New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-03-13
WOOL.
HISTORY OF GROWING AND MANUFACTURE.

n 4" PROTECTION IN AMERICA AND FREE TRADE
~ GREAT BRITAIN, Staff rNG CoNrRasr.
There is no lack OF wool statistics and yet no
entirely accurate statement of ths supply and
consumption Of DOL exists The elaborate cir
culars OF well-known dealers, like part of the
tables given in the exhaustive work recently
published by the Bureau of Statistics, give nome
supplies of wool for calendar years with foreign
supplies from import for consumption tables
for fiscal years ending six months later In one
OF Mr. Switzlcrs many tablcs prepared WIN
remarkable industry and care, the home supply
for calendar years is given with the imports anu
exports for the same years but without the ware
house statement. showing how much wool re-
NAMED in bond at the end of each calendar year
Stocks Of domestic wool on hand at the principal
markets are also ignored in these tables. though
they in many respects the most complete hith-
erto published This is not strange. because no
reports of quantities in warehouse were published
monthly until after the let Of 1866 was passed.
But it is clearly better to have accurate state
ment for the last twenty years, even though
the same accuracy as to earlier years is unat-
tainable
Wide differences exist between the official and
the commercial statements regarding the yield Of
domestic wool But Of late years the returns
Of the Department of Agriculture have been so
much improved that in other respects they are
generally found more reliable than current trade
estimates. Moreover they are in a measure
guarded by the returns OF the number Of sheep
in each State, and by the efforts Of wool growers
associations to perfect the record 1t is not
therefore unreasonable that in the public mind
they have a weight which does not attach to
unofficial statements, and they are used through
out in the comparisons which follow For $50
and SCI there are no estimates by the Agr1-
cultural Bureau. and for those years estimates
are inserted based upon the reported number of
sheep in the loyal States.
The records given Of wool In the hands Of deal
ers in the principal markets at the close Of eacf
year do not go hack of January, 1866, but this
is less important because exact statements OF
imports or Of warehouse stocks for years earlier
than 1868 cannot be obtained Only the New
York, Boston and Philadelphia stocks are given
in following tables, because the stocks at minor
points are not yet known for January l, 1883
As to imported wool the quantities taken prior to
s6s are per force those of the fiscal years end
ing with the following June and they include
imports less both domestic and foreign exports.
Beginning with 1863, however, the net
imports for the exact calendar year
are obtained. and the official
statement Of foreign wool in warehouse at the
end Of each year. Thus for twenty years the state
ment shows, as accurately as any official figures
in existence can. each pound Of wool entering
into consumption, and though for the earlier
years the statement Is necessarily less exact, the
condition Of the trade at that time was such
that the figures given cannot vary widely from
the fact On one point of course, the tables can
throw no light, viz: stocks in hands of man
ufacturers at each date. With that exception.
they must show the consumption each year with
substantial fidelity. as follows:
AMERICAN AND FOREIGN WOOL