX. of the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture.
[ [3] See Figs. 2 and 3, Plate I. with their references.
[ [4] I am surprized to find it asserted at page 76 of the book on Sheep, published by the Society for the diffusion of Useful Knowledge, that the depilatory action of lime-water on raw hides is a "striking elucidation" of the injurious effects of chalk on wool. Lime removes hair from a skin because it is a powerful caustic, and, as such, speedily decomposes the animal matter, but the carbonate of lime (chalk) is perfectly innocuous to wool, except so far as it combines with its oil; and is as little corrosive to the fleece, as pipe-clay to a soldier's coat.
[ [5] The art of weaving was first practised at Arach in Babylonia, and spread thence to neighbouring cities, and in process of time to the most remote parts of the world.—Bryant's Ancient Mythology, Vol. v. p. 173.
[ [6] Macpherson, in his Annals of Commerce, agrees with Bloomfield the historian of Norfolk, that a colony of Flemish weavers settled so early as 1327, at Worsted, a village in that county, and bestowed upon it the name it bears.
[ [7] The people of Ireland produced worsted and woollen yarn at a cheaper rate than we could, owing to their poor being able to work on lower terms than those of England. This was owing to the rent of land being less in Ireland than in England.
[ [8] By the 18th of Charles II. the importation from Ireland into England of great cattle, sheep, swine, beef, pork and bacon, and shortly after of mutton, lamb, butter, and cheese, was declared a common nuisance, and forbidden on pain of forfeiture. Thus, the principal resource of a poor country in the neighbourhood of a rich one, was unfeelingly denied to it, till the reign of George III., when the hated edict was repealed.
[ [9] Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, No. 24.
[10] I allude to this, as the author of the work on Sheep, published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, at page 123 of that book, laments the want of an English translation of Columella. An excellent quarto translation of his twelve books on Husbandry, and one on Trees, was published at London, in 1745.