THE GENESEE FARMER 



203 



efirth of bones. Where sufficient lime exists natu- 

 rally in the soil, tillage effects the important chemical 

 changes v.hich we have just named. A calcareous 

 soil yields far more clover and other herbage to be 

 turned in with the plow, and feed growing wheat 

 plants, than will grow on laud that has only a mini- 

 mum quantity of lime. To persuade a field to bear a 

 generous burden of clover, or grass of any kind, we 

 must see that the soil abounds in the things which 

 nature consumes in the growth of such plants. If it 

 has the constituent elements of crops, it needs no ma- 

 nurd; but if these are lacking, then look out for ashes, 

 bones, gypsum, marl, night-soil, subsoil plowing, 

 swamp-muck and lime, stalale manure, and all other 

 known fertilizers. So little attention is paid to col- 

 lecting the elements of grain and applying them to 

 the soil, that we do not expect ever to see wheat so 

 low as a dollar a bushel again in this inland town. 

 The amount of good wheat land in North America 

 is much less than is generally supposed ; while the 

 number to consume wheat increases very rapidly. 



DECLINE IN THE PEICE OF WOOL. 



While Beef Cattle are selling in New York at 

 from $11 to $13 per 100 tbs., and Wheat is worth 

 nearly $2.50 a bushel, and other products of the soil 

 are equally high, it seems extraordinary, and quite 

 unaccountable to some, that the price of Wool should 

 have declined 15 or 20 per cent, below its value last 

 year. The fact is certainly deserving of a thorough 

 investigation. In our last, the reader's attention was 

 invited to important statistics illustrative of the pres- 

 ent condition of the Wool-growing Interest in the 

 United States, in which it was shown that we annu- 

 ally import in woolen fabrics and raw wool twice as 

 much of this staple as is grown in the country. The 

 jjresent low price of wool, comparatively speaking, 

 cannot be ascribed to over-production by American 

 farmers. Its cause, whatever it may be, is wholly 

 foreign; and therefore it is less obvious to the pro- 

 ducers of wool in this republic. In looking abroad 

 for statistics bearing on this question, we find the fol- 

 lowing figures, which embody the substance of the 

 retiu-n of the British Board of Trade: 



IMPORT OF WOOL INTO ENGLAND. 



1849. 1852. 



tbs. lbs. 



Spain 127,579 223,413 



Germany, viz. : — Mecklenburg, ) 



Hanover, Oldenburg & Hanse > 12,750,011 12,765,253 



Towns ) 



Other countries in Europe 11,132,354 13,782,140 



British Poss. in S. Africa. 5,377,595 6,338,796 



British do in East Indies 4,182,853 7,880,784 



British Settlement in AustraUa. 35,849,171 43,197,301 



South .\merica 6,014,525 6,552,689 



Other countries 1,004,679 3,661,082 



1853. 

 lbs. 

 151,117 



11,571,800 



28,861,166 

 7,221,448 

 12,400,869 

 49,075,812 

 9,746,032 

 4,358,172 



Totjil 76,768,647 93,761,458 119,396,445 



The close study of the above table will inform all 

 American wool-growers who are their powerful and 

 successful competitors. It will be seen that Spain 

 exported less wool to England in 1853 than in 1852 

 by 72,296 ibs. Germany exported less by nearly a 

 million and a quarter pounds; while other countries 

 in Europe increased their ex]Dorts of wool to England 

 from 11,132,354 tbs. in 1849, to 28,861,166 fts. in 

 1853, The British Possessions in Southern Africa 



increase their exports of wool about a million pounds 

 a year. Her East Indies have increased their annual 

 exports from about four million pounds in 1849, to 

 nearly twelve and a half millions in 1853. Instead 

 of sending less wool to England since the discovery 

 of gold in Australia, as was predicted and generally 

 expected, the export of last year was six million pounds 

 larger than the year previous; and at the same time 

 South American States sent to England fifty per cent, 

 more wool than ever before. From all countries, the 

 excess of last year's importations over those of 1852 

 is about twenty-five million pounds; equal to nearly 

 half of the entire chp of the United States. The 

 Capital and Machinery of England appear to be in 

 a fair way to purchase the wool, and manufacture it 

 for half the civilized world. Her foreign possessions 

 alone furnish more than seventy million pounds a year; 

 and they have an undeveloped capacity for the econ- 

 omical production of this great staple, limited only 

 by the wants of mankind. She has virtually ceased 

 to be dependent on Spain for fine wool, and soon wiU 

 be equally independent of Germany for that commod- 

 ity. It is now generally believed by naturalists that 

 the fine wooled sheep of Spain, the parents of the 

 best Merino blood, were brought from Africa by the 

 Moors — a very remarkable people. Certainly, the 

 Table Lands of South America are found well adapt- 

 ed to the growth of fine as well as common coarse 

 wool. In Central America, also, this branch of ru- 

 ral industry is bound to prosper. Mr. Barrundia, 

 minister plenipotentiary of Honduras, in presenting 

 his credentials to the President a few days since, said: 

 " Honduras has opened its doors and lent its co-oper- 

 ation to an enterprise of vast importance to the in- 

 terests of the world — I mean a rapid and easy com- 

 munication between the two great oceans. She of- 

 fers her commodious ports, her salubrious climate, 

 and her great but undeveloped resources to the aid 

 of this great undertaking, and opens her rich and fer- 

 tile territoiy to the enterprise and industry of the 

 American people." A ship canal, or a first class rail- 

 way with a double track, will soon connect the two 

 oceans in Honduras; and this great thoroughfare will 

 alone attract tens of thousands of emigrants to "the 

 rich and fertile territory," so liberally opened " to the 

 enterprise and industry of the American people." 



No one can understand the wool market of New 

 York, or the propriety of increasing his flock of sheep, 

 who does not keep himself well posted in the rapid 

 progress of the age. Many of our readers, we dare 

 say, do not see how steamers on the ocean can possi- 

 bly affect the value of wool in Michigan or Canada ; 

 and yet it is such ships as the " Golden Age " (briefly 

 noticed in this connection), that brings the uttermost 

 parts of the earth into successful competition with the 

 wool growers of this countiy : 



"American Steamsup Golden Age, 

 " Melbourne, AustraUa, Feb. 20, 1854, 

 " Gentlemen : — To-morrow I leave for Sidney, 

 having arrived here, all well, in fifty-one days running 

 time from Liverpool, from dock to dock. You can- 

 not conceive the enthusiastic greetings we received 

 from the Americans at this place, when the Golden 

 Age was seen in the oSing, traveling at a speed hith- 

 erto unseen in these waters, when they found that our 



