AMERICAN WOOL CLIP, 1893, 1894, 1895. The clip in detail, by States and Territories, for the last three years has been as follows: States and Territories. 1895. 1894. 1893. Maine 2 392, 224 253, 038 215, 538 70, 801 661, 165 768, 691 2,036, 138 303, 708 64, 224 232, 152 8, 432, 413 274, 900 8, 664, 144 68, 888 699,595 Virginia.... 1, 952, 455 North Carolina. 2,361, 570 1, 662, 320 South Carolina. 1,802, 520 362, 135 Georgia Florida.. 377, 025 Alabama 1,772, 550 1, 494, 126 630,970 22, 669, 809 18, 534, 610 1, 483, 808 1,952, 440 876, 220 23,529, 155 1,290, 408 2,440, 320 4,030,290 6,089,980 950, 936 2,472, 090 318, 192 73, 560 212, 395 9, 328, 300 306, 230 9,823, 296 74, 531 681, 777 2, 492, 000 1, 980, 575 391, 920 1, 947, 641 532, 475 1,611, 711 1,862, 936 959, 753 30, 341, 857 1,441, 956 2, 977, 849 4, 627, 887 6, 805, 359 21, 893, 625 16, 370, 536 6, 482, 298 7,717, 638 7, 189, 050 5, 271, 968 20, 090, 031 Nevada Colorado Arizona North Dakota South Dakota Idaho Montana 4,352, 616 8, 233, 609 6, 678, 603 2,097, 282 1,869, 078 6, 747, 210 19, 031, 866 New Mexico.. 13, 948, 907 Utah Wyoming Oklahoma 11, 391, 114 Washington. 5, 158, 125 17, 642, 079 6, 221, 214 9, 236, 130 5, 227, 911 2,440, 000 1, 994, 000 6, 114, 096 17,696, 686 12, 285, 369 14, 823, 039 5,766, 775 10, 187, 820 The clip this year is the smallest since that of 1889, which was again smaller than that of any preceding year since 1881. A comparison, State by State, shows that the following States have lost both in 1894 and 1895: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, California, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wyoming. The following table shows the production of wool in the grease and scoured for the years 1889 to 1896, inclusive: The September number, 1896, of the Bulletin of the National Association of Wool Manufacturers, says: The Boston Commercial Bulletin of November 14, 1896, justly says: "NO INDUSTRY HAS SUFFERED SO TERRIBLY AS WOOLGROWING." The Bulletin of September 19, 1896, gives the following: THE ANNUAL WOOL SUPPLY. The following statement shows the quantity of wool retained for consumption in the United States for the years 1890-1895, inclusive. In this table the domestic wool product of each calendar year is combined with the imports of the governmental fiscal year next following. The domestic clip begins to arrive in the seaboard markets shortly before the commencement of the fiscal year, so that the manufacturers' available supply for any one year is very fairly indicated by this combination of home product and imports. Varying market conditions render it difficult, if not impossible, to combine the importations with the production in such a way as to exactly show the quantities annually subject to disposal, but the plan here pursued is more nearly accurate than any other which can be adopted, and in a series of years shows, with sufficient accuracy, the yearly variations. 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 Wool produced, imported, exported, and retained for consumption, 1890–1895. And the Bulletin says: 1.-EXPORTS OF AMERICAN WOOL TO MEXICO. It is something worth noting, as an innovation, the exports of domestic wool, which amounted to 5,800,000 pounds for the eight months ending last August, being an excess of more than 2,000,000 pounds for the same period the year before. Most of these exports was sent to Mexico, but a very considerable portion of them went to England. In previous years there has been a marked discrepancy between the wool-clip estimates of the Department of Agriculture and those of the National Association of Wool Manufacturers, partially due to the fact that one was based upon the January report of the number of sheep and the other upon the April report. These discrepancies were further due to different estimates of the average weight of fleeces in many of the important wool-growing States. The largest discrepancy occurred in the year 1893, when the National Association reported 348,538,138 pounds and the Department 303,151,055 pounds-a difference of 45,387,083. In 1894 the Department estimate decreased to 298,057,384 pounds, while that of the association decreased to 325,210,712 pounds. In 1895 the association estimate decreased to 294,296,726 pounds, while that of the Department of Agriculture increased to 309,747,897 pounds, thus jumping from a point 27,153,328 pounds below the association estimate in 1894 to a point 15,451,171 pounds above the latter's estimate for 1895, and showing an increase of yield by the Department figures of 10,691,000 pounds, notwithstanding the fact that there had been a falling off of 3,995,281 in the number of sheep between the two years as reported January 1. The Department report for February 18, 1896, says that "the increased yield is ascribed to the greater cold of the winter of 1894-95;" but we can not find in the detailed report of fleece weights, as furnished by the Department later, any such increase in the weight of fleeces as is necessary to explain a larger clip from fewer sheep. The increase in the Department estimate is actually due to a radical increase in its estimate of the amount of pulled wool, which was arbitrarily increased to 65,500,000 pounds. The acting statistician of the Department writes us, under date of April 2, 1896: "The decrease in the number of sheep from 1895 to 1896 amounts to about 4,000,000, which shows that the slaughter is on the decrease. The wool from sheep and lambs slaughtered during the year-of which there is no exact record-will naturally swell the total product to a larger amount than the number of sheep would indicate." While there has been increased slaughter of sheep going on during the last three years, it is evident that the total of fleece wool and pulled wool must retain a fixed relationship to the total number of sheep. If the slaughter of sheep has increased the pulled wool, the quantity of fleece wool must decrease; and if the aggregate flocks decreased 4,000,000, it is not possible that the yield from both sources shall fail to decrease correspondingly, unless there is at the same time a marked increase in the average weight of fleeces. The Department estimates of average weight show a slight increase, running from 5.33 in 1894 to 5.6 in 1895 to 5.7 pounds in 1896, thus remaining considerably lower than the National Association estimates, which are 6.39 for 1894, 6.37 for 1895, and 6.38 for the present year. The estimates for the past ten years are as follows: Fleece and pulled wool in the grease. The scoured-wool production for the same years has been as follows, the shrinkage on fleece wool being taken for each State, and on pulled wool estimated at 40 per cent: The imports of wool during the first six months of this year are as follows: Adding to this the wool on hand January 1, as estimated by the Boston Commercial Bulletin, and the wool product of the present year, we find the quantity of wool available for the year's use of American manufacturers, without further importations, to be as follows: The similar statement last year showed the amount thus available to be 547,025,078 pounds, a reduction of about 40,000,000 pounds, which is very nearly equally divided between the domestic clip and the foreign imports. But the comparatively small consumption of wool to date, owing to the general curtailment of production, justifies the conclusion that the actual supply is very much larger than these figures indicate, and that it is carried in the storehouses of the manufacturers awaiting a revival of business. It is evident, therefore, that the supply is far in excess of any probable consumption during the year to come, and that no great improvement in prices of the raw material can be looked for until this vast bulk of unmanufactured wool has been reduced. IV. PRODUCTION, IMPORTS, EXPORTS, AND CONSUMPTION OF WOOL. [From Miscellaneous Series, Bulletin No. 11, United States Department of Agriculture, Division of Statistics, July, 1896.] The following table shows our total supply of wool for home consumption from both domestic and foreign sources for the years 1880 to 1895, inclusive. The figures for production are from the estimates of the Department of Agriculture, and those for imports and exports were furnished by the Bureau of Statistics of the United States Treasury Department. The production of wool shows a steady increase from 232,500,000 pounds in 1880 to 308,000,000 in 1885, from which it steadily decreased to 265,000,000 pounds in 1889. Each of the following four years shows an increase, and the production in 1893 amounted to 303,153,000 pounds. There was a decrease to 298,057,384 pounds in 1894, followed in 1895 by an increase to 309,748,000 pounds. The full period shows an increase of 77,248,000 pounds, or 33.2 per cent. The imports show numerous fluctuations both in quantities and values, the largest quantity, 206,033,906 pounds, being imported in 1895, showing an increase of 60.8 per cent over the 128,131,747 pounds imported in 1880. The year 1895 also shows the largest value of imports, though the percentage of increase for the period was far less than that for quantities, being but 7.7 per cent. The total value of imports of wool in 1895 was $25,556,421, an increase of $1,828,771 over that of 1880. For both quantities and values the lowest point was reached in 1894, when the imports were but 55,152,585 pounds, valued at $6,107,438. The exports of domestic wool show numerous fluctuations. Starting with 191,551 pounds in 1880, with a value of $71,987, they reached their lowest point in 1884, in which year there were but 10,393 pounds exported, valued at $3,073. From that, with many fluctuations, the exports increased to 520,247 pounds in 1894, with a total value of $90,676, and in 1895 there was a marked increase to 4,279,109 pounds, valued at $484,463, an increase over the exports of 1880 of 4,087,558 pounds, valued at $412,476, or 2,133.4 per cent for quantity and 573 per cent for value. Exports of foreign wool also show numerous fluctua |