514 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



" Among these products may be named cotton, hemp, flax, 

 wheat, corn, barley, oats, potatoes, hops, dairy products, 

 garden vegetables, poultry and eggs, live stock for use as 

 food, some kinds of tobacco, small fruits, apples and other 

 orchard fruits and hay." 



The sheep and wool industry of the country is set forth in 

 the memorial as being sadly in need of protection. It states 

 that : — 



"Under normal conditions, the present population of the 

 United States will consume annually 9 pounds per capita of 

 wool, on the unwashed basis, or, in all, 630,000,000 pounds, 

 requiring 110,000,000 sheep for its production. Had the 

 wool tarifi* of 1867 been kept in force to this tinie, with im- 

 provements adapting it to changed conditions, we would now 

 have a sufficient number of sheep to supply the wool of every 

 kind needed for consumption in this country. 



"The taritr was reduced on wool, and under it sheep 

 declined in numbers. In 1890 the flocks of the United 

 States reached a total of 47,223,000, and were increasing at 

 the rate of about 1,000,000 a year. With a value of $2.50 

 per head in 1892, our flocks were worth $118,057,500. 

 They have been decreasing at the rate of 3,000,000 annually 

 under free wool, and their number had receded, on April 1, 

 1896, to 36,464,405, with an average value of $1.70 a head, 

 — a loss in numbers of more than 10,000,000 in three 

 years, and in value a sum over $60,000,000." 



Congress is asked in the memorial to pass the bill pre- 

 sented by the National Wool Growers' Association in 

 December, 1895, revised and printed in July, 1896, in the 

 " Quarterly Bulletin" of that association. 



" It proposes a duty of 12 cents a pound on merino wool 

 and wools of the mutton breeds of sheep unwashed ; on other 

 wools, 8 cents per pound ; double duty on all if washed, and 

 treble if scoured. Australian and similar wools of light 

 shrinkage in scouring, as shown in native condition, shall be 

 deemed washed ; that wool in any other ordinary condition 

 of fleece shall be subjected to double duty ; and defines what 

 shall be deemed scoured wool." 



The business for which the sixteenth annual session had 

 been convened having been completed, after a vote of thanks 

 to the officers was passed, a vote to adjourn was carried, the 



