Connecticut western news., 1872-12-13
Wool Burned in Boston.

As great many exaggerated reports have been published of highly sensational kind of the estimated quantities of wool which have been destroyed in Boston, in the late great con- Aagration, the New York Herald has published the following facts to show those interested in this important staple how little reliance can be placed on the stories which spectators have cir culated. It has been claimed that the loss of domestic wool was from 100000 to 5000, 900 pounds.
 The clips of this country for the past three yeaas, according to the carefully prepared sta tisrics of the United States government, have been as follows :-1970, 100, ,936, S25; 1871, 95, ,609,O ,OO7; 1872, 1O9, ,840,95S.
 Of this quantity there has been received at the three principal Eastern markets-Boston, Philadelphia and this city-up to this date on each of these years the quantities as below :-- 1870, 74,820, ,221 pounds; 1871, S3, 513, 800 pounds; 1872, 43,985, 200 pounds. These figures are reliable, have been accurately kept from daily reports of arrivals at each point over all transportation lines. Of~these total receipts at the United States sea5Sard for 1872 there went to Boston +, ,O96, 200 pounds. The stock of domestic wool in Boston on January 1, 1872, was 4,40O, 900 pounds, making to- tai of 21, 496, 200 pounds available for sales 'during this year, and, although the sales there have been reported during the past ten months to be from two to four million pounds each and during the last five months they have averaged two and half millions per month. It has been confidently asserted in the interest of the spectators in wool that there remained about seven million pounds in stock in Boston, which was consumed. There can be no doubt that the facts were stated in the circular of we'll known wool merchant of that city, under date of the 18th of October last, when he said - "There is a scarcity of fleece wool and 8 straight lot is difficult to find at current rates, the purchases the past two weeks having cleared the market of all available lots of fine feeces.
 Owing to the disappointment of the wool raisers in the country at Rot being able to ob- tain in July and August last the prices ex. pected very large portion of the farmers did not sell their wool, and careful estimates made lately in the principal wool-growing States show that there still remains in the hands of the farmers and the country shopkeepers at least thirty to forty per cent of the entire year clip. The receipts at the Eastern markets as given in the table above, amply confirm this statement. We are, therefore, forced to con- clude that the statements which have been widely published, that from 10000 to 15,- 500, ,000 pounds of domestic wool were burned at Boston, have been wild congregations of some wool spectators to stimulate and excite the market, and that the truth is that there was no stock there burned up even much less than the average supply and not more than two million pounds at the most.
 The foreign wool in Boston, having been mostly stored in United States bonded ware houses, outside of the fire district, has nearly entirely escaped frem the confagration, and it is considered by fair judges that two million pounds would cover the small quantity of lol 1o 1oto ,arc stores which were actually destroyed. Besides, it is being ascertained daily, now that the first excitement is over and the debris are being cleared away, and there is large salvage of this as well as other kinds of merchandise in the burned districts, and the streets in Boston which were principally occupied by wool houses for the past few days have been blocked up with wool bales, blackened and charred on the outside, but whose contents on opening are found to be in good condition. No doub a very large quantity of wool will yet be found when the ruins are all cleared away, which had heretofore been considered by the owners as entirely destroyed. With the importations of wool to date this year, about twenty-one million pounds in excess of those of last year for the same time and almost double those of 1870, as shown by the statements below, and with the actual loss of foreign wool by fire in oooIOIl, dL Luo AARuCSt CoCAAudtC OA IAS AaASsi judges in that city, about two million pounds, equal to about eight hundred thousand pounds clean wool, it is easy to place a proper esti- mate on the loose stories abroad of the vast reduction of the wool stock of the country from the late fire.
 Importations of wool to date each year :- 1870, 48,66O, ,579 pounds; 1871, "A 1902, AT pounds ;-1S72, 95, PAS, 024 pounds.
 Already these desperate speculative efforts have turned the serious attention of manufac. turers throughout this State and New England to the best way of meeting such ruinous at tacks on their interest, and the subject of rult ming on half or three-quarters time is being discussed as the best course of proceeding.
 There can be no doubt but that the preser excited tendency of the wool market is simply the result of the baseless statements of greedy ring of spectators, but it seems to b. equally certain that there is an ample stock o both foreign and domestic wool still in tn, country, which manufacturers can again buy before their necessities for making spring good
 press them, at prices which will be satisfactory