[25] 



against them, to drivo all foreign wools from our own mar- 

 kets." 



Lest some may think that the business in time may be 

 overdone, when it will be no longer profitable to grow wool, 

 I subjoin a careful calculation copied irom the Patent Office 

 reports, showing the amount of wool which will be required 

 to clothe the people of this country : 



"The annual consumption of the entire population 

 of the United States is estimated at six pounds per 

 head ; to place the estimates which follow certainly within 

 the bounds of truth, we will assume the average at four 

 pounds. 



" By the first six censuses the increase of population was 

 three per cent, per year, annually compounded would double 

 it in twenty-three years and one hundred and sixty-four 

 days. Estimating the rate of increase from 



1840 to 1890 at three per cent., which would double the 

 population as above stated, and after 1890 at two per cent., 

 which would double it in about twenty-six years, the follow- 

 ing would be our population at the periods indicated, arid 

 the amount of wool which, according to the previous esti- 

 mate, would be necessary for their consumption: 



YEAR. POPULATION. POUNDS OF WOOL. 



1863-4 34,136,906 136,555,624 



1886-7 68,277,812 273,111,248 



1925 136,555,624 546,222,496 



1963 273,111,248 1,092,444,992 



"Thus in one hundred and twelve years our population 

 is likely to outnumber the present one of Europe, and our 

 annual consumption of wool to exceed on^ billion and nine- 

 ty-two millions of pounds. Assuming' that sheep average 

 two pounds of wool per head, it will require over 364,000,- 

 000 of sheep to supply the demand. The States south of 

 the Potomac and Ohio, east of the Mississippi, containing 

 450,000 square miles, would support all there at a trifle over 

 one and one-fourth sheep to the acre." 



