WOOL RAISING IN THE UNITED STATES. 
211 
mentof a public sale of woofs imported from a British 
colony was a subject of derision on the part of not a 
few of the German and Spanish merchants connected 
with the trade, in the wools of the two countries we 
have named, and a topic judged as chimerical by the 
flock-masters and manufacturers in the United King¬ 
dom.” For a long time the colonial wools were im¬ 
ported in a bad condition, being put up without wash¬ 
ing or assorting, and frequently filled with burrs and 
other objectionable matters; and the wool from Sydney, 
in addition to its other bad qualities, was very defi¬ 
cient in strength of staple, which was charged to the 
great scarcity of water prevalent in New South Wales. 
As is the case with all new enterprises, the progress 
was limited, and subject to much fluctuation and 
many losses. Prices were for some time very low, 
owing to a want of character and reputation in the 
article, and the business in first hands was far from 
profitable ; yet Anglo-Saxon perseverance, intelli¬ 
gence, and energy, steadily and rapidly overcame all 
obstacles, and the annual public sales now held in 
London, are looked to with Jhe same respect as the 
sales of Chinese teas and American cotton. The de¬ 
tails given in the article from which we quote are not 
generally very succinct or definite, but enough is 
given to show the general results which we wish to 
exhibit. 
Progress of the Wool Trade from Australia. —Pre¬ 
vious to 1825, a sale of 400 bales was considered a 
very large sale. (We may here mention, the hale is 
a very indefinite quantity, varying from something 
under 200 lbs., to over 260 lbs.) In 1836, however, 
colonial wools began to be quite popular, and there 
were offered, at one sale, 8,746 bales of Australian 
and Tasmanian wool, and the whole quantity brought 
into England for that year was 22,783 bales. The 
prices for some of the best combing qualities, were 
2s. 6d to 3s. 3§d., or from 60 to 80 cents. The same 
year there were imported from Germany 90,450 bales, 
and from Spain 23,463 bales. 
In 1839 there were imported into London alone 
from Australia 20,495 bales, of the aggregate weight 
of 5,414,300 lbs. The total importation into the 
kingdom is not given ; but that for London in 1836 
(the only standard of comparison afforded us) was 
10,227 bales, being nearly one-half the entire importa¬ 
tion for that year, thus making with this ratio, an im¬ 
portation in the whole kingdom, of over 45,000 bales 
for this year, from Australia. The imports of Peru¬ 
vian woo! for 1839, were 20,114 bales, and of 
Spanish, 11,318 bales. 
Ill 1841 Australian wools were imported into 
London to the extent of 54,7,64 bales, weighing 
13.145,555 lbs. In 1843 the importation of Aus¬ 
tralian was 67,160 bales, while of German, there 
were 9,964 bales, and of Spanish, 2,480 bales. 
The highest prices paid for 1844 were 2s. 3d., 
about 53 cents, for “ hand washed;” and 2s. 2§d., for 
good combing cool. The result of the foregoing pro¬ 
gression, in one branch only of colonial wool grow¬ 
ing, on the German importation, is given above, and 1 
the consequences were such as were to have been 
clearly foreseen, having ended in the bankruptcy of' 
many of the small flock-masters, and the great curtail¬ 
ment of the larger establishments. 
Van Pieman’s Land —The first noticed importation 
from this island is given in 1827, when the total 
amounted to 192,075 lbs.; in 1829, 925,320 lbs.; in 
1831,1,359,203 lbs.; in 1836,1,983,786 lbs.; in 1839, 
3,212,698 lbs.; in 1843, 3,993,040 lbs. The prices 
obtained for this wool, correspond very nearly with 
that of the Australian above-mentioned. 
The Cape of Good Hope is styled, par eminence , 
“ the father colony of the wool trade.” The first 
imports noted, are in 1816, and amount to only 9,623 
lbs.; in 1822, 49,028 lbs. The prices at first obtain¬ 
ed were from lOd. to Is., or 20 to 24 cents. In 1837, 
the imports ran up to 468,011 lbs., and the quality 
had so much improved, that the best lots readily com¬ 
manded Is. lOd. to 2s. per lb. In 1841, the total im¬ 
port was 1,079,910 lbs.; 1843, 1,728,453 lbs.; 1844, 
nearly 2,000,000 lbs. 
Port Phillip , a recent settlement, in the southern 
part of New Holland, exported no wool comparatively 
8 or 10 years ago, but during 1844, sent to England 
11,770 bales, some of which sold as high as 2s. 5d. 
per lb., or 57 cents. 
The East India Company’s Possessions in 1817, 
sent only about 1,000 lbs. wool to the English mar¬ 
ket; in 1821,18,000 lbs.; when, for a series of years, 
there was a rapid decline till 1825, when it reached 0 
{nothing). They subsequently ran up till they reached 
in 1835, 292,662 lbs.; in 1839, 2,103,546 lbs. ; in 
1842, 4,195,768 lbs. 
South Australia , “ a fresh settlement,” sent to Eng¬ 
land in 1840, but 51,590 lbs.; in 1843,1,387,514 lbs. 
New Zealand , just starting in the wool career, fur¬ 
nishes but one authentic importation, that of 1842, 
when 262 lbs. are reported; yet in 1844, 100 bales 
were offered at a single sale. 
New South Wales affords a fair example of the 
progress in wool growing. In 1827, the imports were 
320,683 lbs.; in 1832, 1,425,657 lbs.; in 1836, 
3,008,022 lbs.; in 1840, 7,000,727 lbs.; and in 
1844, they were reported to reach 14,000,000. Such 
is a brief summary of the rapid developments of wool 
growing, in some of the dependencies of the British 
crown. Let us see if we cannot derive some useful 
lesson from a consideration of the foregoing facts. 
In each of the settlements above mentioned, there 
is little that is attractive to the enterprising and intelli¬ 
gent wool growers of Europe, except in the single 
qualification of money making. Beyond this, there 
is nothing to compensate for leaving an old and culti¬ 
vated country, for those so entirely uninviting. In 
addition to mental and moral privations, there are 
others of a physical nature, strongly objectionable, 
one of the most material of which, is the excessive 
scarcity of water in all the regions mentioned. In 
the article quoted, there are frequent allusions to the 
excessive droughts, and to the effects of which a de¬ 
cided inferiority of staple is attributed. The prices of 
land are quoted at 5s. to 10s. per acre, or $1.25 to 
$2.50. These prices, it will be observed, range from 
the minimum, to twice the minimum price of United 
States Government lands. The purchase of a certain 
quantity of land there doubtless enables the flock- 
master to use an illimitable range of unoccupied ter¬ 
ritory, as the occupant of a few acres of our western 
prairies can have the undisturbed range of all that be¬ 
longs to non-residents, or remains unsold. The 
occupant of New Holland has a somewhat better 
chance for the permanency of his unbought range 
than the American farmer; indeed, it is precisely in 
the inverse ratio of its attractiveness. 
The duty on the importation of wool into England 
