of diversified industry on which the wealth and independence of natious so much depend. We submit to the Revenue Commission the following proposed draught or bill of duties on wool: SEC. And be it further enacted, That from and after the passage of this act, in lieu of the duties now imposed by law on the articles hereinafter meutioned, there shall be levied and collected, on all unmanufactured wool, hair of the alpaca, goat, and other like animals, imported from foreign countries, the duties herein provided. All wools, hair, &c., as above, shall be divided, for the purpose of fixing the duties to be charged thereon, into three classes, to wit: Class 1-Clothing wools: That is to say, merino, Mestiza, Mets or Metis wools or other wools of merino blood, immediate or remote; down clothing wools; and wools of like character with any of the preceding, including such as have been heretofore usually imported into the United States from Buenos Ayres, New Zealand, Australia, Cape of Good Hope, Russia, Great Britain, Canada, and elsewhere, and also including all wools not hereinafter described or designated in classes two and three. Class 2-Combing-wools: That is to say, Leicester, Cotswold, Lincolnshire, down combing-wools, Canada long wools, or other like combing-wools of English blood, and usually known by the terms herein used; and also all hair of the alpaca, goat, and other like animals. Class 3-Carpet wools and other similar wools: Such as Donskoi, native South American, Cordova, Valparaiso, native Smyrna, and including also such wools of like character as have been heretofore usually imported into the United States from Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Syria, and elsewhere. For the purpose of carrying into effect the classification herein provided, a sufficient number of distinctive samples of the various kinds of wool, hair, &c., embraced in each of the three classes above named, selected and prepared under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, and duly verified by him, (the standard samples being retained in the Treasury Department.) shall be deposited in the custom-houses and elsewhere, as he may direct, which samples shall be used by the proper officers of the customs to determine the classes above specified, to which all imported wools belong. The duty upon wools of the first class the value whereof at the last port or place whence exported to the United States, excluding charges in such port, shall be thirty-two cents or less per pound, shall be ten cents per pound, and, in addition thereto, ten per cent. ad valorem; the duty upon wools of the same class the value whereof at the last port or place whence exported to the United States, excluding charges in such port, shall exceed thirty-two cents per pound, shall be twelve cents per pound, and, in addition thereto, ten per cent. ad valorem. The duty upon wools of the second class, and upon all hair of the alpaca, goat, and other like animals, the value whereof at the last port or place whence exported to the United States, excluding charges in such port, shall be thirty-two cents or less per pound, shall be ten cents per pound, and, in addition thereto, ten per cent. ad va lorem; the duty upon wools of the same class the value whereof at the last port or place whence exported to the United States, excluding charges in such port, shall exceed thirty-two cents per pound, shall be twelve cents per pound, and, in addition thereto, ten per cent. ad valorem. The duty upon wools of the third class the value whereof at the last port or place whence exported into the United States, excluding charges in such port, shall be twelve cents or less per pound, shall be three cents per pound; the duty upon wools of the same class the value whereof at the last port or place whence exported to the United States, excluding charges in such port, shall exceed twelve cents per pound, shall be six cents per pound: Provided, That any wool of the sheep, or hair of the alpaca, goat, and other like animals, which shall be imported in any other than the ordinary condition as now and heretofore practiced, or which shall be changed in its character or condition, for the purpose of evading the duty, or which shall be reduced in value by the admixture of dirt or any other foreign substance, shall be subject to pay twice the amount of duty to which it would otherwise be subjected, anything in this act to the contrary notwithstanding: Provided further, That when wool of different qualities is imported in the same bale, bag, or package, it shall be appraised by the appraiser, to determine the rate of duty to which it shall be subjected, at the average aggregate value of the contents of the bale, bag, or package; and when bales of different qualities are embraced in the same invoice at the same price, whereby the average price shall be reduced more than ten per cent. below the value of the bale of the best quality, the value of the whole shall be appraised according to the value of the bale of the best quality; and no bale, bag, or package shall be liable to a less rate of duty in consequence of being invoiced with wool of lower value: And provided further, That the duty upon wool of the first class which shall be imported washed shall be twice the amount of duty to which it would be subjected if imported unwashed; and that the duty upon wool of all classes which shall be imported scoured shall be three times the amount of the duty to which it would be subjected if imported unwashed. The duty on sheep skins, raw or unmanufactured, imported with the wool on, washed or unwashed, shall be per cent. ad valorem; and on woollen rags, shoddy, mungo, waste, and flocks, shall be twelve cents per pound. HENRY S. RANDALL, Chairman Executive Committee National Wool-growers' Association. Hon. STEPHEN COLWELL, Of the United States Revenue Commission. Statement of the executive committee of the National Association of Wool Manufacturers, relative to proposed duties on wool and woollens, with explanatory key, addressed to the United States Revenue Commission, May, 1866. SIR: The duty having devolved upon you to report to Congress a projét of a tariff upon wool and the manufactures of wool and worsted, the suggestion was approved by you, that the representatives of the National Association of Wool Manufacturers should meet the representatives of the several organizations of wool-growers, for the purpose of consultation in relation to the representations to be made and the facts to be presented respecting the wool-producing and wool-manufacturing interests before the United States Revenue Commission. In consequence of this suggestion, a convention of wool-growers and wool manufacturers was held in the city of Syracuse, New York, in December last The result of this convention was a protracted conference, in the city of New York, of the executive committees of the national associations of wool-growers and wool manufacturers, and the adoption of a joint report recommending to the Revenue Commission certain propositions as a basis for the adjustment of the revenue laws applicable to wool and woollens. Subsequently the executive committee of the National Association of Wool Manufacturers had a full conference with you personally at Philadelphia in relation to the provisions of a tariff to be framed in conformity with the propositions recommended in the joint report above referred to. The provisions in relation to the duties on wool having been considered by you, it was proposed at the interview in Philadelphia to assemble representatives of the various branches of the woollen and worsted manufacture to furnish the information necessary to adjust the duties on manu And they subsequently add: "It has been the experience of all nations that the domestic supply of this raw material has been the first and always the chief dependence of its manufactures, and the peculiar character of this material has impressed itself upon the fabrics which each country has produced. Thus, in the fine wools of Saxony and Silesia, we have the source of German broadcloths; in the combing-wools of England, the worsteds of Bradford; and, in the long merino wools of France, the origin of her thibets and cashmeres. The peculiar excellences of American wools have given origin to our flannels, our cassimeres, our shawls, and our delaines, and they give strength and soundness to all the fabrics into which they enter." In the class of very coarse wools-carpet wools-such as Donskoi, Cordova, and Valparaiso, the United States could unquestionably produce them in their greatest perfection, were it profitable for us to grow them. But it is not usual to raise rye on land which will yield an equal amount of wheat. COMPETING WOOLS. The principal wools, except combing-wools, competing with those of the United States, are grown in the Argentine Republic, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Russia. Those of the Argentine Republic are grown in Buenos Ayres, and are usually known, collectively, in commerce under the name of Mestiza wools. They are classed as merino and Mestiza, Nos. 1, 2, and 3. 66 Merino" ranks in fineness with our "Saxony;" Mestiza No. 1 and No 2 with the two highest grades of American merino; Mestiza No. 3 with our grade and common wools. The Mestiza wools possess good felting properties, but all of them lack the soundness and strength of American wools. Some of our manufacturers of cassimeres, doeskins, &c., use them exclusively, but more generally American wool is mixed with them sufficiently to compose half the warp, in order to make it spin and encounter the other processes of manufacture without breaking. In plain broadcloth, the whole warp is one-third; in twilled broadcloth, as forty-five to fifty-five; in doeskins, a little more than half. While it is conceded that the intimate incorporation of the fibres which takes place in a thorough process of felting leaves the cloth less dependent upon the direct strength of its threads than is the case with worsteds and like fabrics, it would be contrary to every principle of physics to suppose that a weak wool will make as strong cloth, or, other things being equal, one possessing as good wearing qualities, as a materially stronger wool. It is not claimed that Mestiza wool possesses any counterbalancing advantage over our wools. Mr. Slater's testimony is decisive on that point. 66 The South African or Cape wools" are about as fine as Mestiza, and are sounder and cleaner. Fine wools are not, at present, imported in sufficient amounts from other countries to render a separate description of them important. EXPORT OF COMPETING WOOLS TO THE UNITED STATES. The following table gives the amount, value, and average price per pound of wool exported from Buenos Ayres to the United States from 1855 to 1865, inclusive: *Not returned, but estimated, from value returned, to amount for the four years to 40,267,00 pounds. Estimated. The following table embraces the same particulars in relation to the wool exported to the United States during the same period from the British posses In Buenos Ayres a shepherd, with his dogs, and some occasional assistance from children, takes all the care, besides shearing, of one thousand sheep, summer and winter. His almost unvarying subsistence is hard biscuits and fried mutton. He does not even raise the materials for or make the former, but procures them from town or city. He cultivates no esculent vegetables, uses no milk, butter, or any of the other sim le luxuries to be found in every farmhouse in the United States. His house is a hovel of unburnt bricks, containing only the most scanty and primitive furniture. His fuel is dried dung from the bottom of the sheep-fold. The warmth and equability of the climate render his necessary clothing of little cost. In short, all his material modes of life are as Sheep Farming on the Pampas," by Reverend G. D. Carrow, late superintendent of the missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church in South America. Report of Committee of Agriculture, 1864. rude and unexpensive as those of the semi-savage state. In a country without public or private improvements, and almost without established institutions, he contributes as little to the expenses as he shares in the benefits of civilization. It is not here necessary to show the separate items of cost of wool production in Buenos Ayres. The article being grown exclusively for export, and without connexion with or benefit to any other husbandry, it may be assumed that its market price covers cost and a profit, or else the production would be abandoned. We have seen that the market price in the city of Buenos Ayres averages about thirteen cents a pound. The average quantity and annual market price of wool in the United States from 1827 to 1861, inclusive-a period of thirty-five years-is made to appear, by a table prepared originally at the request of the chairman of this committee, by the late George Livermore, the eminent wool merchant of Boston, whose name is an ample guarantee of its entire accuracy. The average price of fine wool for the whole period was 50.3 cents per pound; of medium, 42.8 cents; of coarse, 35.5 cents-average of the whole, 42.8 cents. This supposes the wool in market, charges paid, and currency generally at the gold standard. When the profits of a commodity are large compared with those of other commodities, its production is expected to increase rapidly. In what proportion did the growing of wool increase in the United States during the period above specified? We have not the number of our sheep in 1830. It appears by the census reports that the number in 1840 was 19,311,374; in 1850, 21,723,220; in 1860, 23,268,915. Sheep thus only increased twenty and a half per cent. in twenty years, while population increased between seventy and eighty per cent. The aggregate value of the imports of wool for ten years ending 1850 was $10,063,609; for ten years ending 1860, $30,428,157-an increase approaching to 200 per cent. We shall get a better view of the increase in the imports of woollens by going further back. Their aggregate value for― Ten years ending 1830 was $86, 182, 110 129, 336, 258 109, 023, 152 282, 682, 830 Under this showing, it is proper to assume that, taking all the sheep of our country together, the market price of wools from 1827 to 1861 was not more than barely remunerative. But for the other uses of sheep besides wool-growing, which have already been described, they would have produced no profit to their owners. The present decade has introduced a new era in the cost of all kinds of agricultural production. The price of labor and subsistence is now more than double the average from 1827 to 1860, and double what it was only ten years ago. It is made to appear by the concurrent testimony of leading wool-growers in our principal wool-growing States, recently drawn forth by inquiries made to them by this committee, at the request of the United States Revenue Commission, that a competent shepherd, or laborer on a sheep farm, now receives, on the average, $300 per annum, and that his subsistence costs $150. It requires one laborer, aided by the agricultural labor-saving machines now coinmon, to take the summer and winter care of three hundred sheep in Ohio, New York, or Vermont; i. c., keep buildings, fences, and implements in repair, sow and harvest the grain, mow and feed out the hay, and do all the other work necessary to be done on a sheep farm in the climate of those States. The expense of labor, therefore, for 300 sheep is $450, or $150 per head. The cost of ordinary sheep farms is about $30 per acre, and such farms, including wood land and waste land, will support, taking one year with another, say two and a half sheep to the acre. It requires to work the farm a span of horses, harness, wagon, sleigh, mowing machine, horse-rake, plough, harrow, cultivator, fanning mill, |