Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1868-01-29
Popular FaIIacIes Concern
ing Wool.

IL SOAAAOlSidA ClTClebB ~ lcAsNJ AuOst
erroneous views concerning the quality,
consumption, present supply, and the
influence of existing import laws upon
present prices, appers to prevails few
OF which are noticed, viz:
l. That Tie quality Of American lOOol
has dsLeTiOratea-It has been bolelJ as
serted that the dissemination Of Ameri-
can Merinoes has been Injurious to the
quality of the wool. The most Judi
cious bred and carefully housed thor
ough-breds have, indeed, furnished
very oily unwashed fleeces, unprofita-
ble to manufacturers on account Of the
loss in cleansing; but for one of these
there are scores, if not hundreds of
their progeny, whose wool is vastly su-
perior to that of their Ooarse-wColed
ancestors, and of that quality most in
demand al American factories, answer
ing for all except the finest cloths, and
OF sufficient length to become a sub
stitute for combing woods in delaines.
This breed has 50 far affected a vast
improvement upon the coarse mongrel
sheep constituting the great mass of
tiocks of former days. 1t is not neces-
sary to affirm this fact before intelli-
gent wool growers, but millions of
American citizens may be misled by
widely published statements of the in
ferior condition of our wool clip, re-
sulting from crosses of American Meri-
noes upon the sheep of the west. h-
2. Thai domestic l0o0l Is inferior to for
eign.-The very reverse of this state
ment is true. In strength of fibre aud
durability of fabric our homegrown
wool is far superior to that which is
imported Every manufacturer who
has tested the matter viii Lcorroborsts
the statement. Writers in the foreign
wool-selling interest freely declare that
a proportion of foreign wool is neces-
sary for mixing with the domestic, and
that in its absence the manufacture OF
the home heeces. must decline. The
statement is utterly erroneous. The
only pretextfor it is in the adaptation
of machinery, in certain factories, to
this mixture. Every month is remov-
ing this neutrality-suspicious. to the
supremacy of domestic Wools. The
progress of manufacturers, in this res
peel, has bean wonderful the past year
Cotswold and Leicester combing woolE
are in fact scarce, but the deficiency
can be easily supplied in q few years,
and the invention of our manufacture
ers, impatient of delay, has found an
excellent substitute in the long fibre
of Me.ino grades, by the aid of chang
es in the machinery by which it il
wrought. Very little WOO, ,exeeptcarpei
grades, which are admitted with lesi
duty than the grower pays as taxes, il
now required by manufacturers from
foreign sources. When the broadclott
shall be extended here, 4
finer Merino will be wanted, and car
be supplied without foreign aid.
II 3. That lss med SsvSsfg rlilliOnsof pound
of foreign UOOL 70 supplement the domesti
sUpply.-The imports Of all woods, II
four years of war, we're but sixty-three
millions per year, with six million o.
shoddy-ina all. more precisely, 279, ,l83,
049 pounds. In 1860 the imports Wert
one half as much, and the home pro
duct but sixty millions; the actua
manufacture but eighty millions. Il
is folly now to talk of sixty or seventy
millions deficiency, when the trade Il
suffering from a suFfeit OF woods and
woollens, notwithstanding the decrease
of imports of wool since the war. On
the other hand, there are persons who
prefer TO believe that the domestic
wool product is in excess OF the de-
msnd. q position equally unfounded
4. T8af the recent L=s5 kas act be1lgNted
lpool products and maHBfaefUre.-The close
of the war found full supplies of wool.
en- goods, and immense stores of un'
used army clothing; and in anticipa-
ton of legislation affecting importation
nearly as many woollers were Introdu.
ced, in a single year, as were imported
during the entire period of the war
In this state of facts, utter annihila.
ton of wool growing and manufsctu-
ring was only prevented by the opera
tion of the law in repressing further
importation, and inspiring confidence
in the future, when the immense sur
plus should be exhausted. It has pro-
i duced all the advantages that its most
sanguine friends could claim for it, IN
preventing in large degree, ruinous
depression and the sacrifice Of hoeks,
| and in paving the way for entire sue
/ cess in the future, which shall benefit
every interest of agriculture and every
branch of industry.-MoHthly Report o.
Department Of Agriculture.