Effect Of Tariff On Wool

By reference to the report of the Fedral Bureau of Statistics, it can be seeu tiat f rom 1S46 to 1360, when wool was n the free list, American wools rought their best average prices. heep husbandry, thoagh mainly conned to small Hoeks In the states east f the Missouri lliver, prospered, and he number of sheep rapidly increased. n fourleen years the clip increased ïom 4f.000,000 to over 100,000,000 lbs. Durins? the war high prices ruled on ccount of the enormous demands of lie goyernment for woolen goods, but he prices, when reduced from a curency to a gold basis, rated no higher üan in the days of peace. VVith the wool tariff of 1S64 trouble began and he sheep industry began to move vestward, to the free grazing lands west of the Missouri River. Meanwhile a decrease ia the number of heep in the states east of the Missouri )egan to be manifest. As a cure for bis, the 80 per cent. wool tariff of 1S67 vas enacted. In 186S the wool clip mounted to 180.000,000 pounds, but heep husbandry ëast of the Missouri liver began to decline at a rate unknown in the anuals ot the country. Although trom 1868 to 1875 witnessed ;he greatest development of wool raisng in Texas, California, and the unocupied free grazing lands in the Terriories, the wool clip of the country remained below that of 1868. It was not until the "tb yearafter the passage of his beneöcient tariff that the wool clip eached the figure that it touched be'ore. The decline feil as low as 28,00000 pounds in one year. Then the normous increase in the great western lock, under the tlieu primitive condiions prevailing in Texas, California, ew Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Oregon, Utah, and Aiïzona, brought the yield up to its qld standard. All subsequent increase in the wool lip has been in the regions named, where the range was free and limitless. Sheep husbandry in the older sectiqns f the country continued to languish and decline. In 1883 the tariff was reduced to its present figure, but the western wool clip continued to increase and prices declined until water mark was touched in 18S6, the clip amounting to 285,000,000 pounds. Meanwhile, wool manufacturing did iot keep pace with tbe wool growing, n account of the hampering 'effects of he tariff, which enhanced the cost of ;he foreign wools necessary to mix with he domestic article. The cheap westrn wool drove the eastsrn flockmasters ut of the business, but the business tself was becoming unprofitable beause of the stagnant condition of the manuracturing industry