though of better wearing quality than the English. Various grades of
cloth, with shawls, were manufactured; but the growth of the industry
was slow, and constantly hampered by heavy duties and much interference.
In 1770 the entire graduating class at Harvard College were dressed in
black broadcloth made in this country, the weaving of which had been
done in families. Yarn was sent to these after the wool had been made
ready in the mills, and the census of the United States for 1810 gives
the number of yards woven in this way as 9,528,266.

What proportion of women were engaged we have no means of knowing; but
the census of 1860 shows that New England had 65 per cent of the total
number then at work. The cotton manufacture had but 38 per cent of males
as against 62 per cent of females; while in woollen, males were 60 per
cent. In New England 10,743 women were in woollen-mills; in the Middle
States, 4,540; and in the South, 689. For the West no returns are given.
Many more would be included in the Southern returns were it not that
most of the weaving is still a home industry, this resulting from the
sparseness and scattered nature of the population.

Knitting formed one of the earliest means of earning for women, the
demand for hose of every description being beyond the power of the
family to supply. Knitting-machines of various orders were in use on the
Continent, and had been brought into England; but any attempt to employ
them here was for a long time unsuccessful. Yarn was spun especially for
this purpose, usually with a double thread, and in the year 1698
Martha's Vineyard exported 9,000 pairs. The German and English settlers
of Pennsylvania brought many handknitting machines with them, and were
rivals of New England; but Virginia led, and the census of 1810 credits
her with over half of the hand-knit pairs exported, Connecticut coming
next. In Pennsylvania the women earned half a crown a pair for the long