to go low enough to be exported thither to find an outlet. This, notwithstanding our duty of 100 per cent. on a similar grade of wool grown in Buenos Ayres almost exclusively for the Antwerp market! The manufacturer is afraid to touch the duty on wool, lest the agriculturist takes off the enormous tariff he has given him on goods. So the question is relegated to the arbitrament of future events. Meantime the manufacturer has learned one lesson from actual experience. All the tariff he can get has not and will not prevent misfortune overtaking his industry. On the contrary, it produces the very evil it aims at preventing. Protection is imposed either to stimulate a struggling industry or to support a languishing one. In either event the stimulant is inevitably too much for the patient. He overdoes his work, reaction ensues, and prostration follows, such as we are now witnessing. The only relief possible must come from absolute destruction of the surplus means of production, or in other words machinery, and the consequent stagnation and distress. By a parity of reasoning, what injures the manufacturer injures the producer of his raw material, and the latter feels this in the low price of domestic wool to-day. Whatever may be the merits of the dispute about qualified free trade or absolute protection, this may be asserted with safety: that this country, with its wealth and population, and enormously developed and developing industries, can no longer go on successfully without a foreign outlet for its surplus of manufactured goods. It is little matter whether that surplus be of the products of iron, or cotton, or wool. The child has outgrown its swaddling clothes, and is ready, if not handicapped, to outstrip its parent in the race for wealth. The manufacturer can be no longer hampered by what may have been necessary for him in infancy, but requires free play for his energies. He only struggles to his own injury when confined exclusively to the home trade. The problem with regard to wool is, whether we shall adhere to the policy of 1867, and attempt to raise enough, and of sufficiently good quality, west of the Rocky Mountains and in Texas, to be able to export it; and so bring it, in value and quantity, level to that of Australia, the Cape of Good Hope and of the River Plate. We must do this, if we are ever able to export woolens, and so compete with England and the Continent. Many are sanguine enough to believe this. In any event, however, all clear-headed men must agree, that the power to export a surplus is fundamentally necessary to any stable establishment of a great manufacturing industry in this, or in any other country. We have now merely to call your attention to the valuable statistics at the end of this article, and to make a resumé of the more striking features pertaining to the different classes of wool during the past year. Fleece Wool-of merino blood, of good staple and fine quality, washed on the sheep's back, of which that called Ohio is the standard-was quoted at 55 @ 57c. per lb. on January 1st, 1875, and at 46 @ 48c. on January 1st, 1876, showing a decline of 9c. per lb., or about 18 per cent. during the year. The clip was smaller in quantity, and poorer in condition and quality, than previously. In fact, it is notorious that the Saxony blood, and all the higher grades of merino, are actually running out in this country. It does not pay the farmer to keep the small, fancy flocks necessary to produce this wool. Sheep of English blood are more profitable, and the country east of the Mississippi is eminently adapted to them. It is no Utopian dream to suppose, that we shall one day export this wool and import Merino and Saxony. A pound of XX scoured fleece costs 95 @ 100c. currency, or say 88c. gold, or 3s. 8d. stg. per lb. California Wools are the Mestiza of this Continent, being merino blood crossed upon native sheep, and are much like the wool of the Argentine Confederation. Average quality, free of burr, was worth, January 1st, 1875, 28 @ 30c. per lb.; January 1st, 1876, 24 @ 26c. per lb., showing a decline of about 4c. per lb., or about 14 per cent. The quality of the clip has somewhat improved in blood and staple, but the wool is becoming more infected with burr and seeds. This is a large production, and to find a market for it in the present condition of trade, low prices must prevail. To those who think we shall be able raise wool in California suitable for making the finest grades, and so become eventually independent of foreign markets, we commend the following from Messrs. GRISAR & Co.'s last annual report, than which there can be no better authority: "California cannot compete with Australia or South "America in raising fine wool, as the climate is unsuitable. Manu"facturers use California wools because they cost less clean than the "best foreign or domestic, and when the shrinkage is heavy, the price for the wool in the grease must be low, because it cannot be "used in making high-priced goods." New-Mexico, Colorado and Utah have largely increased their production of wool, chiefly of a medium grade, suitable for low woolens, blankets and flannels. We estimate that the clip of 1876 will be about 10,000,000 lbs., and that the vast plains of those States will soon be largely taken up with sheep ranches. But the soil is alkaline and water scarce, and the country does not seem suitable for raising the better classes of wool. From New-Mexico we are getting a soft carpet-combing article, like a Cordova, and it is a valuable addition. It has sold at about 24 cents, or 104d. stg., yielding about 60 per cent. scoured. Texas does not make the same progress as the other States in the quality of her wool, though the quantity has increased in the Western section. There the introduction of fine bucks has been general, without yet producing desirable wool. We have a stock bere of about a million and a quarter pounds of these coarse, half-bred wools, but have no apparent outlet for them. The Merino wool of the Eastern part of the State is of desirable quality, and has readily sold at 30 @ 35 cents; but the product is not large or increasing. The sheep have to be housed against "Northers," and this and other causes make cotton and sugar more profitable crops. Through Virginia, Georgia and other Southern States there is a strain of South Down blood, which produces a desirable medium wool, readily saleable the past year at 35 @ 40c. per lb. But it does not apparently have much attention paid it, and neither in quantity nor quality does it make any appreciable improvement. The hilly counties of Virginia, Georgia and Tennessee are admirably adapted for raising sheep of English blood, but the business does not seem to command much attention. Other things probably pay better. The truth is, there is no remunerative market for the wool, for the same reason there is none for the high costing fine wools of the Northern States, namely, no outlet for the manufactured article, and the consequent prostration of the woolen industry. Australian and New-Zealand Wools.-We imported, direct, 24,022 bales, and from London about 1,000; say 25,000 bales in all during 1875. The market opened in March at 52 @ 53c. per lb. for the new wools, 55 per cent. shrinkage, and closed at 45 @ 47c. per lb. in December, a decline of 12 per cent. This price, 45 cents, is equal to buying at 1s. per lb. in London, and may be considered the equivalent of our XX wools at their market price, 47 @ 48c. Heavy losses were made upon the business of the year, and few orders were consequently sent out for this spring importation. About 6,000 bales are coming, but mostly for manufacturers' account. Cross-bred Australian wools do not seem to please the American trade. Wool suitable in quality and staple for our combing can be procured, but it is not handled carefully enough for our market. The excessive duty makes it necessary that every staple should be strictly combing, but generally the bales are mixed with combing and clothing of various grades, and nothing but loss results from importing such. Cape Wools.-We imported direct 10,863 bales, mostly for manufacturers' account, and all at a loss. The market has remained steady for good wools at 35 @ 37c., currency, per pound, the whole year. This is equal to a London purchase of 84d. The only demand for this wool is for hatting purposes, its cost with the high duty added, precluding its use for clothing purposes. Of River Plate Fine Wools we imported 1,371 bales in Boston and New-York. There has been a steady falling off since 1872, when we imported into this market alone 21,613 bales. This is owing mainly to the high cost of the wools per scoured pound, when 100 per cent. duty is added to the cost in grease. Prices have been quite nominal, being all the year about 27c., currency, per pound, for 30 per cent. Buenos Ayres; and 36c. for 40 per cent. Montevideo, say equal to 5d. sterling, and 84d. in Antwerp. It does not seem probable we shall resume the importation of these wools under the present tariff. Carpet Wools have presented quite a contrast to the clothing kinds during the past year. They opened with some degree of activity in January, and the demand has continued steady, at gradually advancing prices. The state of the market is better illustrated by these figures: Stocks are small, but manufacturers are well supplied by their own importations, and little activity can be looked for until importers are ready to negotiate for the new clips from South America and Russia. While the carpet business has been steadily and reasonably prosperous under a revenue tariff on the raw material, it is still hampered by an ill adjusted schedule of duty. Wools under 12c. pay 3c. per pound, and those over 12c. pay 6c. It happens that few good wools can be had under 12c., while the cleanest and best wools for the most costly carpets pay only 6c. Naturally, every one wants the best wools, as the duty is relatively lowest, to make a high priced carpet, and the business is consequently overdone, while the medium and poorer grades are neglected, because the stock cannot be profitably imported to make them. In this manner the tariff hampers this industry, which was thought to be particularly benefited by it. It would seem that a revenue tariff on wool of all kinds is imperatively demanded by the present condition of the woolen trade, and that such tariff should be an ad valorem one. |