tlers from the Tauride, who took their sheep there during the Crimean war. The high prices paid during some years have enticed many peasants and small farmers to rear this class of sheep, finding it more advantageous than rearing common sheep. Of the quantity fine merino wool in the grease brought to the ports of this district annually one-half is generally contracted for at fixed prices during the winter. A large portion is exported in the grease to France, England, Belgium, and Prussia. The remainder is sent to the interior towns to be scoured for the Moscow market and manufactories. * * The weight of fleece of merino wool is, from ewes, 6 to 7 pounds; from rams, 8 to 9 pounds, Russian; but all depends on the winter, the pastures, the locality, and the spring weather. From a report made by Thomas E. Heenan, U. S. consul at Odessa, in March, 1890, I gather that the quantity of Donskoi, or coarse wool, brought in the grease to the washeries in Rostow on the Don, in 1889, amounted to nearly 10,000,000 pounds, of which 9,000,000 pounds were sent to the United States. This wool when washed was reduced in weight about one-half. The quantity of merino wool brought to the same place amounted to 40,000,000 pounds in that year. The consul reports: The quantity of merino wool increases every year in Russia, as woolgrowers find it a good investment, prices during the past four years ruling very high. England takes more than half the total quantity of merino wool offered for sale in Russia, and the United States nearly all of the coarse wool. Merino wools are never shipped from Russia to the United States. The same consul, in a report made three months later, attempted to give the cost of sheep-raising in South Russia, but omitted to state whether it was the coarse or the merino wools that the farmer was raising. According to his statement the average size of the flock was about 1,200 sheep and the number of attendants for such a flock was 4, 3 men and a boy. The wages of a man was $50 a year, and of the boy $20, with food, shelter, and a part of their clothes. The average cost of sheep per year to the breeders was placed at 2 rubles, and its equiva lent in American currency was $1.09, though I can not determine what rate he takes for the ruble, as the silver value would by no means correspond to this equivalent. The average weight of a fleece was 9 pounds and the average price per pound was from 10 to 12 cents. From 5 to 10 per cent of sheep are lost annually through disease, age, and neglect. The proportion of lambs is about 20 per cent. Sheep imported from other countries change their fleece, the wool grows coarser and loses its grease. The conditions as described probably apply to the carpet wool, or Donskoi grade. The usual quantity of merino wool found its way to this market during the past season, viz, about 17,460 tons; of these about 15,080 tons were bought up by Russian and Polish manufacturers, only about 1,746 tons being exported to England, while 635 tons still remain here in the hands of speculators. It may be observed that the exports of merino wool are yearly decreasing, owing to the inability of exporters to offer the prices the Russian buying are in a position to pay consequent upon the everincreasing demand for home consumption. The prices paid were from 44d. to 5od. per pound, some of the higher qualities fetching 54d. per pound towards the end of the season. The amount of Donskoi greasy wool brought to this market during the past year was about 3,650 tons, as against 4,127 tons in 1891. The deficiency is accounted for by the fact that purchases were made in the interior to supply the demand for the northern provinces brought about by a severe loss of sheep in those parts during the winter. Of the above quantity about 160 tons were taken for home consumption, the remainder being bought by export houses. Shipments in the grease amounted to about 715 tons, exclusively to America; the remaining quantity being washed yielded about 1,905 tons, which were likewise exported, principally to the United States, excepting about 238 tons shipped partly to France and Italy and a trifling quantity to Germany. The prices ruling during the season were from 34d. to 34d. per pound, without any sudden or marked changes taking place. The quality of the wool was somewhat below the average, the sheep having suffered for want of sufficient food during the winter, owing to the unsatisfactory hay crop of the preceding year. The quantity of brook-washed autumn and lambs' wool offered for sale was about 795 tons, of which about 700 tons were secured for export to the United States, viz, about 600 tons autumns and 100 tons lambs, the remainder being sold to Russian manufacturers. A few thousand pounds of the better quality lambs' wool were forwarded to Moscow for sale instead of to this market, owing to the higher prices obtainable there. The prices paid here were from 54d. to 6d. per pound. About 160 tons autumns left over from the previous year were shipped to the United States in the spring.* Odessa: export, 1891, 3,057 tons, 200,700 pounds; 1892, 1,944 tons, 118,252 pounds. EXPORTS OF RAW WOOL, ORDINARY, UNWASHED (TARIFF No. 131). |