Some years ago an old lady, ninety years of age, wrote, in "Reminiscences of a Nonagenarian," that she had seen row after row of sleighs pass over Crane-neck Hill, enlivening the bright cold days by the joyous tones of their merry bells. She describes the impression made upon her own mind the first time she visited the factory: "Never shall I forget the awe with which I entered what then appeared the vast and imposing edifice. The large drums that carried the bands on the lower floor, coupled with the novel noise and hum, increased this awe, but when I reached the second floor where picking, carding, spinning, and weaving were in process, my amazement became complete. The machinery, with the exception of the looms, was driven by water power. The weaving was by hand. Most of the operatives were males, a few young girls being employed in splicing rolls." After this John Scholfield established a factory in Montville, Connecticut. Subsequently Arthur Scholfield removed to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where he passed the remainder of his life, and not only carried on the woolen manufacture himself, but also built carding machines and set them up for others to operate. Within the next twelve years several woolen factories had been built in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and New York. The new industry had become so firmly established that when President Madison was inaugurated, March 4, 1809, he wore a suit of black broadcloth of American manufacture. But Washington Irving tells us that Washington, our first president, was inaugurated twenty years earlier, dressed in a "suit of dark-brown cloth of American manufacture." From time to time the woolen industry has been protected by various tariff bills passed by Congress. This industry to-day is of gigantic proportions. The woolen factories in our country are now using about five hundred million pounds of wool per year. More than half of this is raised in our own country, and nearly all of the cloth produced is retained in the country for home consumption. Let us see now if we can understand how woolen cloth is made. The father of Dr. Nott had in those early days a single sheep. Some farmers would have half a dozen, others twenty-five or fifty. Now times are changed. We have but few sheep in the older settled country along the Atlantic coast. Those who raise wool to-day are apt to make it their sole business, doing nothing else. Most of the sheep of this country are raised upon the great plains and in the great valleys of the Western country. Many flocks of sheep, numbering from five hundred to several thousand, may be seen in Texas, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. There are to-day in Texas more than three million sheep; about an equal number in Wyoming; nearly as many in New Mexico, Oregon, California, and Ohio. We have in our country at the present time more than forty million sheep. [Illustration: SHEEP-SHEARING.]