5o8 



German Wool Trade. 



produced in considerably smaller quantities than it used to 

 be, and this fact has gradually forced itself on the know- 

 ledge of the colonial markets. The scarcity of fine wool has 

 led German manufacturers to use as a substitute cross-bred 

 wool of more or less fine quality ; but even this increase of 

 available raw material was not sufficient to prevent a con- 

 stant rise in the prices of fine wool, and the continued 

 scarcity was so severely felt that the prices of good qualities 

 of cross-bred wool went steadily up. 



Mr, Schwabach thinks, however, that the supply of fine cross - 

 bred wool, so frequently used as a substitute for merino wool, 

 will diminish as time goes on, as the quality of the wool, 

 through constant in-breeding, becomes gradually coarser. He 

 remarks that the prices of cross-bred wool are yearly 

 increasing, although not in the same proportion as those of 

 merino wool, and that should cro-^s-breeding in Argentina 

 continue there will be in a few years a dearth of fine merino 

 wool, and fashion will have to content itself with materials of 

 coarser fibre. 



Cape wool, it appears, is increasingly used by German 

 combers, and, consequently, the import of Cape wool 

 in 1898 was larger than usual. It is, moreover, cheap, 

 especially as compared with Australian wool. So long as the 

 breeder of combing wool finds his readiest market in this 

 article, he will, in Mr. Schwabach's opinion, direct his 

 attention more and more to the production of the long 

 varieties, while the exports of " two-shear " wool (wool of 

 the second shearing) as well as of washed wool (" snow 

 whites" and " scoured ") from the Cape will proportionately 

 decline. 



A certain section of the German landowners are reported 

 to be still calling for a duty on wool, but the manu- 

 facturers are fighting unanimously against it. As the 

 Government has not as yet responded to this demand, 

 it has been thought possible to make the plan more 

 attractive by introducing at the same time a bounty on 

 export wool. But the merchants and manufacturers are 

 equally opposed to this ; and the committee of the Indus- 

 trial Union of Merchants and Manufacturers have passed 

 a resolution pointing out the fact that the production 



