However, so far as we can learn, a real systematic method of felting is comparatively of a late date, and until within a few years felt has been chiefly employed for hats and hats alone. This is, however, now but a branch of the felt manufacture, for plaids, coats, vests, pants, leggings, shoes, gaiters, slippers, mittens, and caps, the covering of steam cylinders and boilers, carpets, polishing cushions for jewellers and marble cutters, covering for the roofs of houses which is afterwards waterproofed, as also linings of water-tight compartments in ships and ship sheathing, and the covering for the blocks of calico and other printing, &c. &c., are now made of this material. As the nature of hair and the principle upon which its felting property depends become better known, the manufacture of felt will be stimulated and increased, and applied to many purposes other than those above enumerated, and not imagined at the present time.

The high price of the finer furs, resulting from the indiscriminate destruction of the animals which produce them, forms the only apology for the introduction of an inferior material into the body of the manufactured article. Cotton, which is of quite a limber nature, is too pliable, as indeed are all vegetable products when mixed with fur. They lie dead within the body of the mass, and if the labor be continued beyond a certain time, the active principle of the fur will be seen to have clung to itself, leaving the cotton quite exposed on the outside. Even under the most perfect manipulation, a mixture of cotton, from its want of elasticity, will give a product which is to a corresponding degree deteriorated.

There was a time when beaver skins were bought from the natives, by the Hudson Bay Company, at the regular price of 14 skins for a gun, 7 for a pistol, 2 for a shirt or one pair of stockings, 1 for a comb, or twelve needles, &c. &c., less than the hundredth part of their real value, and all the other fur-bearing skins belonging to that country were rated by that of the beaver.

"The Scientific American" of New York for Dec. 1859 says that, not much more than half a century ago, not a pound of fine wool was raised in the United States, in Great Britain, or in any other country except Spain. In the latter country the flocks were owned exclusively by the nobility, or by the Crown. In 1794, a small flock was sent to the Elector of Saxony, as a present from the King of Spain, whence came the entire product of Saxony wool now of such immense value. In 1809, during the second invasion of Spain by the French, some of the valuable crown flocks were sold to raise money. The American Consul at Lisbon, Mr. Jarvis, purchased fourteen hundred head, and sent them to this country. A portion of the pure unmixed merino blood of these flocks is to be found in Vermont at this time. Such was the origin of the immense flocks of fine woolled sheep in the United States.

The same authority further adds that the simplest and most easy method of judging of the quality of wools, is, to take a lock from a sheep's back and place it upon an inch rule; if you can count from 30 to 33 of the spirals or folds in the space of an inch, it equals in quality the finest Saxony wool grown. Of course as the number of spirals to the inch diminishes, the quality of the wool becomes relatively inferior. Cotswold wool, and some other inferior wools, do not measure more than nine spirals to the inch.

The Fulling Mill.

Having alluded to the fulling mill as a felting machine, it is only necessary to remark here, that it is a rude looking but effective method of condensing a previously formed article. It consists of a trough six or eight feet long, and two feet wide, varying in size according to the kind of goods to be operated on. The bottom is of a semi-circular form, having a radius of five or six feet, with sides rising three or four feet high, a strong solid heading, but no end piece. There is a heavy wooden battering-ram suspended from above, at a height answering to the curve of the trough; its immense head has a flat face fitting the trough in which it is made to play freely, similar to the pendulum of a clock. The goods are tumbled promiscuously into this trough in front of the ram, with warm water, fuller's earth, and soap, in sufficient quantity to saturate and wash the material, a small stream of water from a boiler being admitted for that purpose. The power of a water-wheel or steam engine draws back the ram out of its perpendicular, to its allotted distance, whence it falls by its own gravity, with a momentum that sweeps the goods before it with a fearful crash, upon the solid heading of the trough. On the withdrawal of this enormous hammer for a second onset, the goods roll over, resuming their quiescent state, but differently disposed, which is no sooner done than back comes the ram, repeating its dashing blows upon its unoffending and unresisting victims in the trough, washing, scouring, and buffeting them about, till they become not only clean, but completely felted.

All of our broadcloths have been subjected to its action, in the process of which the hairs of the weft and those of the warp have become mutually entangled, and each with one another, as with hatting in the regular hand process of loose wool or fur felting. Indeed, every hair composing the whole piece of cloth has its individual and independent progressive motions, combining the threads of both warp and weft together to such an extent that these cloths never unravel, and no hemming of a garment is required in the making of our clothes.

Twelve hours in the mill will reduce a piece of cloth two-fifths of its breadth and one-third of its length.

The progressive travelling motion of the hair resulting in the entanglement of the fibres and consequent felting and shrinking of the cloth, is further exemplified in the comfortable soft half-dress caps of the British soldiers, and in the bonnets and caps of the Scottish peasantry generally, which have all been first knitted very large with soft spun yarn, and afterwards felted down to the required size in the fulling mill. During the fulling of any and all kinds of goods, they must be frequently taken out of the trough, to be stretched, turned, the folds straightened, and generally inspected.

History of Hats and Hatting.

The word hat is of Saxon derivation, being the name of a well-known piece of dress worn upon the head by both sexes, but principally by the men, as a covering from the hot sun of summer, the cold of winter, a defence from the blows of battle, or for fashion. Being the most conspicuous article of dress, and surmounting all the rest, it has often been ornamented with showy plumes, and jewels, and with bands of gold, silver, &c. It is generally distinguished from a cap by its having a brim, which a cap has not, although there are exceptions even to this rule of distinction, for there are hats that have no brims, and there are also caps that are provided with a margin. Those hats that are made of fur or wool have all been felted, and felt strictly speaking is a fabric manufactured by matting the fibres together, without the preliminary operation of either spinning or of weaving.

We find but little of hat-making recorded in history, and anything relating to hats is extremely meagre, although their partial use may be traced back to the time of ancient Greece amongst the Dorian tribes, probably as early as the age of Homer, when they were worn, although only by the better class of citizens when on a distant journey. The same custom prevailed among the Athenians, as is evident from some of the equestrian figures in the Elgin Marbles.

The Romans used a bonnet