Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/435

Rh of the very coarsest texture, varies from twenty-four reals (twelve shillings) to eighteen reals (nine shillings), and fifteen reals (seven and sixpence) per vara, according to the colour; and there is no doubt that they might be obtained of a better quality at a much lower price from abroad. The wool used is brought principally from Tierra Adentro (the Northern States), Săn Luis Pŏtŏsī, and Zăcătēcăs: its price varies from sixteen to twenty-four reals the Arroba (of twenty-five pounds), including carriage, (about five pence three farthings, or three pence three farthings English money per pound;) but the wool most esteemed is the produce of the State itself (called Lana de Chĭnchŏrrŏ). It acquires its value not from any superiority in the breed of the Qŭerētărŏ sheep, but from the circumstance of the flocks being so much smaller than those of the North that they can be better attended to, fed in richer pastures, and kept more clear from Ăbrōjŏs, and other thorns, which deteriorate the fleece. This wool sells for three dollars and a half per Arroba (thirty reals), and is expected to rise in value. In 1824 the wool of San Luis was only worth fourteen reals.

I was promised by the Governor of the State, Don San José Mărīnă, who is himself proprietor of the large Hacienda of Mĭrāndă, a return of the amount of wool consumed in all the Obrages of Queretaro during a period of five years before and after the Revolution; but this document never reached me, and I am consequently unable to state