EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 



561 



The woolen tariff act was passed March 3, 1867, and great results 

 were promised and anticipated. There was a slight increase in the num- 

 ber of Ohio sheep for 1808, but a tall in their value of 30 per cent, and 

 from 1867 to 1877, a period of ten years, the number of sheep declined 

 one-half, from 7,555,507 in 1867 to 3,724.040 in 1877. Ohio fleece wool 

 declined from 1866 to 1871 as follows: 



The decline from 1866 to the summer of 1871 is attributed to over- 

 production in our own country, the immense quantity of woolen goods 

 thrown upon the markets at the close of the civil war, and excessive 

 importations from abroad. The tariff bill failed to pass in the session 

 of 1865-1866, and in anticipation of its passage the ensuing session, 

 71,000,000 pounds of wool, and woolens of the value of $57,115,000 

 almost equaling the entire imports of the four preceding years were 

 imported under the existing low duties. It was not until 1871 that 

 there was a revival. It took the intervening time to work off the ex- 

 cessive stock of 1865 and 1866. In 1872 Ohio wool averaged 69J cents 

 a pound. It is the belief of the Ohio wool-growers that the tariff of 

 1867 saved the woolen industry of the whole country from destruction, 

 and that the revival of 1871 was just in time to save Ohio flocks. But 

 the prospective protection on wool in 1865 and 1866 and the passage of 

 the act of 1867 led to the extension of wool-growing beyond the Mis- 

 sissippi on lands costing little or nothing, and the competition on these 

 new fields was more severe than with foreign countries, and the imme- 

 diate result was the removal of many flocks from the high-priced lands 

 of Ohio and a steady diminution in the number of sheep until 1877. 



Ohio fleece wool touched its highest price in 1872, and then steadily 

 declined until 1880, when it made a slight recovery and again declined. 

 The market prices from January, 1871, to December, 1890, are shown in 

 the following table : 

 22990 36 



