1868. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



37 



ft^rred that a ruinous displacement of domestic 

 ■wools was the result. The extent of this de- 

 rancreni'-nt will be apparent by an exhibition of 

 official figures of wool imports. It will be re- 

 membered that the four years of war were 

 necessarily years of excessive importation, 

 amounting to nearly two hundred and fifty- 

 two millions of pounds of wool and twenty- 

 seven millions of shoddy, and that during the 

 last year of that period, 1865, ending three 

 months after the close of the war and six 

 months after such result seemed inevitable, 

 the importation was reduced to forty millions 

 of dutiable wool, and a little more than three 

 millions of free wool from Canada. The re- 

 duction should have continued, as we now pro- 

 duce about one hundred and fifteen millions, 

 and can add twenty millions in a single year if 

 the business promises to pay. Instead of such 

 reduction, an enormous increase was made, 

 not only through the fiscal year of 1865-'66, 

 but from July to JVIarch, 1867, when the wool 

 tarili" went into effect, as follows : — 



Years. 



1865 

 1866, 



Dutiable. 



Pounds. 



. 40,372,075 



67,917,031 



Free. Total 



Pounds. Pounds. 



3,486,079 45,*558,154 



1,206,234 69,1^3,265 



Exc£8g over 1865 23,265,111 



Including the shoddy, the increase was 

 nearly twenty-six millions. The imports of 

 the year ending June 30, 1867, were 35,325,- 

 151 pounds, costing $5,770,083; shoddy, 

 5,086,187 pounds, costing $516,480. A glut 

 in the wool market was the result, though 



{)rices did not decline, because the wool was 

 argely held in bond in expectation of a de- 

 crease of future importation by high duties. 

 This was sufficient to prevent a material in- 

 crease of the low current prices, compelling 

 farmers to await patiently the consumption of 

 these foreign supplies. Nor was this all ; 

 manufacturers, as well as farmers, were to suf- 

 fer by an equally excessive impoi-tation of 

 woolens — in fact, an unprecedented influx, 

 almost equalling in a single year the imports 

 of woolens for the entire period of the war, 

 as the following totals will show : — 



Total for 4 years ending June 30, 1865 . . .$87,762,918 

 Annual av. for 4 years ending June 30, 1865 21,940,729 

 Imports of the year ending June 30, 1866 . . 57,115,901 



This is a sum equal to the present total val- 

 uation of the annual wool clip of the United 

 States. 



Of the fleeces imported in the year ending 

 June 30, 1866, nearly all was in direct compe- 

 tition with our own styles of wool, and about 

 thirty-seven million pounds from Buenos 

 Ayres alone, twenty-five million pounds of 

 which came in at three cents duty, and nearly 

 all of it was clothing wool that displaced an 

 equal quantity of the home product. Fine 

 wools, imported in the dirt, came in at less 

 than half the internal re venue taxes upon our 

 own wool growers. The quantity at each rate 

 was as follows : — 



Pounds. Value. Rate of duty. 



32,366,135 $3,522,417 3 cents. 



35,211,402 5,705,293 6 cents. 



8.^29 2,398 10 cents and 10 W cent. 



330,905 150,975 12 cents and 12 l?' cent. 



Added to this was the import of woolens, 

 costing in gold fifty-seven millions of dollars, 

 and in greenbacks, with Ireight and commissions 

 added, fully one hundred luillions ; the whole 

 requiring as much foreign wool to produce it 

 as the entire importation of woolens for three 

 years of the war. Can sensible manufiicturers 

 and intelligent wool growers expect prosperity 

 till this glut in the market is removed ? That 

 it is being removed, since the passage of the 

 wool tariff law, the falling off in importation 

 shows. 



The facts of wool and woolen importations, 

 and the history of the woolen manufacture in 

 this country, show that we have arrived at a 

 period when one of two results must follow — 

 either domestic manufactures must mainly oc- 

 cupy the field of domestic supply, or foreign 

 goods will fill the markets of the country, stop 

 the factories, depress sheep husbandry, reduce 

 the price of wheat and other grain by decreas- 

 ing the number of consumers and increasing 

 the number of competing consumers. 



The aggregate importation of woolens for 

 each decade, and the average per year for 

 forty years, ending in 1860, are as follows : — 



Aggregate. Annual av'ge. 

 Ten years ending In 1830 . . $86,182,110 $8,618,211 



Ten years ending in 1840 . . 12t»,33i,258 12 933,625 



Ten yeai 8 ending in 18.50 . . 109,U23 552- 10,902 355 



Ten years ending in 1860 . . 282,682,830 28,268,283 



Forty years ending in 1860 . 627,224,750 15,680,618 



In 1820, when this importation commenced, 

 manufacturing was at its lowest ebb, the value 

 of its annual product having been reduced to 

 $1,413,068, by excessive importations after 

 the close of the war of 1812, from $25,608,788 

 in 1810 ; just as foreign traders, aided bj 

 American importers, at the close of the late 

 war, and the fall of gold, have seriously im- 

 paired both the wool growing and wool manu- 

 facturing interests by flooding the country with 

 a vast surplus of foreign woolens. While 

 suffering a series of fluctuations, caused bj 

 more or less successful efforts to break 

 down the barriers to over-importation, the 

 progress of manufacturing has been gradual 

 and comparatively regular. In 1830 the pro- 

 duct of woolen manufactures had increased to 

 $14,528,166; in 1840 it was $20,696,999 ; in 

 1850, $43,207,545 ; in 1860, $68,865,963 ; in 

 1864 a return of manufacturers, representing 

 about three-fourths of the total number of sets 

 of machinery, made an aggregate of $120,- 

 000,000. 



With the increase of the manufacture of wool, 

 step by step, advanced the production of wool. 

 The census of 1850 made the clip of that year 

 52,516,959 pounds ; that of 1860 returned 

 60,511,343. The yield of 1864 was estimated 

 at 95,000,000 ; that of 1866, 115,000,000. 

 The increase of manufacturing and the relative 



