France to Great Britain amounted to 15,392,517 pounds in 1923 and to 20,729,854 pounds in 1924. These were mainly worsted dress goods weighing less than 11 ounces per square yards. Exports to the United States of wool cloths and dress goods were valued at $1,129,013 in 1913; $2,103,759 in 1923; and $2,051,616 in 1924.

French wool goods are distinguished by their variety and originality of design. The trade thrives on the manufacture of fashionable goods and fancy articles. Roubaix-Tourcoing makes fancy and staple goods in both high and low grades; Sedan specializes in fine cloths; Rheims makes cashmeres, merinos, and expensive fashionable novelties. Fine black cloths, both woolen and worsted, are produced at Elbeuf, as well as fashionable goods, riding habits, uniforms and flannels. Carded cloths for ordinary use are manufactured at Vienne and military fabrics at Lodeve and Cleremont. As regards plants and equipment, the industry, with its high proportion of new spindles and fooms, is capable of more efficient production than before the war. France now supplies both the home market and foreign markets to a much greater extent than in 1912 or 1913.

GERMANY

The last official report available as to the wool machinery equipment of Germany was made in 1907. At that time the equipment was as follows: 1,721 sets of cards; 2,119 combs; 1,956,342 woolen spindles; 2,236,364 worsted spindles; 578,741 twisting spindles; and 95,841 looms. Approximately one-fourth of the last-named were hand looms. The return of Alsace to France resulted in a loss to Germany of 356 combs; 505,206 worsted spindles; 16,000 woolen spindles; and 6,623 looms.

The wool textile industry in Germany is not centralized but is distributed over the whole country. The situation of the spinning and weaving mills is primarily the result of historical growth; their foundation dates back to the era of household industry. Such considerations as fuel and power supply, accessibility to markets, etc., have played a much smaller rôle.

It is possible to designate several of the more important production areas. (1) The Niederlausitz region, including the southeastern portion of the Mark of Brandenburg and northern Silesia, produces chiefly heavy worsted fabrics, but also a variety of carded woolen textiles. (2) The Saxon-Thuringian district makes a specialty of the finest grades of woolen cloths; goods mixed with silk, and materials for women's suits. In and about Chemnitz various finished goods and upholstery cloths are made. (3) There are an upper Rhenish district and a lower Rhenish region which manufacture fine woolens, women's wear, and imitations of English tweeds, homespuns, and men's heavy suitings. Aix-la-Chapelle is one of the chief centers in this district for fine woolen velours and similar fabrics. (4) There is an important woolen industry at Freiburg in Baden. (5) The Wurttemberg area produces a variety of woolen goods. In addition to these roughly defined districts, there are large woolen mills in a number of north German cities, especially in Bremen, Hamburg, and Berlin.

In Germany, as a rule, a single enterprise is engaged in every stage of manufacturing from the washing of the wool to the finishing and

dyeing of the cloth. Not many establishments are merely spinning mills, although a few firms specialize in worsted yarns and do not go on with the weaving. Worsted weaving mills are almost invariably connected with spinning mills. An increasing number of worsted spinning mills take work on contract from other plants, usually weaving and finishing establishments which purchase the raw wool and supply it to the spinners. There are a good many separate dyeing and finishing establishments, but the work is usually carried on in connection with the weaving mills. Until recently there has been a rather strict differentiation between the spinners making the finer grades of yarn and those manufacturing coarser grades. This distinction tends more and more to be obliterated.

Germany's domestic wool production is entirely insufficient for her needs. In 1922 she imported about 90 per cent of all the raw wool consumed by her spinning mills. The decrease of wool production within the last half century has been striking. At the close of the Franco-Prussian War, the German wool clip was nearly five times as great as it is to-day, while domestic consumption was much less. Imports of raw wool in the calendar years 1923 and 1924 were as follows:

German imports of raw wool, 1923 and 1924

Imports of merino wool are mainly from Australia, Argentina, and British South Africa. Crossbred imports, both before and after the war, have come from a number of sources, of which Argentina is the most important.

Before the war Germany's needs for woolen goods were met largely by domestic production. This was especially true of finished goods, such as cloths, suitings, carpets, men's and women's wear, and upholstery cloths. Her need for finished yarns was less adequately supplied at home, and half-fabricated yarns, i. e., tops, also noils for woolen yarns, were imported to the extent of about 30 per cent of total domestic requirements of the spinners.

Imports of wool fabrics (suitings, etc.) weighing more than 700 grams to the square meter (=20.6 ounces per square yard); press cloths, webbing, sieves for oil pressing and felt cloths for pulp mills, amounted to 132,937 pounds, valued at $248,443, in 1924. Fabrics weighing from 200 to 700 grams to the square meter (=5.9 ounces to 20.6 ounces per square yard), amounted to 2,725,547 pounds, valued at $6,381,854, and fabrics less than 200 grams to the square meter (less than 5.9 ounces per square yard), amounted to 6,346,602 pounds, valued at $18,946,666, in 1924. Imports were mainly from Alsace-Lorraine, the United Kingdom, Austria, and Belgium.

Exports of woolen suitings and other fabrics (press cloth, felt cloth, etc.) amounted to 28,418,617 pounds, valued at $36,619,201, in 1923, and 22,037,182 pounds, valued at $36,420,304, in 1924. Exports of the above fabrics to the United States increased from 591,274 pounds in 1923 to 1,282,636 pounds in 1924. The largest users of German woolens and worsteds are Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, and Switzerland.

BELGIUM

The output of the Belgian wool manufacturing industry is not in itself sufficient to supply the home consumption of wool fabrics. Belgium produces only about 825,000 pounds (less than 400 tons) of raw wool annually and therefore must import a considerable quantity. Prior to the war Belgian wool imports averaged about 150,000 tons annually, of which fully two-thirds was reexported, leaving approximately 50,000 tons for local consumption. Consumption since the armistice has ranged between 25,600 and 53,900 tons.

The spinning of woolen and worsted yarns is mainly concentrated in and about the city of Verviers. Outside this district there are important woolen and worsted cloth mills at Tournai, St. Nicolas, Eecloo, Loth, Dinant, and Malines. The Belgian wool industry employs about 30,000 hands, of which 16,000 work in Verviers alone. There are in Verviers 12 worsted mills employing 4,000 operatives and 85 woolen plants of various sizes, engaging some 12,000 operatives. The Verviers spinning industry comprises about 355,000 spindles, of which 180,000 belong to the woolen and 175,000 to the worsted branch. The machinery equipment of Belgium has not greatly altered since the war. In 1924 it was estimated to be as follows:

The products of Belgian mills include fancy worsted trouserings, overcoatings, whipcords, one-and-one worsteds, tropical worsteds, gabardines, uniform cloths, and various grades of cheviots, serges, and other suitings. Two firms specialize in billiard cloths of 63 to 75 inches in width, weighing 25 to 30 ounces per linear yard; these have sold well in the United States. The total annual production of woolens and worsteds in Belgium is estimated to be about 280,000 pieces, of 40-meter length.

The arrangement of Belgian trade statistics is not such as to give a very clear idea of the foreign trade in woolen and worsted fabrics. In general, however, the Belgian industry has never been able to supply the entire demand at home, and in 1913 the quantity of imports exceeded exports by 25 per cent. The year 1919 was one of replenishing stocks of raw material and finished products, so that imports far exceeded exports. After the prosperity and large exports of 1920 and the depression of 1921 the wool-goods trade in 1922 resumed substantially its pre-war proportions, with imports exceeding exports by about 16 per cent and the figures for total volume in each class not

1The worsted combs are chiefly of the Heilmann type.

differing greatly from those of 1913. The principal sources of Belgian imports of woolens and worsteds, before the war and since, have been Great Britain, Germany, and France, in the order named.

Belgium has been largely cut off from French and Spanish markets by high protective tariffs, and the best European fields for Belgian woolen piece goods are Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. Of oversea purchasers the most important are Argentina and British India, the latter especially for tropical fabrics. The Netherlands is the largest importer of Belgian shawls, while upholstery cloths find their best markets in Great Britain and the United States. Although a few of the best known Belgian mills are represented in the United States, most of them have never made a pronounced effort to enter the American market, principally because they are small, conservative in method, and not possessed of adequate means for floating a conspicuous sales campaign. They are obviously not able to compete on a quantity basis, and with rising costs of fuel, freight, and raw materials their advantage on specialties is not great. A Belgian mill, however, will take an order for a few pieces, whereas an American mill requires orders in large quantities. The wide range of fabrics of the usual Belgian mill enables them by this policy to take advantage of momentary demands in various markets.

Belgian fabrics imported into the United States are mainly woolens. General imports of wool cloths and dress goods from Belgium were valued in the United States import statistics as follows:

The wool-manufacturing industry of Italy is centered in the Piedmont district, which possesses about half of the country's looms. Other sections of importance are Venice, Lombardy, and Tuscany.

Italy has a home production of raw wool amounting to about 57,000,000 pounds per annum. Of this quantity, however, about 18,000,000 pounds never reach the mills, but are used for stuffing mattresses and for nonindustrial purposes. The consumption of raw materials by the mills in 1913 and 1924 was as follows:

It should be noted that the above figures exclude imports and exports of tops, which will be dealt with separately. Of the unwashed wool imported, half now comes from Australia and more than a quarter from South America. Italy has no established wool market, purchases of raw wool being made either through the London market or directly from Australia and South America. The directpurchase system has been facilitated and popularized by the work of the Instituto Commerciale Laniero Italiano, which has its headquarters in Milan with branch offices in Biella and Genoa.

The number of wool-combing machines working in Italy increased from 30 in 1876 to 600 in 1925. This increase in combs naturally led to a corresponding decrease in the importation of tops. In 1922, 10,423,035 pounds were imported and in 1924, 6,005,758 pounds. Italy is now exporting tops on a small but on a very definitely increasing scale. Exports increased from 234,392 pounds in 1922 to 1,315,944 pounds in 1924.

The number of woolen and worsted mills in 1925, large and small, was about 850. If the woolen hosiery factories be included, the total is brought up to nearly 1,000. The machinery equipment in Italy in 1913 and 1925 was as follows:

Italian manufacturers now supply more than nine-tenths of the internal demand for wool goods, and they are continually extending their exportations. Foreign competition is felt mostly in women's materials, French products being somewhat favored because of the tradition of style. The value of wool'textiles exported, which before the war was less than a third of the value imported, was actually greater during the fiscal year 1925 than that of imported goods. Recent betterment in the technic of production has rendered the Italian textile more acceptable to the local consumer and has also permitted a relative decrease in cost, with the result that the average consumption per capita during the fiscal year 1925 was about 1 kilo (2.2046 pounds) or slightly more than the pre-war per capita consumption.

Italy's imports and exports of wool textiles were as follows:

1 Not stated, owing to different tariff classification prior to June 30, 1921.