138 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



noted that our legislators seem always to have forgotten that American 

 farmers, burdened with all the responsibilities of social and public duties 

 pertaining to their position as freemen and enlightened citizens, support- 

 ing churcbes, Schools, and societies for mutual improvement and progress 

 in all that goes to make the sterling, intelligent man, can no more com- 

 pete with the convict shepherds of Australia, or the " Gaucheros " of 

 Buenos Ayres, or the ignorant and ill-paid peasantry of England and 

 Germany, than our manufacturers can compete with the pauper labor of 

 the great manufacturing centres of England. 



During the j'ear eighteen hundred and sixty-one, the immense de- 

 mand for goods suited to army purposes, and demanding immediate sup- 

 plies, created an unusual call for low and medium wools, far beyond the 

 capacity of our home production, and the crop of that j~ear derived a 

 material benefit from this demand and the consequent advance in prices. 

 During the year eighteen hundred and sixty-two, prices nominally 

 advanced still further, but when reduced to the standard of gold and 

 silver currency were really no higher than the average for a term of five 

 years preceding. Contrary to all expectation, the price of wool seemed 

 to be but little, if at all, affected by the changes in currency or the 

 almost complete withdrawal of the cotton of the South from the chan- 

 nels of commerce and manuacture. 



The nominally high prices freely quoted in all our journals and busi- 

 ness circulars had the effect to attract shipments on a greatly increased 

 scale from almost every wool producing country, and the imports for 

 eighteen hundred and sixty-two exceeded fifty-six million pounds. De- 

 spite the fluctuations of gold and the operation of the tariff, these im- 

 portations continued in increased volume through the first half of the 

 present year ; the receipts of foreign wools for that period exceeding 

 forty million pounds. 



To this cause we may attribute the present condition of our markets 

 and the general depression that seems to have overtaken them. That it 

 will be permanent, we do not believe; that it is but a natural reaction 

 from which Ave shall soon recover, seems more reasonable by far, and 

 though wools may not again reach the nominal prices of last January 

 and February in our Eastern markets, we expect to see them, relatively 

 to the price of gold, even higher. 



In regard to the large importations of foreign wools, it is to be 

 remarked that the increased manufactures would naturally permit much 

 larger importations than at any previous time, and be}*ond that the 

 defection of the Southern States reduced the product of wool, directly, 

 by the amount of nearly sixteen million pounds, and indirectly, by the 

 amount of cotton formerly used in goods denominated woollen, fully six- 

 teen million pounds more ; so that an importation of thirty million 

 pounds would be required to offset the deficiency of our domestic pro- 

 duct, even allowing a large margin for the increased production of the 

 Northern States during the past two years. 



We know that the supply of goods for ordinary wear is by no means 

 equal to the requirements of the country, and unless we are to be sup- 

 plied to a much greater extent than ever before by foreign manufac- 

 turers, it is clear that wool must again be in active demand in our own 

 markets. One fact is here worthy of mention, viz. : that our domestic 

 growth of wool has never equalled much more than one half of the 

 supply for our home manufactures, and the entire amount of these has 

 scarcely equalled one fifth of our consumption of woollen goods. From 

 all the sources of information available to us Ave draw the following 



