WOOL. 



WOOL. * 



"States, lie. Pounds of Wo< 



Maine 1,465,551 



New Hampshire - 1,260,517 



Massachusetts .... 911,906 



Rhode Island - 183,830 



Connecticut - 889,870 



Vermont 3,699,235 



New York 9,845,295 



New Jersey - 397,207 



Pennsylvania - ... 3,048,564 



Delaware 64,404 



Maryland 488,201 



vVirjjinia 2.538,374 



North Carolina .... 625,044 



South Carolina .... 299,170 



Georgia 371,303 



Alabama 220,353 



Mississippi 175,196 



Louisiana 49,283 



Tennessee 1,060,332 



Kentucky 1,786,847 



Ohio - 3,685,315 



Indiana 1,237,919 



Illinois 650,007 



Missouri 562,265 



Arkansas 64,943 



Michigan 153,375 



Florida Territory ... 7,285 



Wiskonsan Territory - 6,777 



Iowa Territory - ... 23,039 



District of Columbia ... 707 



Total 35,802,114 



An interesting view of the foreign wool trade 

 and the check upon this effected through the 

 protection received from Congress, is exhibited 

 in the'following account derived from the co- 

 lumns of the New York Journal of Commerce, 

 (for Sept. 1843.) 



In a communication to the Middkbury Peo- 

 ple's Press, dated 10th July last, and signed by 

 the Hon. William Slade, late a member of Con- 

 gress from Vermont, some interesting facts are 

 stated as to the operation of the new Tariff 

 upon the importation of wool from foreign 

 countries. By information received from the 

 Register of the Treasury, it appears that dur- 

 ing the 1st half of the present fiscal year, which 

 commenced on the 1st of October last, about a 

 month after the new Tariff went into operation, 

 there was imported into the United States, of 

 wool costing 7 cts. a Ib. or under, only 881,568 

 Ibs. and of wool costing over 7 cts. a Ib., only 

 175,962 Ibs. Making a total of only 1,037,530 

 Ibs. of all descriptions of wool in 6 months ! 

 This is a most extraordinary falling off, com- 

 pared with the importations of previous years, 

 as will be seen from the following schedule : 



Year. 

 1835 



1836 

 1837 

 1838 

 1839 

 1840 

 1841 

 1842 



Under 8 cts. 



5,543,626 

 11,033,010 



9,480,195 - 



6,551,126 



7,398,519 



9,303,992 

 11,409,764 

 10,558,998 Ibs. 



Over 8 cts. 



806,370 

 703,276 

 445,478 

 527,620 

 675,009 



351,384 



Making, on an average of 7 years, something 

 over 9,000,000 Ibs. per annum, yjths of which, 

 at the place whence imported, cost less than 8 

 1156 



cts. a Ib. The new Tariff makes the minimum: 

 7 cts. per Ib. instead of 8 cents, and levies a 

 duty of 5 per cent, on wool not above that mi- 

 nimum, whereas under the old Tariff such wool 

 was duty free. But these changes are so slight, 

 that they are not at all sufficient to account for 

 the immense decrease in the amount imported. 

 Lest such should be the inference of the wool- 

 growers, Mr. Slade tells them that through the 

 efforts of the Vermont delegation in Congress, 

 the word "coarse" was inserted in connection 

 with cheap wool, so that now, in order to be 

 admitted at the low duty of 5 per cent, (which 

 cannot exceed 3 mills per Ib.), wool must not 

 only have been bought at 7 cts. a Ib. or under, 

 but must also be coarse : and he adds, " I have 

 no doubt that with a careful and thorough exe- 

 cution of the coarse wool provision, according 

 to its true intent and meaning, the reduction [in 

 the quantity of wool imported] would have 

 been still greater." To illustrate this point, he 

 states the following particulars : 



" It appears from the Custom House returns 

 that 1101 sheep, of the aggregate value of 

 $10,565 averaging $9 60 each, and therefore 

 presumed to have been merino bucks were 

 exported from the United States to Buenos 

 Ayres in the years 1837 and 1838. The quan- 

 tity of wool, the product of the crossings of 

 these merino with the native South American 

 sheep, imported into the United States at and 

 below the value of 8 cts., cannot, of course, be 

 ascertained. The importations from that coun- 

 try of wool costing 8 cts. and under, were 

 greatly increased in the succeeding years ; em- 

 bracing, as is well known, much fine wool, and 

 therefore presumed to have been the product 

 of the crossings referred to. That increase 

 will appear by the following statement of the 

 importations of wool costing 8 cts. and under, 

 from Buenos Ayres, during the years 1 839, 1840, , 

 and 1841, compared with the previous 3 years.. 



In 1836 2,256,887 pounds. 



1837 2,108,582 



1838 2,515,883 



1839 683,535 



1840 566,468 



1841 8,870,799 



" The French blockade of Buenos Ayres in 

 1839 and 1840 diminished the exports of those 

 years, and consequently swelled those of 1841 

 when the blockade was raised. The annual 

 average of the 3 years was 3,373,600 Ibs. That 

 of the preceding 3 years was 2,293,784 Ibs. ; 

 making an excess of the average of the last '3,. 

 over that of the first 3 years, of 1,079,816 Ibs. 

 an increase of about 47 per cent. 



"It was the extraordinary quantity of fine 

 wool thus cheapened in the market of Buenos 

 Ayres, and thrown, in large quantities, upon, 

 our own, that suggested the necessity of the 

 introduction of the word 'coarse' into the 

 clause in question. Its intended effect was, to 

 subject to the higher duty all wool not coarse, 

 though costing less than 7 cts." 



This higher duty, which applies to all wool 

 costing over 7 cts. a Ib., and, according to Mr. 

 Slade's construction, to all wool not coarse, 

 whatever may be its cost, is 3 cts. a Ib. and 30 

 per cent ad valorem. Hence the duty on wool 

 costing 10 cts. at the place whence imported, 

 is 6 cts. a Ib. ; and on wool costing 20 cts., 9 



