The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-03-09
wOOL-GROWlNG IN VIRGINIA.

WOOL-GROWING IN VIRGINIA.
1t is questionable whether there is any
state in the Union more favorably situated
for the growing of wool than Virginia.
The present condition Of its soil, requiring
the fertilizing and cleansing process of sheep
grazing its natural grasses, everywhere
suited to this description Of stock its eli
mate, favorable for early lambs, and many
other advantages that might be named,
render wool-growing one of the most de-
sirable of our local industries. And there
has never been time in the history of the
country when there was a greater demand
for this important staple than now. The
demand, in fact, far outruns the supply
everywhere. The wool markets are suf-
fering from what the manufacturers tech
nically call "wool famine" the consump-
ton Of the raw material having never been
greater than during the past year.
The advocates of free-trade endeavor to
find remedy for this ''wool famine" in
their own infalhble dogmas, and have asked
the Committee Of Ways and Means for a
reduction Of thirty-three per cent. on wool
en- goods, and an entire repeal of the duty
on wool and large class Of wooden man
ufacturers join in the demand for free wool,
thinking that they will be largely benefited
thereby. But they can hardly have famil-
iarized themselves with the facts and figures
bearing upon this subject, or they would
not have fallen so easily into
this trap of the free-traders. The
present scarcity in wool does not
arise from the duty on the raw material
at all. 1t is attributable to other and en-
tirely different causes. When the present
tariff was adopted, the rate of duty was
fixed, through joint understanding be-
tween the wool-growing and wool-manu-
featuring interests of the country, at so
low figure that it would barely pre-
vent foreign woods from selling in our
markets below the actual cost Of produce
ton. This was in 1867, and the year
before, in anticipation of the adoption Of
this tariff, wool and wooden goods were
poured into the country from abroad, to an
amount surprising that Of any former
period. In addition to this, the govern
ment had thrown upon the market SOL
diers' goods to the amount Of many
millions at price greatly below the cost
ofmaterials. 1t must be apparent then,
that no possible tariff could have benefited
the wool-growers under such state of
things as this. AT all events, they would
fail to realize the benefits designed by it,
until the excess of cheap materials thus
thrown upon the market was exhausted
But in addition to all this, the law of 1867
left wool on the pelt entirely untouched by
duty, so that millions Of sheep were
slaughtered in Australia and La Plata for
the American market, their wool coming
in on the pelt entirely free of duty. Under
these manifest discouragements it is not at
all surprising that the wool-growing inter-
est here should have languished, in spite OF
the seeming protection it received from the
tariff. 1t was almost equivalent to the do
mestic dearth in wool which would ineVita-
bly, ensue from a repeal of all duties on the
raw material.
But the time has now come, when, with
properly imposed duty upon wool on the
pelt, the wool-growers of the country may
hope to recover some of the advantages
they have thus lost under the tariff of 1867.
For this great interest, in spite of the draw
backs named, is increasing with greater
rapidity than almost any other. In 1850,
the entire clip in the United States was only
fraction over fifty-two and half million
pounds in 1871, it was, however, over one
hundred and seventy millions thus show
ing that this product is more than doubling
in each successive decade of our history.
The present high prices will undoubtedly
prove great stimulus to the growth of
wool over the entire country. But the
great advantage Virginia enjoys over the
remote states of the West, where some of
the heaviest clips in wool are now taken, is
that she not only has a home market for
her wool, but ready market for her NUT
ton, which the Western and Southwestern
wool-growers have not. This, and the
other advantages we have named, give the
Virginia farmer an immense advantage over
most Of the other wool-growing sections of
the Union, since they may ordinarily dis
pose of their mutton at price which will
nearly reimburse them for all the sheep