33 



alarm in the minds of our provision merchants, were it not tliat they are well 

 aware of the untiring exertions being made to keep our market well supplied. 

 To do so is absolutely necessary. We have now in operation some thirty, first- 

 class packing-houses, with twenty-five others of minor dimensions. The ex- 

 penses they incur, if idle or only running on half work, are very great, so there 

 is every incitement for the packers to endeavor to induce as large shipment of 

 hogs as possible to our market. The eastern shippers are also largely inter- 

 ested in our receipts, and just at present are active competitors with us in our 

 purchases. 



" For the foregoing reasons the emissaries of the packers, shippers, and 

 drovers are now scouring the country in all directions with a view to keeping us 

 liberally supplied with hogs. There is not a section of country in Illinois, Iowa, 

 Wisconsin, Missouri, or Kansas, tributary to any railroad leading to Chicago, 

 that our buyers are not acticely traversing at j)resent. We are not much aston- 

 ished at the large receipts for the past week, and we expect them to continue for 

 a short time longer, but the more our supplies are increased the greater will be 

 the falling off at the smaller packing points." 



The market price had advanced a half cent per pound under these large re- 

 ceipts, and on the 21st of December the prices at Chicago were — 



Extra hogs $12 25 to $12 75 



•Fair to good 11 50 to 12 00 



Common 10 75 to 11 25 



HOGS PACKED AT CINCINNATI. 



* GERMAN STATISTICS. 



Prussian tcool. — The following account of the* sale of wool in the principal 

 wool markets of Prussia i.s interesting, chiefly because of the change in the 

 quality of the wool it exhibits : 



In 1S63 the amount of wool sold in these markets was 29,631,504 pounds, of 

 which 6,217,568 pounds were ordinary wool, 16,130,464 pounds middling, 

 6.706,224 pounds_^we, and 089,248 pounds extra fine. The quality, as to fine- 

 ness, was every year diminishing, and the Silesian wools, well known for their 

 finenc.'^s and their short and even growth, were losing their su])eriority. The 

 leason af^signcd for this change is the great progress made in France and the 

 Zollvcrein of the combing wool industry. There is a like progress of this in- 

 dustry in the United States, but how far peace will modify it cannot now be 

 foreseen, 



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