79 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



standard sheetings from 1850 to 1885 lias been about 10 per cent, and 

 of standard prints and printing-cloths, during the same period, ap- 

 proximately 40 per cent. 



Wool. According to the statistics of Mr. Sauerbeck (" Journal 

 of Statistical Society," March, 1887), the price of merino wool (Port 

 Philip, Australia, average fleece), comparing the average of the series of 

 years 1867-'77 and 1878-85, declined 10 - 7 per cent ; or, comparing the 

 average price of 18G7-'77 with that of the single year 1886, when wool 

 " was cheaper than at any time within the memory of the present gen- 

 eration," 27 per cent. Certain fibers classed with wool, and known 

 as " alpaca " and " mohair," and the grade of long-combing English 

 wools known as " Lincoln," experienced a much greater decline after 

 1874-'75, owing to the curious circumstance that a change in fashion 

 in those years almost entirely and suddenly destroyed any demand for 

 the before popular, stiff, lustrous fabrics manufactured from such wools 

 for female wear, and substituted in their place the soft and pliable 

 cloths that are made from the merino wools. 



The increase in the production and world's supply of raw wools, 

 from the years 1860 to 1885 inclusive, was about 100 per cent. Ac- 

 cording to Mr. Sauerbeck's tables, the increase from 1873 to 1885 in- 

 clusive, was 20 per cent ; according to Messrs. Helmuth, Schwartze 

 & Co., of London, the increase from 1871-'75 to 1881-85 was 

 23 per cent ; and from 1871-75 to 1886, 35 per cent. The wool-clip 

 of the United States increased from 264,000,000 pounds in 1880 to 

 329,000,000 in 1885, or 24*6 per cent in six years. Such an increase 

 in the world's supply of wool would undoubtedly have resulted in a 

 greater decline in prices, had not the increase been accompanied, as 

 was the case with cotton, with a very marked increase during the last 

 quarter of a century in the world's consumption i. e., from 2*03 

 pounds of clean wool per head in 1860 to 2 - 66 pounds in 1886.* 



Silk. The decline in the price of silk (Tsatlee), according to Mr. 

 Sauerbeck, from the average price of 1867-'77 to the average of 1886, 

 was about 40 per cent ; and the average increase in supply of all varie- 

 ties of silk-fiber, comparing 1873 with 1885, was reported by the same 

 authority as about 12 per cent. No relation between the price move- 

 ments of this commodity and supply and demand or any other agen- 

 cies can, however, be established, which fails to take into account the 

 great increase in the use of the ramie and other fibers and materials 

 within recent years as substitutes for or adulterations of silk in the 



* The details of this increase are thus stated by Messrs. Helmuth, Schwartze & 

 Co., of London, in their annual review of the production and consumption of wool 

 for 1887 : " Making allowance," they say, "for the increase of population, we find that 

 the principal development in the supply of wool took place from 1860 to 1868, in which 

 period the consumption rose from 2 - 03 pounds of clean wool per head to 2 - 47 pounds, or 

 about 22 per cent. From 1868 to 1879 the consumption remained practically unchanged, 

 amounting on the average to 2 - 41 pounds clean wool per head. It rose to 2*49 pounds 

 for the average of the next four years, and was 2"58 in 1884 and 2-66 pounds in 1886." 



