LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
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 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
/TTZBULIC-A-TIOIESrS 
 OF THE 
 
 University of Pennsylvania. 
 
 POLITICAL ECONOMY AND PUBLIC LAW SERIES. 
 EDMUND J. JAMES, Ph.D., Editor. 
 
 -VX^LTTIMIIE II. 
 
 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF, 
 
 BY 
 WILLIAM DRAPER LEWIS, 
 
 Fellow of the Wharton School of Finance and Economy, 
 University of Pennsylvania. 
 
 4J. 
 
 ~7 V 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 1890. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF PA. PRESS CO. 
 
 For Sale by P. S. King and Son, Parliamentary Booksellers, 
 
 5 King St., Westminster, S. W. London. 
 
SF; 
 
 .La 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1891, by 
 
 Wiujam Draper Lewis, 
 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 
 
The principal object of this work is to investigate 
 the present condition and future possibilities of the wool 
 and mutton industry of the United States, with a view 
 to ascertaining the advisability of continuing our present 
 tariff on raw wool. As a preliminary to this investiga- 
 tion, I have tried to place before the reader the economic 
 basis on which rests the theory of protection, and also 
 to point out the cause of our present agricultural depres- 
 sion. 
 
 It gives me pleasure to take this opportunity to thank 
 Prof. Simon N. Patten, of the University of Pennsyl- 
 vania, for his careful review and judicious criticism of 
 the work. 
 
 I also desire to thank all who have assisted me in the 
 collection of my facts. The number of those who spent 
 time and pains in answering my very numerous letters 
 and questions prevents me from mentioning individual 
 names. I fully realize, however, that any merit which 
 the last five chapters of this book may possess is due to 
 the kindness shown to me by those who are actually 
 engaged in raising sheep or in handling wool. 
 
 (iii) 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 The Tariff 7 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Wheat and Clothes, or the Cause of Agricultural De- 
 pression and its Remedy 37 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Sheep and Wool 48 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Sheep Raising in the United States 64 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Duty on Raw Wool, and our Imports from Foreign 
 Countries 94 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Cost and Profit of Raising Sheep in the Different 
 Parts of the United States and in Foreign Countries . 101 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 The Future of the Industry 129 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 The Land Laws of Australia 151 
 
 (v) 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE TARIFF. 
 
 Free-Trade or protection? This is the present 
 Alpha and Omega of political controversy. True, the 
 word ' ' free- trade ' ' is more or less avoided by many of 
 its disciples. They prefer to be called ' ' Tariff Reform- 
 ers, ' ' or announce themselves in favor of a " tariff for 
 revenue only." But the rival principles of free-trade 
 and protection lie at the bottom of every argument. 
 11 Revenue Reformers " regard the Tariff as only a tem- 
 porary expedient — a nursery for ' ' infant industries ; ' ' 
 while none of those who advocate ( ' a tariff for revenue 
 only, ' ' at heart regard a tax on imports as an economi- 
 cal method of defraying the expenses of the govern- 
 ment. 
 
 It is not my purpose to discuss the general subject of 
 import duties. Sydney Smith said of Bishop Berkeley, 
 that he had u . . . . destroyed the world in one volume 
 octavo ; ' ' but it would have required, even from a Ber- 
 keley, a far greater expenditure of pen and ink to thor- 
 oughly discuss the tariff. I shall therefore confine 
 myself to one portion of the field, namely: The Tariff 
 on Wool. 
 
 It is necessary, however, to first dispose of a prelimi- 
 nary question. If the theory of free-trade is correct, all 
 impost duties are necessarily bad; and it will be useless 
 to investigate the actual conditions of any industry, ex- 
 
 (7) 
 
8 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 cept to furnish an example of the truth of our conclu- 
 sions. On the other hand, if there are circumstances in 
 which a tariff will be beneficial to a nation, it will be 
 necessary to detenu ine, by an examination of facts, 
 whether our present situation warrants us in protecting 
 the wool-grower. A purely theoretic study of economic 
 questions is of doubtful ultility, but, nevertheless, the 
 practical must be preceded and combined with the theo- 
 retical, before we can expect useful results. In the 
 present case this combination is unusually easy; for 
 though the theoretical part of many tariff discussions 
 has been confused by much useless disputation, the two 
 lines of argument, one taken by the free trader and the 
 other by the protectionist, are in reality very simple. 
 
 Basiat, in his entertaining little work on "Sophism 
 of Protection," has placed the theoretic basis of free- 
 trade in its clearest and best light. The idea which 
 lies at the foundation of his argument, as at the 
 foundation of free-trade thought generally, is that 
 a reduction in the price of any commodity is always 
 beneficial to a people. No one will care to dispute that 
 a general reduction in prices would be advantageous, 
 provided wages remained the same; but it is the idea 
 that a fall in the price of any single commodity is 
 necessarily a good to the whole country which is pe- 
 culiar to the free-trader. He thus makes cheapness the 
 criterion of efficient production. To defend this posi- 
 tion each commodity is taken up in turn. Man is re- 
 garded as first demanding article A. As a consumer of 
 A it is desirable that he should buy A as cheaply as 
 possible. Then some other commodity is taken, and 
 the same line of reasoning is adopted with a similar re- 
 sult; while from the whole, it is concluded that a tariff 
 on any article, which tends, temporarily at least, to 
 raise its selling price, is always and necessarily bad. 
 To be of any value in this connection the proposition 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 9 
 
 "cheapness is always desirable," must be universal. 
 It must not simply hold under certain conditions; for 
 then the doctrine of free-trade, which rests on it, will 
 cease to be applicable to all countries at all times. The 
 proposition itself rests, as we have shown, on a method 
 of reasoning which separates each commodity, and the 
 desire for it, from all other desires and commodities; 
 treating each in turn as if it alone existed, and apply- 
 ing the law deduced from such an examination to a 
 world where men seek simultaneously a great variety 
 of organic and inorganic substances. 
 
 L,et us on our part turn to the world as actually con- 
 stituted. We find the laborers, apart from those doing 
 purely intellectual work, engaged either in agriculture 
 or manufacturing. I use these terms in their broadest 
 sense. By ' ' agriculture ' ' I mean any industry in which 
 land is a necessary element of production; and under 
 the term ' ' manufacture ' ' include all other occupations. * 
 
 An increase in the demand for manufactured articles 
 has no permanent effect in raising the price. Four men 
 can attend to twice as many looms as two. If twenty 
 men can turn out forty yards of cloth in a day, forty 
 men, with twice as much machinery, can make eighty 
 yards, or even more, if the increase in numbers makes 
 possible more efficient organization of labor. But 
 whether any slight increase in the return per man will 
 take place or not, the point I wish to emphasize is this, 
 that an increase in the demand for manufactured com- 
 
 * The reader may find a full discussion of land and its rent, which 
 forms the basis of this discussion, in the following works: Ricardo, 
 Principles of Pol. Econ. and Taxation, Chap. II ; James Mill, Ele- 
 ments of Pol. Econ., p. 17; McCulloch, Principles of Pol. Econ., 
 Part III., Sect. V. ; J. S. Mill, Principles of Pol. Econ., Book II., 
 Chap. XVI.; Fawcett, Manual of Pol. Econ., Book II., Chap. III.; 
 Jevons, Theory of Pol. Econ., Chap. VI. ; Walker, Pol. Econ., Part 
 IV., Chap. II. ; Patten, Premises of Pol. Econ., Chaps. I. and II. ; 
 George, Progress and Poverty, Book II., Chap. II. 
 
IO OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 inodities will not be followed by a permanent rise in 
 prices. 
 
 In agriculture it is different. Each acre of land has 
 its limit of productive capacity. Skill and labor can 
 add to the total product, but there is a point beyond 
 which no more can be produced. You may grow a 
 stalk of wheat on every square inch of ground, but you 
 cannot grow two stalks in the same place. Again, if 
 you double the amount of labor on an acre, while you 
 may and probably will increase your product, you may 
 not double it. Two men working in a field may raise 
 more than if one man worked alone, but the proportion 
 that each receives may be less than the amount he could 
 raise working by himself. 
 
 What is true of each field taken separately is true of 
 the country, as a whole. When there is only a small 
 amount of a commodity raised, then an increase in the 
 demand for it, attracting capital towards the industry, 
 may open new sections of the country, and ultimately 
 increase, not only the amount produced, but the propor- 
 tional return per man, i. e. , the return measured by the 
 total labor expended, and the total result. On the other 
 hand, if much land is already devoted to the production 
 of some one product, an increase in the demand will 
 cause lands less favorable for its cultivation to be util- 
 ized. Production becoming more difficult, the ''propor- 
 tional return ' ' will be less than before. The increased 
 labor will not meet with a like increase in reward. 
 When the cultivation of any commodity in the country 
 has been carried to this extent, then it is said that the 
 point of diminishing returns for that commodity has 
 been reached. If after this more of the commodity is 
 produced in response to a greater demand, the average 
 effort required to produce a unit quantity of the com- 
 modity is greater than before. Such an increase would 
 naturally lead us to expect an increase in its price. But 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. II 
 
 the actual effect on the price is even greater than we 
 might at first anticipate. Thus suppose it takes 2,000,- 
 000 laborers working for two months to raise 200,000,000 
 lbs! of tobacco. The demand increases. If the point 
 of diminishing returns for tobacco has been passed, the 
 increase in the product has to be secured by growing 
 tobacco on land less suited to its cultivation. The differ- 
 ence between the average cost of production on the old 
 and new tobacco lands will depend in each case on the 
 physical conditions of the country. We may suppose that 
 it will now take 2,500,000 men, working for two months 
 to raise 240,000,000 lbs. of tobacco; the 40,000,000 lbs. 
 representing the increase in the amount of the demand. 
 If tobacco were grown by a co-operative association, each 
 worker would receive 96 pounds of tobacco, instead of 
 the 100 lbs. which he received before the increase in the 
 demand necessitated a resort to poorer tobacco soils. 
 But tobacco, or any other commodity, is not grown on a 
 co-operative plan. Bach man cultivates his own land, 
 or the land he has rented, and no two acres are exactly 
 alike. Every pound of tobacco is thus grown under 
 different conditions, and has a different cost of produc- 
 tion. At any one time, however, for similar grades, 
 there is but one price; and this price which rules each 
 single article of the product must be high enough to 
 repay the labor expended on that portion raised under 
 the most unfavorable conditions. Men will not long 
 continue to produce any commodity at a loss. If prices 
 do not warrant growing a certain product on some of the 
 land now utilized for its cultivation, those lands will 
 cease to be used. Agricultural prices then are not gov- 
 erned by the total effort required to raise the entire pro- 
 duct ; but by the cost of production of that portion of 
 each commodity grown on the poorest land. The poor- 
 est land used for the cultivation of each commodity 
 is often spoken of as the present margin for its cultiva- 
 
12 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 tion. Iii our illustration the increase in price per pound 
 of tobacco may be much more than four per cent. , which 
 represents the average decrease in the return for each 
 man's labor, if tobacco was raised on the cooperative 
 plan. The rise in price is represented by the difference 
 between the poorest tobacco lands utilized for tobacco, 
 before the increase in the demand and that used after 
 such increase. The difference depends upon the change 
 in the amount of the demand and the physical condi- 
 tions of the country. It may be five, ten, or, if all the 
 lands in any degree suitable for tobacco have already 
 been utilized for the production of that commodity, 
 even twenty or thirty in exceptional cases. 
 
 Not only does the increase in the demand for an 
 agricultural product, if the point of diminishing returns 
 for its cultivation has been passed, raise the cost of the 
 product to the consumer; but it has a bad effect on the 
 distribution of wealth. That portion of the wealth of 
 the community which goes to the owner of land for the 
 use of the natural properties of the soil, is called rent. 
 I use the term in a restricted sense, and do not include 
 the return from the price paid for houses and barns, but 
 simply the price which is paid for the fertility of the 
 soil, or on account of the land's desirable position. Let 
 us see how the excessive demand for some one product 
 affects this kind of rent. The price for any commodity 
 being regulated by the cost of that portion which is 
 grown under the most unfavorable conditions, or in 
 other words on the margin for its cultivation, the differ- 
 ence between the price and cost of production of the 
 commodity on lands well suited for its cultivation is 
 often very great. 
 
 If the poorest land ultilized for wheat yielded ten 
 bushels to the acre, one who happened to own land 
 which could produce fifteen bushels per acre could de- 
 mand five bushels of each crop from the person who 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 1 3 
 
 desired to lease it from him. Any increase in the price 
 of wheat would not benefit the tenant; it would simply 
 compel him to pay the owner so much more rent. That 
 part of the rent which is due to the land's capacity for 
 growing wheat, would be equal to the price of wheat 
 per bushel multiplied by the difference between the 
 average number of bushels produced on that land, and 
 the average number of bushels raised on land at the 
 present time on the margin of cultivation for wheat. 
 Thus, with every increase in the demand for wheat, after 
 the point of diminishing returns has been passed, two 
 factors tend to increase the money-rent of wheat lands. 
 The margin for the cultivation of wheat falls ; therefore 
 the difference between the amount of wheat which can 
 be raised on any old wheat lands and the lands on the 
 margin for the cultivation of wheat is increased. But at 
 the same time the price of wheat per bushel has risen; 
 for price is regulated by the cost of production on the 
 margin of cultivation for wheat, and that margin having 
 fallen, the cost of production has become greater. The 
 farmer who rents his land from the owner is not bene- 
 fited, nor is he injured, by a rise in rents. Practically 
 he is always laboring on the margin of cultivation. If 
 he happens to use better soil than his neighbor, he pays 
 a higher rent for the privilege. 
 
 Thus we perceive that the increase in the price of any 
 agricultural commodity owing to an increase in the de- 
 mand, while it may injure the consumers, does not 
 benefit the farmer as a farmer, but rather tends to create 
 a landed gentry who live not on their own labor or 
 savings, but on those of others; and whose incomes are 
 not due to the efforts of themselves, or their ancestors, 
 but to the fact that they own a piece of ground, which 
 has become a natural monopoly because it is peculiarly 
 adapted to the growing of a certain commodity. 
 
 Our short investigation has shown us this much con- 
 
14 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 cerning production : There is a marked contrast between 
 manufactured and agricultural commodities. With the 
 former an increase in the demand has no effect on the 
 price or the distribution of wealth; while with the latter, 
 such an increase may, under certain circumstances, not 
 only have a great and permanent effect on the price, but, 
 by increasing rent, may tend to cause an unequal distri- 
 bution of wealth. The key to the problems which 
 surround the subject of foreign trade, as also the refuta- 
 tion of the proposition that the cheapness of any com- 
 modity is always beneficial, lies in a recognition of the 
 fundamental distinction between the effects of increased 
 demand on the prices of agricultural and manufactured 
 commodities. 
 
 Remembering this distinction, let us take the follow- 
 ing illustration of the possible effect of a tariff on all 
 clothing. 
 
 Suppose we have two countries "A" and "B." In 
 " A" the money rate of wages is one dollar per day; in 
 U B" for the same work, eighty cents. The high rate 
 of money wages in the first country we may suppose to 
 be the result of social of political causes. We can look 
 upon "A" as a young country where many new pro- 
 jects are being constantly started, and consequently, 
 where the demand for labor is greater than the supply. 
 In "A" we may imagine that wheat and agricultural 
 products are one dollar per bushel. In the second 
 country, in spite of the lower rate of wages, on account 
 of the poorer quality or limited quantity and therefore 
 higher price of the land, the price of wheat is one 
 dollar and ten cents per bushel. * 
 
 * The land actually planted in wheat or other agricultural products 
 in the country where the wages are comparatively low, need not 
 necessarily be poorer in order to make the price higher than in the 
 country where the money rate of wages is high. The wages in the 
 United States, for example, are higher than in England, although the 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 15 
 
 If trade is unrestricted, the industries of country c 'A' ' 
 will be mainly agricultural. Breadstuffs will be ex- 
 ported, and in exchange manufactured products will be 
 imported. Manufacturing in this country will be at a 
 serious disadvantage, for the same work is performed for 
 twenty-five cents less in country "B." A protective 
 policy is adopted, a duty of thirty per cent, being laid 
 on all cloths. It soon becomes cheaper to manufacture 
 than to import. Clothes will now be made at home. 
 Many laborers will leave agriculture and drift toward 
 manufacturing pursuits. The production of food will 
 fall off by the amount of agricultural commodities form- 
 erly exported; for those who formerly labored to produce 
 the agricultural commodities desired by the foreign 
 nation, in order to pay for the imported manufactured 
 articles, will themselves be employed in manufacturing 
 those articles. If now money wages remain the same, 
 and the purchasing power of a dollar is increased, then 
 certainly the tariff is beneficial. By the purchasing 
 power of a dollar I mean its power to buy the things we 
 want in the relative proportion in which we desire them. 
 The price of silk, for instance, has no effect on the pur- 
 chasing power of a dollar to the day laborer. In order 
 to see whether a certain course is beneficial, we must 
 not only know its effect upon prices^ but also the ways 
 in which persons of average means spend their money. 
 The way in which the American living on less than one 
 thousand dollars per year spends his income is as fol- 
 lows:* 
 
 average yield of wheat per acre in the counties of England is from 24 
 to 28 bushels; while in our States it is only from 12 to 16 bushels. 
 The price of wheat is higher in London, however, than in New York, 
 because England cannot raise all the wheat she demands, and there- 
 fore must import from us and from other coup tries. 
 
 * Wright, Comparative Wages and Prices. The Sixteenth Annual 
 Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics and Labor. 
 
l6 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 Subsistence 5 J -7 6 per cent. 
 
 Clothing 12.32 " 
 
 Rent ■ 16.20 " 
 
 Fuel 5-io 
 
 Sundries 15-57 " 
 
 Taking these figures for country U A" and assuming 
 that the duty raises the cost of clothing 30 per cent., 
 then the tariff has increased the cost of living 30 per 
 cent, of 12.32 per cent, or 4.896 per cent. But the 
 same laborers spend 51.76 per cent, of their income for 
 food. The tariff, however, has decreased the demand 
 for the agricultural products, formerly exported. If the 
 country has previously passed the point of diminishing 
 returns for these products, the poorest lands utilized for 
 their cultivation after the adoption of the protective 
 policy, will be much better than the poorest land for- 
 merly used for their production. As before stated, the 
 poorest land in "A" used for the production of agri- 
 cultural commodities regulates their selling price. 
 Therefore the extent of the reduction in the cost of food 
 in country "A," owing to the duty on manufactured 
 articles, will depend upon the difference between the 
 poorest lands used for the production of the agricultural 
 commodities exported while the free-trade policy con- 
 tinued, and the poorest land used for the production of 
 the same commodities after the adoption of the policy 
 of protection. The physical conditions of the country 
 may be such that there is no difference. Then, as far 
 as our argument has gone, there would be no compen- 
 sation for the increase in the cost of manufactured arti- 
 cles. But can we say a priori that the physical condi- 
 tions of any country are necessarily such that the result 
 will not be a great fall in the price of agricultural pro- 
 ducts ? If meat, bread, etc. , fall ten per cent. , the cost 
 of living would be reduced 5. 17 per cent. Then in spite 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 1 7 
 
 of the increase of 30 per cent, in clothing, a dollar will 
 buy more than before the adoption of the protective 
 policy. By supposing an alteration in the conditions, 
 we can increase or diminish the benefits of protection. 
 
 I do not claim that the foregoing illustration proves 
 that protection to manufactured articles is a good thing 
 for all countries at all times, or that protection is the 
 proper policy for the United States. But I do contend 
 that it shows we cannot say with the free-trader, ' ' Pro- 
 tection is always and necessarily bad. ' ' « The advisa- 
 bility of impost duties depends upon circumstances. 
 The foregoing idea might be formulated somewhat as 
 follows: 
 
 Prop. 1, A. Under certain circumstances a system 
 of protection to a large class of manufactured commod- 
 ities^ by decreasing the number of agricultural laborers, 
 raising the margin of cultivation, and reducing the cost 
 of agricultural produce, will increase the purchasing 
 power of a dollar. 
 
 This argument, which supports, under certain cir- 
 cumstances, a general system of protection to manufac- 
 tures, can also be used to show the evil, under similar 
 conditions, of a general system of protection to agricul- 
 tural products. To force a portion of the population 
 into manufactories, will not raise the cost of manufac- 
 tured commodities, and may greatly diminish the cost 
 of food. But if the point of diminishing returns for 
 many agricultural products has already been passed, to 
 drive numbers from manufacturing into agriculture, by 
 placing duties on all farm products, will certainly fa 1 
 to reduce the price of manufactured articles, and will 
 greatly increase the cost of food and raw material. 
 Thus, Prop. 1, A, when applied to agriculture will read: 
 
 Prop. 1, B. Under certain circumstances, a general 
 system ofproteclio?i to agricultural produce, by decreasing 
 the number of laborers in the manufactories, may lower 
 2 
 
l8 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 the margin of cultivation, and thereby increase the cost of 
 food and raw material, while the cost of manufactured 
 commodities will not be reduced. 
 
 The ' ' circumstances ' ' which will make a general pro- 
 tection to manufactured articles result in an increase of 
 the productive power of a nation, and the purchasing 
 power of a dollar, are not confined to cases where the 
 nation has passed the point of diminishing returns for 
 nearly all the products of agriculture. In fact, if a 
 nation must wait until the points of diminishing returns 
 have been passed for nearly all the possible products of 
 the land, before laying duties on manufactured articles, 
 a protective policy will never be adopted. It is rather 
 the wrong use of land, than the excess of agricultural 
 labor, that is prevented by a judicious tariff. The high 
 price that foreign nations are willing to pay for some one 
 product, causes it to be cultivated to the exclusion of 
 others better adapted to a large portion of the soil. We 
 doubt if there is a country in the world where one can 
 say there are too many agricultural laborers; but if we 
 had free-trade in the United States, there probably would 
 be too many farmers producing wheat. Generally the 
 reduction of the number of workers in agriculture is 
 beneficial, only because the reduction takes place along 
 those lines where foreign demand will cause excessive 
 production. 
 
 Prop, i, B, deals with a general tariff on agricultural 
 products. Such a tariff would be unwise, as the old 
 corn laws of England abundantly testify. But, unfier 
 some conditions, the same argument might be used to 
 defend protection to a single agricultural commodity. 
 Take a country which exports one agricultural product, 
 such as corn, to pay a large part of her international 
 debt. Suppose that the point of diminishing returns for 
 corn has been passed, but in spite of this fact, the 
 country can sell corn much cheaper than its foreign 
 
OUR SHEKP AND THE TARIFF. 19 
 
 rival. The foreign country, however, can produce 
 potatoes at so low a cost, on account of its social condi- 
 tions, or because of the peculiar adaptability of the land 
 to potatoes, that it is impossible to raise them profitably 
 in the corn-growing country. The point of diminishing 
 returns for potatoes in the home country has not been 
 reached, for there are practically no potatoes grown. 
 The only reason why potatoes are not raised, is because 
 they can be produced more cheaply in the foreign coun- 
 try. A prohibitory duty is now placed on potatoes. If 
 this drives persons out of manufacturing into potato 
 raising, a loss will result. But, as it has stopped the 
 importation of potatoes, the foreign demand for the 
 country's products will tend to decline in proportion to 
 the amount of potatoes formerly imported. As corn is 
 the principal export, some corn lands will be thrown out 
 of cultivation, and many persons formerly engaged in 
 raising corn will find it more profitable to raise less 
 corn and more potatoes. Good potato lands which were 
 formerly considered worthless will be taken into culti- 
 vation. 
 
 To illustrate the result of a tariff on potatoes in a 
 country where the conditions mentioned exist. Suppose 
 a certain farmer made a profit of four do 1 .lar> an acre 
 from his land when he planted corn, and three dollars 
 from the same land when used for potatoes. He will 
 naturally plant corn as often as possible, probably soon 
 exhausting the soil. The government by a tariff in- 
 creases the price of potatoes, so that the profit on pota- 
 toes is four dollars an acre. No more potatoes being 
 imported, the demand for corn falls, and our farmer, we 
 may suppose, only makes three dollars and seventy-five 
 cents growing that cereal. The rise in the price of 
 potatoes, and the fall in that of corn, both operate to in- 
 crease the acreage devoted to potatoes at the expense of 
 the acreage devoted to corn. Taking the country as a 
 
20 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 whole, there is less corn grown, but more potatoes. The 
 worst corn lands formerly producing corn are no longer 
 utilized for that purpose. From the standpoint of con- 
 sumption, therefore, potatoes are higher, but corn is 
 lower. As in our former case, whether the purchasing 
 power of a dollar has been increased — in other words, 
 whether the advance in the price of one of* the articles 
 of our consumption is compensated for by the fall in the 
 price of another — depends, not only on the differences in 
 prices, but on the way in which we spend our income. 
 If corn fell ten per cent, and potatoes rose twenty per 
 cent. , but three times as much was spent on corn as on 
 potatoes, we would be better off than before the tariff. 
 
 In the following proposition I have tried to formulate 
 the ideas above discussed: 
 
 Prop, i, C. Under certain circumstances a duty on 
 an agricultural commodity, for which the point of dimin- 
 ishing returns has not been reached, by diminishing the 
 area devoted to a product which has been cultivated 
 beyond the point of diminishing returns, and thus reduc- 
 ing the cost of such a product, may increase the purchas- 
 ing power of a dollar. 
 
 The ' ( certain circumstances ' ' mentioned in this propo- 
 sition, exist when the country under investigation is a 
 large exporter of an agricultural product, such as corn, 
 for which the point of diminishing returns has been 
 more than passed. 
 
 There are other circumstances, however, in which a 
 tariff on an agricultural commodity may increase the pur- 
 chasing power of a dollar. One of the elements of the 
 prosperity of a country is the efficiency of the laborer. 
 Efficiency cannot be measured solely by intelligence, 
 but intelligence is always a factor, and in many cases 
 the most important factor. A worker who spends his 
 time fastening the heel of a boot on the sole can be al- 
 most, if not quite, as efficient with a moderate as with 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 21 
 
 a high order of intelligence. But the ignorant farmer 
 is, as a rule, the wasteful, slovenly, and expensive 
 farmer. Such a man produces scarcely enough to 
 supply his own imperative needs, and will save little 
 or no capital. Thus a country will never be as wealthy 
 as its natural resources would lead us to expect, if it 
 has an ignorant farming population. But the intelli- 
 gent workman and higher type of man requires more 
 wages than his less intelligent competitor. The Ameri- 
 can can work harder and produce more than the Hun- 
 garian, yet the latter, because he demands a low rate 
 of wages, is often the cheaper man for the employer 
 of labor to engage. Suppose we have a country in 
 which dairy products, such as butter, cheese, milk, etc. , 
 are not produced, owing to the low price at which they 
 can be imported from other countries. We can also 
 suppose that there are, as in every country, farmers of 
 many different grades of intelligence. What we want 
 to do, however, is to discover the prevailing type of 
 farmer, or the man who is going to survive in the 
 race of competition. Let us take two classes of men: 
 one contented with an income of $300, the other, 
 more intelligent and efficient, but requiring at least 
 $400 per annum to supply him with what "he considers 
 the necessaries of life. We will also suppose that the 
 higher type of farmer, by working the equivalent of 
 one hundred clays of twelve hours each, can produce 
 1200 bushels of corn, while the lower type, working the 
 same length of time, can only produce, on account of 
 his inferior efficiency, 1000 bushels. Though only 
 the equivalent of one hundred days of work is spent in 
 raising corn or other cereals, the farmer is debarred from 
 carrying on any other than agricultural industries. He 
 cannot work in a mill half the year and on the farm the 
 other half. Neither can he greatly increase his produc- 
 tion of corn or wheat, for the planting and reaping of 
 
22 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 any crop must each be accomplished within the space of 
 a fortnight. Under these conditions the lower and less 
 efficient laborer will represent the prevailing type of 
 farmer. By selling the iooo bushels at 30 cents per 
 bushel, he will yet receive $300, or sufficient to enable 
 him to live according to his standard. But the higher 
 type of man, who is forced to sell his product at the 
 same price, only receives $360 for his 1200 bushels, 
 which is $40 less than is sufficient to enable him to 
 supply himself with what are to him the necessaries of 
 life. Under these conditions our higher type of man 
 will tend to drift toward the cities, where he will possi- 
 bly have to work harder, but where he can obtain suffi- 
 cient to support him in the way which he looks upon 
 as necessary to a happy existence. Consequently, the 
 agriculture production of the country will be conducted 
 by lower types of men, who are less efficient producers. 
 Under such conditions suppose a duty is placed on 
 dairy products, and as a result the intelligent farmer can 
 spend the equivalent of fifty days' work out of every year 
 attending to cattle ; while he receives for his veal, milk 
 and cheese, $160 per year. As a result, the relative 
 position of the two grades of farmers is now changed. 
 The more efficient farmer gains $160 from his cattle, 
 and in order to make $400 per year, he will only have 
 to gain $240 from his corn. He can therefore afford to 
 sell the corn at twenty cents per bushel. But twenty 
 cents a bushel for corn will only bring the lower grade 
 of fanner $200 per year, and he either must make $100 
 more from the sale of dairy products, or he will be 
 driven out of agriculture. By "driven out," I mean 
 that he will be unable to put himself in a position to 
 support a family and perpetuate his kind. Even if he 
 has enough energy to attempt raising cows, as the intelli- 
 gent farmer only made one hundred and sixty dollars 
 from the sale of his butter, cheese, etc. , it is very ques- 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 23 
 
 tionable whether with the expenditure of fifty days' 
 labor the inferior farmer can raise dairy products to the 
 value of one hundred dollars. Intelligence is a much 
 more important factor in some agricultural pursuits than 
 in others. We have supposed that in the growing of 
 corn our more intelligent farmer could raise 1200 bushels 
 while his less intelligent competitor raised 1000 bushels, 
 or a ratio of 12 to 10. In the raising of cattle superior 
 intelligence would give a much greater advantage, and 
 we may readily suppose that the ratio would be 16 to 9. 
 
 Thus after the duty is placed on dairy products, the 
 advantage is on the side of the higher type of farmer. 
 This is the "survival of the fittest" in its best sense. 
 We may also have a distinct gain to the consumer. 
 Dairy products are higher, but corn is lower. As in our 
 former illustrations, we have the gain to the country de- 
 pending, not only on the alterations in prices, but on 
 the relation of the amount of cheese, milk, butter, etc. , 
 to the amount of corn, potatoes and wheat consumed. 
 If as a result of the tariff dairy products rose twenty-five 
 per cent., and all the cereals fell fifteen, but the con- 
 sumption of the former was only one-half that of the 
 latter, there would be a net gain of 2^ cents on every 
 dollar spent for food. 
 
 It may here be asked : If we lessen a tendency for 
 intelligent farmers to seek commercial pursuits, will not 
 we increase the nation's productive capacity in one 
 direction while decreasing it in another? I think not. 
 Intelligence in commercial pursuits will always give the 
 possessor a great advantage. If the two classes we have 
 chosen for our illustration had a relative efficiency in 
 the production of cereals of 12 to 10, and in cattle of 16 
 to 9, in trade and commerce, intelligence being a still 
 more important factor, the efficiency of the same classes 
 might stand in the ratio of 2 to 1. The trade and com- 
 merce of any country will therefore always be conducted 
 
24 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 by an intelligent class. But what we need is to have 
 efficient producers not only in one but in all industries. 
 That nation will be the most progressive where it is im- 
 possible for the ignorant, the lazy, and the slovenly to 
 succeed in any occupation, and consequently where all 
 economic forces tend to eliminate the lower and develop 
 the higher type of man. 
 
 In the foregoing I have endeavored to show a third 
 class of exceptions to the universality of the doctrine 
 that the cheapness of any particular commodity is 
 always beneficial. The idea may be expressed some- 
 what as follows: 
 
 Prop. I, D. Under certain circumstances a tariff on 
 a class of agricultural commodities in which intelligence 
 is an important factor, increasing its selling price, will 
 give a new industry to intelligent farmers, thereby 
 enabling them to 7naintain their standard of life, without 
 passing to other ocatpations, while at the same time 
 placing them in a position where they will be able to 
 icndersell their less intelligent competitors in other 
 agricultural commodities, and thus increase to the con- 
 sumer the purchasingpower of a dollar. 
 
 Let us now pass to a qualification of the maxim 
 ' ' cheapness is always desirable, ' ' which is of a some- 
 what different character from those already treated. 
 
 The advocates of unrestricted trade frequently state, 
 u The object of production is consumption." "Men 
 produce, ' ' they say, ' ' to satisfy their desires. Anything 
 which renders such satisfaction easier is a good. ' ' Now 
 all this is perfectly true, but it is liable to lead us, as it 
 has led many able advocates of free-trade, into great 
 error, unless we understand the nature of the desires, 
 and can distinguish between individual and national 
 interests. The satisfaction of one desire may be incom- 
 patible with the satisfaction of other and more important 
 desires. I will try to show this by a specific illustration. 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 25 
 
 L,et us take the desire for tobacco and the desire for 
 corn. For simplicity we will suppose that the pleasure 
 to be derived from both products is shared by the entire 
 population. We may divide the lands actually em- 
 ployed in raising tobacco, when tobacco is seven cents a 
 pound, into ten different kinds. Suppose the produc- 
 tivity of each, after a unit amount of labor has been 
 expended, can be represented by 780, 760, 740 . . . 600 
 pounds per acre. The cost of raising tobacco on the 
 poorest tobacco lands is equal, as was formerly explained, 
 to the selling price. We can suppose that the owners 
 of the best tobacco fields could sell their product at 
 3.846 cents per pound. As their lands, however, do 
 not produce all the tobacco demanded at this price, 
 other and poorer tobacco lands have been devoted to the 
 cultivation of the plant. The price for tobacco has 
 risen, until what we may suppose is the present average 
 rate of five cents per pound has been reached. At this 
 point the demand and supply are equal. The money 
 rent of any tobacco land is equal to the number of 
 pounds it is capable of growing above the number which, 
 for the same amount of work, may be grown on the 
 worst tobacco lands under cultivation, multiplied by the 
 price of tobacco per pound. Thus the tobacco rent for 
 the first land being one hundred and eighty pounds, 
 and the price of tobacco being five cents per pound, the 
 money rent for the best tobacco land will be $9.00 per 
 acre. The land utilized for tobacco, however, is suit- 
 able for other crops. The reason the farmer does not 
 grow potatoes and corn, is because tobacco pays better. 
 The moment he finds it more profitable to raise some- 
 thing else, he will do so. 
 
 L,et us now turn to the demand for corn. The sell- 
 ing price we will suppose is forty cents per bushel. The 
 demand for corn at that price causes certain lands to be 
 turned into corn-fields. All those lands which produce 
 
26 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 corn at less than forty cents per bushel, can occasionally 
 be planted with corn. We can divide the lands which 
 are capable of raising corn at forty cents or less into 
 ten kinds. On the best corn land for a given amount 
 of work, which is of course much less than the labor 
 required to cultivate a tobacco field, 36 bushels will be 
 produced; on the next 34 bushels; on the next 32 
 bushels; and so on, until the tenth only produces 18 
 bushels. The cost of this last land, which is on the 
 present margin of cultivation for corn, being equal to 
 the selling price, or forty cents per bushel, the rent of 
 any corn land will be, as in the case of the tobacco 
 lauds, the difference in the number of bushels of corn 
 produced on that land and the number produced on the 
 worst land under cultivation, multiplied by the price per 
 bushel. Thus the rent for the best corn land will be 
 $7.20, for the next best $6.40. On land which can raise 
 corn at less than forty cents per bushel, a profit can be 
 made by growing corn. Whether a farmer who owns 
 such land will grow corn or tobacco, depends upon 
 which is the more profitable to him. If he has land 
 which is the fourth-grade tobacco land, and at the same 
 time the third-grade corn land, he will grow tobacco. 
 In corn his profit is only $5. 60 per acre, while in tobacco 
 it will be $6.00. 
 
 The government now taxes tobacco fourteen cents per 
 pound. As a consequence the amount of the demand 
 falls. The poorest tobacco lands are no longer planted 
 in tobacco. The margin of cultivation for tobacco ris- 
 ing, the cost of production is not so great as before. 
 There is a general readjustment of prices. We may 
 suppose that the demand and supply for tobacco come 
 to an equilibrum, when the fanner's selling price is 
 18.158 cents per pound; 4.158 cents representing the 
 cost of production on the poorest land and 14 cents re- 
 presenting the tax. The worst tobacco lands, those 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 2J 
 
 that produce only 600, 620 and 640 pounds of tobacco 
 respectively, can no longer be utilized for tobacco. The 
 margin of cultivation for tobacco rising from land which 
 will produce 600 pounds per acre to land which will 
 produce 720 pounds per acre, the rent for all other 
 tobacco land falls; for, as explained, the rent of land at 
 any time is the difference between the number of pounds 
 of tobacco which it will produce and the number of 
 pounds of tobacco which the poorest land in use at that 
 time will produce, multiplied by the price per pound 
 received by the farmer. For instance, the fourth- 
 grade tobacco land is now on the margin of cultivation 
 for tobacco. The tobacco rent for this land falls to 
 nothing. The rent of the best tobacco lands, estimated 
 by their value when utilized for producing tobacco, 
 falls from $9.00 to $3.00. A farmer who worked on 
 lands not capable of producing more than 720 pounds 
 of tobacco, will now raise corn or other agricultural 
 products. 
 
 But the tax will not only throw tobacco out of culti- 
 vation on the worst grades of tobacco lands, but it will 
 also greatly reduce the quantity grown on lands which 
 might still raise tobacco at a profit. Take the case 
 of land which is in the fourth grade for tobacco, and at 
 the same time in the third grade for corn. Before the 
 tax tobacco would have been raised, because the 
 profits for tobacco and corn stand as $6.00 to $5.60 
 per acre. But afterwards corn will be more profita- 
 ble, the returns then standing, corn $5.60, tobacco 
 nothing. 
 
 In this way a great deal of land formerly planted with 
 tobacco will be utilized to cultivate corn, or other agri- 
 cultural products. As a consequence the worst corn, 
 wheat or potato lands will be thrown out of cultivation; 
 for the demand for these products has not increased 
 while the extent of the acreage open to their cultiva- 
 
28 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 tion lias been greatly enlarged. * All this will effect a 
 reduction in the price of corn and similar commodities. 
 Thus, the tax on tobacco not only alters the value of 
 tobacco lands, but of corn and wheat lands as well. In 
 opening new fields for other agricultural products, the 
 tax may diminish the cost of all agricultural production ; 
 not because taxation makes land more fertile, but be- 
 cause in this case it raises the margin of cultivation. In 
 so far as any one is a consumer of tobacco, he will be in- 
 jured by the tax; but if the whole people can obtain 
 bread, meat, potatoes, and other necessaries of life at a 
 reduced cost, will any claim that the country is not 
 benefited? When we speak about production being 
 solely for the purpose of satisfying the desires of man, 
 we must remember that a desire, even if it is shared by 
 all the population, may not be in harmony with national 
 progress. 
 
 This example shows how intimate is the connection 
 between the price of one agricultural product and 
 another, and proves that it is impossible to gain a 
 knowledge of economic laws by simply examining the 
 production of one commodity. Here is the error of 
 the old political economist. He considered his work 
 accomplished when he indicated how one desire of man 
 taken by itself could be gratified, forgetting that some 
 desires may be mutually destructive. The proposi- 
 tion that a tax on one commodity may, under certain 
 c rcumstances, increase the productive power of the 
 community, is even to-day looked upon by many as 
 absurd. Yet in our illustration we have shown condi- 
 
 * A specific example may be found in our own country. Many 
 tobacco fields in Kentucky could be made better corn fields than 
 many soils in other and colder States, which are now utilized foi 
 growing corn. If the profit from raising tobacco should from any 
 cause decline, these fields, now planted in tobacco, might be planted 
 in corn, and much land on which corn is now raised at greater ex- 
 pense would be used for other and more suitable purposes. 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 29 
 
 tions where a tax 011 one commodity does increase the 
 productive power of the nation. It is simply applying 
 to man a well-known principle, now recognized by 
 scientists, but persistently ignored by many econo- 
 mists. A great increase in one species of animals re- 
 duces the numbers of another which lives on similar 
 food. The seals of Alaska and the otters which haunt 
 the rivers running into the ocean, both feed on the 
 salmon. An increase in the number of seals will be 
 accompanied by a decrease in the number of otters.* 
 Two species consuming the same kind of food can 
 seldom exist in the same district. The brown rat of 
 Turkey on his migration to Europe, rendered it im- 
 possible for the native black rat, who lived on the 
 same kind of food, to find the sustenance necessary for 
 his existence. Consequently the black rat is practi- 
 cally extinct. In the same way two agricultural pro- 
 ducts, utilizing soils of the same character, are seldom 
 cultivated in the same country. Production will be 
 confined to products for which the people have the 
 strongest desire. Again, if man extinguished all other 
 animals in order to have more room to raise buffaloes, 
 because people were willing to pay an enormous price 
 for the meat and hide of that animal, there would still 
 only be a limited number of buffaloes on the earth, for 
 there is only a limited amount of food suitable for their 
 consumption. There could not be enough buffalo meat 
 raised to supply the present population of the earth. 
 By diversifying the species a far greater number of 
 animals can exist. The same is true of agriculture. If 
 we all tried to live on one product, only lands suitable 
 for its cultivation could be used. The greatest produc- 
 tion will result in diversity. Taxing one commodity to 
 
 * These illustrations are taken from Wallace's Darwinism, where 
 the reader will also find the elementary principles of the struggle for 
 existence here referred to popularly explained. 
 
30 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 cheapen another, may be ridiculed by the thoughtless; 
 yet, if we wish to cheapen song-birds in the United 
 States, would we not use every means in our power to 
 decrease the number of sparrows? And if taxation 
 lessens the demand for an article, may it not reduce its 
 production, and open new fields for the cultivation of 
 the commodity we desire to cheapen; just as the gun 
 which destroys the sparrow will indirectly leave more 
 food to the species we desire to introduce ? 
 
 The illustration of taxing tobacco to cheapen corn is 
 in many respects similar to our demonstration of Propo- 
 sition i, C. In one case we make the raising of potatoes 
 profitable, and increase their production at the expense 
 of corn; in the other the production of tobacco is de- 
 creased, giving a larger acreage for the necessaries of 
 life. They both depend upon the same general princi- 
 ple; the greater productive power resulting from a 
 closer adjustment to physical conditions. A passive 
 national policy favors the unrestrained gratification of 
 one desire at the expense of all others, and allows the 
 excessive cultivation of some one commodity to exhaust 
 the soil, causing one crop to be raised in places where 
 others should be cultivated. All this increases the 
 rent which goes to the landlord, and lowers the pur- 
 chasing power of a dollar to all classes of society. It is 
 this confusion between the satisfaction of a present par- 
 ticular desire, and the good of the people, which has 
 given so much strength to the creed of free-trade among 
 the masses. For instance, no formula appeals more 
 strongly to the average man, than the oft-quoted asser- 
 tion, ' ' We have no right to tax the many for the benefit 
 of the few. ' ' Certainly we have no right to tax the 
 nation for the benefit of a class. But we should remem- 
 ber that the proposition can be inverted. If we have 
 no right to tax the many for the benefit of a class, 
 neither have we the right to refrain from taxing them 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 31 
 
 for a similar object. If a tax on tobacco will benefit the 
 country by increasing our productive power, to refuse 
 to tax it would be sacrificing the best interests of the 
 country for the benefit of a single industry. Again, if 
 we have no right to sacrifice the good of the nation for 
 the benefit of a portion of the community, neither 
 should we ever permit the satisfaction of any one desire, 
 though shared by all the people, to impede national 
 progress. The desire for a commodity may be very 
 strong, but if its gratification leads to poverty and want, 
 or even retards the growth qf higher wants, to weaken 
 or eliminate this desire will certainly be an act of far- 
 seeing statesmanship. 
 
 We must bear in mind that there are two ways in 
 which the productive power of a people can be increased. 
 The first, and the one on which the greatest stress has 
 heretofore been laid, is by rendering the methods of 
 producing the things we now desire easier, as by inven- 
 tions, discoveries, etc. The second, and by far the 
 more important method, lies in changing the desires of 
 the people — making their wants more in harmony with 
 their surroundings. 
 
 Take a people with a strong desire for butter, made 
 from the milk of a cow. Inventions to aid churning 
 will certainly increase the productive power of the com- 
 munity. But suppose the people could be induced to 
 use in the place of the cheaper grades of cow's butter, 
 some substitute, as oleomargarine, which could be easily 
 and even more cheaply produced. The benefit to be 
 derived from this change in desire, will be much more 
 substantial than any possible invention in making 
 butter. 
 
 To take another illustration. Imagine a country 
 where if 10,000,000 pounds of rice were produced, the 
 selling price would be three cents per pound. At the 
 same time wheat is grown with difficulty. The people 
 
32 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 being largely immigrants, or the descendants of im- 
 migrants, from good wheat countries, eat little rice, 
 but demand wheat in large quantities. Their present 
 condition, however, requires that wheat should be im- 
 ported from other countries. If they ate more rice and 
 less wheat they would sustain life, which is the object 
 of consuming food, as well as they do now, and with 
 much less effort. Suppose the government lays an im- 
 port duty on wheat, causing it to rise in price. The 
 difference between the cost of wheat and rice is still 
 further increased, with the result that more rice is con- 
 sumed and less wheat. At the same time rice being 
 cheap in comparison with bread, the total amount spent 
 on food may be reduced, although the people do not 
 eat as much of that particular kind which their an- 
 cestors, living under different circumstances, were led 
 to desire. Soon however the people will become ac- 
 customed to their new diet. On the removal of the 
 duty they will not be apt to return to their old ex- 
 cessive consumption of wheat. Custom made their 
 ancestors fond of wheat, and the custom of eating less 
 wheat and more rice will again regulate the desires of 
 their descendants. By the duty the productive power 
 of the people has been increased. It has forced them 
 into closer adjustment with their surroundings, and 
 placed them in a position to feed themselves with less 
 effort. 
 
 Taxation is usually a burden on the consumption of 
 the commodity taxed. To prove that it is a benefit to 
 the community, we must find some compensation in 
 that it increases the productive power of the nation, 
 either by making it easier for us to gratify our present 
 desires taken as a whole, or forcing our desires them- 
 selves into greater conformity with our environment. 
 Propositions r, A and i, C dealt with the increase of 
 the purchasing power of a dollar, spent in the ways we 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 33 
 
 now spend our income, resulting from a tax on manu- 
 factured imports or certain agricultural commodities. 
 The last discussion shows that protective duties may be 
 used to unconsciously bend our desires into their proper 
 channels, i. e. more clearly in accordance with our 
 conditions. 
 
 The principle on which this last protection rests may 
 be expressed as follows: 
 
 Prop. 2. Under certain circumstances a)i impost duty 
 on one commodity, enhancing its price, will lower the 
 cost of living, by increasing the cojisumption of other 
 commodities which serve the same ends, and can be pro- 
 duced by a smaller expenditicre of labor than was re- 
 quired to produce the products exchanged for the taxed 
 commodity. 
 
 The foregoing is a defence of protection as a perma- 
 nent policy, based on the exceptions to the "cheaper 
 the better ' ' theory of free-trade. By permanent protec- 
 tion I do not mean protection which must last forever; 
 but rather protection which is held to be wise because 
 of certain economic conditions. Wherever these condi- 
 tions are found, a policy of protection is the proper one 
 for that country to adopt; but if the conditions should 
 cease to exist, protection would cease to be expedient. 
 On the other hand, what I mean by temporary protec- 
 tion, in distinction from the above, is protection which 
 is expedient owing to some special cause, which cause 
 the mere operation of the duty tends to remove. L,ike 
 permanent protection, temporary protection is under 
 certain circumstances an advantage. 
 
 When, for instance, we have a reasonable hope that 
 we will soon be able to produce the commodity at home 
 with less effort than is now required to produce the 
 articles exported to pay for the product one proposes to 
 protect, no one will doubt the expediency of a duty, if 
 it increases the prospects of a speedy establishment of 
 3 
 
34 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 the industry. It is easy to demonstrate that protection 
 has the effect of stimulating an industry not heretofore 
 established. An old and well grounded industry will 
 be carried on when the profits are very small; but in 
 order to induce persons to make industrial experiments, 
 high profits must be practically insured. The introduc- 
 tion of a breed of stock, the establishment of a certain 
 manufacturing industry, may be retarded for years, not 
 because it would not be profitable if once established, 
 but solely because prices are not sufficient to warrant 
 experiments. These remarks are not confined to "In- 
 fant Industries y Many industries, long established, 
 may be conducted in antiquated and expensive ways, 
 and prices may not warrant the outlay of labor and 
 capital necessary to introduce the new methods. Tem- 
 porary stimulation by protection is as necessary in such 
 a case, as if the industry had not advanced beyond an 
 embryo state. The duty should be high enough to in- 
 sure good profits, and induce many to enter the industry. 
 In time the home production will exceed the home de- 
 mand at the high prices, and consequently the cost to 
 the consumer will fall to the basis of ordinary profits to 
 the producer. The duty can now be discarded as use- 
 less, for under our supposition the industry being firmly 
 established, the cost of production is less than the cost 
 in foreign countries. Thus, our third and last proposi- 
 tion can be stated as follows : 
 
 Prop. 3. Under certain circumstances a duty on a com- 
 modity which is now imported, but which could be pro- 
 duced at a lower cost at home if the industry was once 
 firmly established on a proper basis, will insure high 
 enough profits to induce many persons to enter the in- 
 dustry, who by their competition with each other will 
 reduce the selling price of the commodity below the price 
 at which it was formerly imported, and thus increase the 
 purchasing power of a dollar. 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 35 
 
 I have attempted to indicate the lines on which I be- 
 lieve a tariff on raw wool, or other protective tariff, must 
 be defended. The advocates of protection must prove 
 one of four things: 
 
 Hither that as a consequence of the tariff on wool, the 
 present desires of the people are more easily attained, 
 on account of a reduction in the cost of other agricul- 
 tural products, owing to the margin for their cultivation 
 being raised. 
 
 Or: That the same result is accomplished because of 
 the increase in the efficiency of the agricultural popula- 
 tion. 
 
 Or: That the desires of the people of our country are 
 brought into greater conformity with their surroundings. 
 
 Or: That the sheep industry only needs stimulation 
 to put us in a position where we will be able to produce 
 wool and mutton as cheaply as any country in the world. 
 
 The object of protection is to increase the productive 
 power of the people; in other words, to enable them to 
 buy more commodities — to satisfy their wants more 
 easily than they did before. I have shown that under 
 given conditions a duty will increase the purchasing 
 power of a dollar. It will be observed that the founda- 
 tion of the protectionist's argument is similar to that of 
 the free-trader. Each attempts to show that the practi- 
 cal adoption of his ideas will increase the incomes of 
 the people, by enabling them to buy more. The differ- 
 ence in their conclusions is due to differences in the way 
 they look at society and the production of wealth. The 
 free-trader examines separately each industry. He sees 
 that the prices of protected commodities are apt to rise, 
 and then jumps to the conclusion that protection is bad. 
 The protectionist examines more closely the nature of 
 production as it actually is, and the relation of the pro- 
 duction of one commodity to that of another. He also 
 looks at the effect which demand has on price, and is 
 
$6 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 forced to the conclusion that protection under certain 
 circumstances is beneficial, because, while it may not 
 enable us to obtain the commodity protected at a re- 
 duced cost, it nevertheless reduces the cost at which 
 other commodities can be produced. 
 
 We have shown five distinct ways in which a tariff 
 may be beneficial to a country. There is no reason, 
 however, why they may not all operate at one time. A 
 duty which enables the people to satisfy their present 
 desires with less effort than before, may likewise tend 
 to make them live more in harmony with their environ- 
 ment, and also ultimately establish the protected indus- 
 try so firmly that their products will undersell those of 
 their foreign rivals. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 WHEAT AND CLOTHES: OR THE CAUSE OF AGRICUL- 
 TURAL DEPRESSION, AND ITS REMEDY. 
 
 Before we enter upon a specific description of the 
 wool industry, there are a few facts concerning the pres- 
 ent condition of agriculture which we should consider. 
 There has existed throughout the world, and especially 
 in our own country, a marked depression in agricultural 
 industries. Farmers complain that the prices they re- 
 ceive for their corn and wheat do not repay the labor of 
 cultivation. The effect of this condition is plainly 
 shown in the character of the population settling Okla- 
 homa. The majority are persons who have left com- 
 fortable homes in the Central States. The tilling of 
 any but virgin soil has ceased to be remunerative. It 
 is not that the land in the old States is any less produc- 
 tive, though in these States for some products we do 
 observe a slight decrease in the return per acre. The 
 cause of the depression lies in the fact that prices have 
 declined, and a steady market for the staple crops is a 
 thing of the past. 
 
 Some light will be thrown on the cause of this de- 
 pression, and its remedy, if we examine a section where 
 the condition of agricultural interests is especially un- 
 favorable. Let us take the belt of country lying im- 
 mediately north of the Ohio River, in the States of 
 Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. The average yield of wheat 
 per acre in these States is 11.7, 13.9 and 13.7 respect- 
 ively.* If we take the southern section in the first 
 two states, we will only find two counties, Hamilton 
 
 * 1888. 
 (37) 
 
38 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 in Ohio and Pusey in Indiana, which have an average 
 yield for wheat higher than the average for the State. 
 Indeed, the returns from the majority of the southern 
 counties show that their average yield is only ten 
 bushels to an acre, while some, as Scott county in In- 
 diana, will run as low as eight bushels. The average 
 yield of wheat for the southern counties of Illinois is 
 also considerably below the yield of the counties in the 
 central and northern sections of the State. At the same 
 time we find that since 1870 the number of acres de- 
 voted to the cultivation of wheat in the belt of country 
 under discussion has increased by one, two, three, and 
 even four hundred per cent, though it is true that the 
 greater part of this increase took place in the decade 
 ending with 1880. Since 1870 the average return per 
 acre has either remained stationary or slightly fallen off. 
 In no case, we understand, is the average acreage for a 
 county in the southern section of any of these States 
 higher in the last five years than the average for the five 
 years ending with 1870. 
 
 Simultaneously with the slight decrease in the return 
 per acre, there has been a considerable fall in prices. 
 This decline in values has not been continuous; but if 
 we take the period since 1868 we see that not only has 
 the value of a bushel of wheat greatly diminished, but 
 the value of a bushel of corn has likewise declined. 
 The total fall in wheat has been between 40 and 55 
 per cent. Part of the fall in prices is compensated for 
 by the fall in the rates of transportation. Thus in 
 1870 the average rate for transporting a bushel of 
 wheat from Chicago to New York was 28^ cents; in 
 1889 the rate was 13 cents, or a difference of 15^ 
 cents. But during the same period the average price 
 of wheat in New York fell from $1.65 to 86 cents pel 
 bushel, a fall of 79 cents; making a net loss in the 
 return of 63^ cents. The net loss in the return for a 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 39 
 
 bushel of corn is about 20 cents. Thus we observe on 
 the one hand a slight decrease in the average yield per 
 acre for the two great staple crops, which indicates a t 
 slight increase in the cost of production; while on the 
 other hand we observe a great decrease in the price per 
 bushel. 
 
 The main reason for this unnatural and thoroughly 
 unhealthy state is to be found in the tendency to the 
 over-production of such crops as corn and wheat in all 
 countries where new land is constantly being opened 
 for settlement and brought under cultivation. 
 
 The farmer in any thoroughly settled portion of the 
 country, such as Illinois, usually has several sources of in- 
 come from a variety of crops, and is seldom exclusively 
 devoted to the production of one commodity. But in 
 newly settled Territories, it is different. Land being 
 cheap and labor dear, the tendency is to raise large quan- 
 tities of some one crop. For this reason the northwest 
 has become a great wheat region, the cultivation of that 
 cereal having increased with marvelous rapidity. Thus 
 in Dakota in 1870, only 181,284 bushels were raised. In 
 1888, however, there were 38,036,000 bushels. The 
 same increase is seen in Montana. In 1870 the Terri- 
 tory was practically a wilderness. In 1880 only 468,688 
 bushels were produced, but in 1888 the crop amounted to 
 2,001,000 bushels. While there exists in every country 
 a tendency to increase the production of the staple crops 
 with each new section opened for settlement, the com- 
 parative ease with which railroads can be laid on the 
 prairies, and the facility with which land devoid of 
 timber can be brought under cultivation, make this 
 tendency very marked in the United States. At the 
 same time there seldom has been, and is not now, a cor- 
 responding increase in the demand for these crops. 
 Consequently the prices of staple commodities fell at the 
 commencement of the period of railroad construction in 
 
40 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 1869; not because of the decrease in the cost of their 
 cultivation, but because of their over-production. 
 
 A reduction in earning capacity such as the decline 
 in prices implies, falls with greater severity on the 
 farmer than on any other class of society. In our 
 country he belongs to the debtor class, paying out in 
 fixed charges a large proportion of his income. The 
 laborer can reduce his personal expenses, but the farm- 
 er's taxes and the interest on his mortgage are the same 
 in bad as in good seasons. The rise and fall in the 
 price of the commodities he produces have no effect on 
 the amount of his" mortgage. Thus it is more important 
 that he should have a steady market for his products, 
 than that he should pay the lowest possible price for his 
 clothes. What the farmer wants is the ability to earn a 
 living. 
 
 There are two possible remedies for the over-produc- 
 tion of the staple crops. We can open our ports freely 
 to the products of foreign mills, and try to increase the 
 foreign demand for wheat and corn. Such a course 
 would stop the wholesome tendency to diversify our in- 
 dustries, close large numbers of our factories, and throw 
 thousands of hands out of employment. It might even 
 compel the mechanic to go west and try to produce 
 wheat and corn, thus increasing instead of diminishing 
 our present difficulties. The other remedy strikes di- 
 rectly at the cause of the evil, without disturbing the 
 present system of encouraging the home production of 
 manufactured articles. If with every fall in the price of 
 corn or wheat, the farmer of our older States could de- 
 crease his production of those commodities, and in- 
 crease the acreage devoted to some other crop, or breed 
 more stock, the demand and supply of the staple pro- 
 ducts, in spite of the constant development of new ter- 
 ritory, would always have a tendency to return to their 
 normal condition. As long as a nation has undeveloped 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 41 
 
 territory continually being opened for settlement, she 
 should constantly aid the farmer in the old districts to 
 counteract the depressing effect of a fall in the price of 
 staple products, by aiding in the development of new 
 agricultural industries. As a matter of fact, our govern- 
 nment, until recently, has done little in this direction. 
 From this inaction spring the farmer's present diffi- 
 culties. The raising of horses, pigs, and to a certain 
 extent dairy products, are industries fully developed, and 
 only capable of a normal increase from year to year. 
 The demand for the products of these industries was, 
 and still is satisfied, but the opening of new territory, 
 and the consequent tendency to the over-production 
 of the staple crops continues. To relieve the depres- 
 sion consequent on the fall in prices, our fanner, as was 
 shown in the case of the region along the Ohio, has at- 
 tempted to do exactly what he should not have done. 
 He has either tried to keep up his income by increasing 
 the average acreage devoted to wheat or corn, thereby 
 still further depreciating the value of those commodi- 
 ties, or, hoping for an improvement in prices, he has 
 continued to plant his corn and wheat fields at a loss, 
 meeting the year's expenses by increasing the mortgage 
 on his land. 
 
 We have selected a particular portion of the country, 
 not because it was the only part, unfortunately, where 
 the condition of agriculture is unfavorable, but because 
 it is sufficiently far west to show that agricultural de- 
 pression is not confined simply to those sections of our 
 country where the most energetic members of the com- 
 munity have for generations either migrated to the edge 
 of civilization, or removed to the large cities. The 
 agricultural interests in many Eastern States seem to be 
 passing through a period of stagnation or decline, and 
 the steady depopulation of whole counties is shown by 
 the change from small to large farms. The crying need 
 
42 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 of our farming population is the establishment of new 
 agricultural industries. It is especially important to 
 have in those districts where the yield per acre of 
 wheat or corn is small, an industry which will utilize 
 the poorest land now devoted to either of these cereals, 
 and also bring into use other lands at present lying 
 waste. 
 
 Of course if this decline in value of agricultural 
 commodities, which is the cause of the depression exist- 
 ing in large districts in the East, and a great deal of 
 suffering in the West, was itself caused by any perma- 
 nent inferiority of the natural resources of the soil, it 
 would be folly to attempt to counteract it. But the de- 
 pression is not due to permanent causes. The soil in 
 the Middle Atlantic and Central Western States is 
 excellent. To be sure, in the district along the Ohio 
 which we have taken as an example, it is no longer 
 virgin. Montana and Dakota have certain temporary 
 advantages in this respect. But the great fall in the 
 value of the staple commodities is not to be accounted 
 for by any such slight differences in the cost of produc- 
 tion. As has been shown, it arises from the fact that 
 the production of certain crops has outrun the demand 
 at the old prices. We should be willing to make no in- 
 considerable sacrifice to avoid the possibility of our agri- 
 cultural population being driven to and fro over the 
 country with every temporary change in the value of the 
 staple products. It needs little demonstration to estab- 
 lish that this can only be accomplished by the continu- 
 ally introducing new industries, such as sheep-raising, 
 to which farmers can resort when such products as corn 
 and wheat fail. In the end such a course will increase 
 the productive capacity of our agricultural population, 
 thereby reducing the cost to the consumer of all agri- 
 cultural products. For the depopulation of any section 
 of the country, the long years of useless effort to over- 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 43 
 
 come adverse circumstances, and the individual suffer- 
 ing which the struggle entails, together with the amount 
 of capital which is wasted, are heavy blows to the pro- 
 ductive forces of any nation. A people who are contin- 
 ually forced to alter their habitation and whose future is 
 uncertain, will rapidly cease to care to accumulate capital, 
 and become indolent and thriftless. The establishment 
 of a new agricultural industry, or the increase of one 
 already established, such as sheep husbandry, will not 
 be beneficial in that it directly reduces the cost of the 
 consumption of wheat or any other agricultural com- 
 modities now exported. The benefit from the firm estab- 
 lishment of such an industry will rather spring from the 
 fact that it will prevent the waste of productive force 
 which will inevitably result if our agricultural pop Na- 
 tion has to change its location with every variation 
 caused by the instability of foreign prices, in the value 
 of our staple commodities. 
 
 The facts that we have pointed out form an argument 
 in favor of the tariff on raw wool to this extent: They 
 show that our agricultural population needs the estab- 
 lishment of a new industry or the increase of one only 
 partially established. The facts also show that if we do 
 not do this, the present depression of agricultural inter- 
 ests will continue. Thus the extent of the benefit which 
 it is intended to confer upon the country by the tariff 
 on wool is very large. The amount of the sacrifice 
 which the duty involves now demands consideration. 
 
 One of the arguments of the opponents of a tariff on 
 raw wool is that it increases the price of clothing, while 
 another asserts that it forces us to use cotton instead of 
 wool. Taken together, the statements are in a sense 
 mutually contradictory. If the tariff on wool tends to 
 lead us to use more cotton in our clothes than we other- 
 wise would, we may dress just as cheaply, though differ- 
 ently than before. Whether we will be dressed as well, 
 
44 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 depends upon the relative utility of cotton and wool in 
 clothing. That a duty on one article does increase the 
 consumption of its substitute, is beyond dispute. The 
 Secretary of the Wool Manufacturers' Association esti- 
 mates that there is now one pound of cotton and shoddy 
 used in so-called woolen goods for every pound of wool. 
 In the Census of 1880 the proportion was one pound of 
 cotton and shoddy to four pounds of wool. On the 
 other hand, I am informed by manufacturers in England 
 that the proportion of wool in woolen goods used by the 
 people of Great Britain during the same period has cer- 
 tainly not diminished, and has probably increased. 
 
 Clothes, however, are not the only commodities in 
 which the two fabrics can be used interchangeably. 
 Carpets, furniture, coverings, curtains, blankets, can 
 also be made of wool or cotton. To determine whether 
 it would be a good thing for us Americans to use more 
 cotton than we do, we would have to investigate the 
 relative advantages and cost of the fabrics in the various 
 uses in which they are employed. The data at hand 
 are entirely inadequate for an intelligent investigation of 
 such a complicated problem. The facts, however, con- 
 cerning clothes, as far as we have them, seem to indicate 
 that the tariff on wool or woolens, through a disadvant- 
 age as far as the consumption of woolen cloth is con- 
 cerned, is not the burden on the cost of living which 
 the advocates of free raw material, or complete freedom 
 of foreign trade, would have us believe. The object of 
 clothing is health and warmth. Roughly speaking, we 
 can obtain cotton at ten cents per pound, and without 
 our present duty, scoured wool at forty cents per pound. 
 Where possible without endangering health, the cheaper 
 fabric ought to be employed. From a hygienic stand- 
 point the proportion of wool which should be used de- 
 pends upon climate. When pressed into solid blocks 
 the conductivity of the substance of which cotton is 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 45 
 
 composed is less than that of wool; being .000111 to 
 .000122 (C. C. G. units). Woolen fibre, however, unlike 
 cotton, does not grow in a solid core, but is full of in- 
 terstices, and therefore contains large quantities of air. 
 Now the conductivity of air is considerably less than 
 that of either cotton or wool. In C. C. G. units it is 
 only .0000558, or one-half that of cotton, and thus from 
 the structure of the fibre, a woolen garment is warmer 
 than one of equal weight made of cotton. This difference 
 is also increased by the way in which it is woven. 
 Loose-woven fabrics allow the air to enter between the 
 fibres, and are therefore warmer in a still atmosphere, 
 while tightly- woven goods are better adapted to strong 
 winds. Wool, on account of its felting properties, as 
 explained in the next chapter, is especially adapted to 
 loose weaving. The colder the climate the larger the 
 proportion of wool which is necessary for our comfort 
 and health. 
 
 While the substance of the cotton fibre, apart from its 
 structure, is not as good a conductor of heat as the sub- 
 stance of the wool fibre, wet cotton is an excellent con- 
 ductor. Consequently in all except very warm climates 
 woolen underclothes are decidedly to be preferred; as 
 the slightest perspiration largely increases the conduc- 
 tivity of the cotton, rendering the wearer liable to sud- 
 den chills, after overheating. It is on account of the 
 excellent conductive powers of the cotton when wet that 
 it is generally supposed cotton underclothes do not dry 
 as fast as wool. As a matter of fact, however, woolen 
 clothes hung on a line will not dry as fast as cotton 
 clothes, for the reason that the structure of the woolen 
 fibres, which allows them to contain large quantities of 
 air, also allows them to absorb, when thoroughly soaked, 
 a large quantity of water. 
 
 As far as the wearing or lasting properties of woolen 
 and cotton cloths are concerned, there have been no 
 
46 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 scientific experiments, but experience seems to show that 
 there is little difference in this respect between the 
 fabrics. But when there is a considerable strain in wear- 
 ing, the greater elasticity of wool makes woolen cloth 
 more durable than cotton. 
 
 This brief outline of the subject is sufficient to indi- 
 cate that each section of our country should use cotton 
 and wool in a different proportion. In winter, wool 
 should be used in the undergarments, and more or less 
 in the outer garments, of those living north of the 
 Gulf States. The surface of all cloths, and especially 
 of all overcoatings meant to be worn in damp climates, 
 such as the climate of Boston and on the sea-shore gen- 
 erally, should be of wool. In the West, where the air is 
 dryer, less wool is required. On the other hand, in sum- 
 mer we could well afford, in nearly all sections of the 
 U. S., to have our outer garments exclusively of cotton. 
 The important point, however, is that our climatic con- 
 ditions are essentially our own, not those of other coun- 
 tries. We should not take our fashions in clothing from 
 a people who have a different climate and a different rela- 
 tive cost of cotton and woolen cloth. For of this we 
 may feel assured, that as long as we Americans adopt 
 European fashions, so long will we waste an enor- 
 mous amount of productive force trying to live accord- 
 ing to English, or French, or German, rather than 
 according to our own conditions. Everything which 
 renders us less dependent on foreign models for style and 
 manner of living, is good in so far as it allows the in- 
 fluence of our own surroundings to produce their natural 
 effect. 
 
 Whether we should use a larger portion of cotton or 
 wool than we do now, is a question which it is impos- 
 sible to decide. In one section perhaps we should wear 
 more cotton; in another a greater proportion of wool. 
 But certainly over a large part of our country it would 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 47 
 
 be unwise for us to wear anything like the proportion 
 of wool which is used in England. That country has 
 a very damp climate, but heavy rains are practically 
 unknown. With us, on the other hand, the atmos- 
 phere as a rule is dry, but throughout the year, and 
 especially in summer, we are liable to have heavy 
 rains. In England, therefore, woolen garments are 
 always necessary, and at the same time always form a 
 sufficient protection. Our heavy rains, particularly 
 in the West, make rubber coats essential, while when 
 it is clear, the dryness of the atmosphere, and the ex- 
 treme heat of summer, render useless the large pro- 
 portion of wool which is usually found in English 
 clothes. Our climate gives us the advantage of being 
 able to wear clothes containing relatively a larger 
 amount of the cheaper fabric. Yet with the present 
 tendency to follow the fashions of foreigners, we would 
 undoubtedly use almost as large a proportion of wool in 
 our clothing as the Englishman, if wool in relation with 
 cotton was as cheap with us as it is in England. As the 
 tariff undoubtedly has the effect of lessening the demand 
 for woolen clothes below what it otherwise would be, in 
 so far it is beneficial. Thus instead of being a burden 
 on the cost of living, our duty on wool may ultimately 
 enable us to live more cheaply, in that it will induce us 
 to conform to our environment more closely than we do 
 at present. 
 
 Whether, as a matter of fact, the tariff on wool is 
 necessary to the increase of the industry, depends upon 
 the actual condition of sheep husbandry. The parts of 
 our country which are favorable to the development of 
 sheep raising, and the consequent extent of the relief to 
 our agricultural population which we may expect from 
 its growth, can likewise only be known after we ex- 
 amine these conditions. To their investigation it is 
 now time to turn our attention. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 SHEEP AND WOOL. 
 
 In order to appreciate any problem connected with the 
 sheep husbandry of the nation, we must understand the 
 fundamental distinction between the different kinds of 
 sheep. Among thoroughbred sheep there are mutton 
 and fine wool breeds. This is not saying that the sheep 
 which produce fine wool cannot be eaten, but simply that 
 those bearing what is at present considered the most de- 
 sirable wool, or the finest wool in comparison with those 
 whose fleece is of a coarser grade, are light in frame, are 
 fattened with difficulty, and produce mutton which is 
 coarse-grained and unsavory. 
 
 But why is "fine wool" so greatly in demand? 
 Wool is a species of hair. The fibre is composed of 
 cups, superimposed and fitting closely into one another, 
 having a somewhat striking resemblance to a pile of 
 tumblers. At or near the centre is a solid core. If we 
 pass the fibre through the finger, so as to press the edges 
 of the cups toward the core, the surface feels smooth; 
 but if we reverse the movement, the edges of the cups 
 are raised, and give a slight sensation of roughness. 
 The cups are called serrations, the edges causing the 
 fibre to appear serrated under the microscope. In the 
 wool from the finer Australian and Silesian breeds of 
 merinos, the number of serrations will average twenty- 
 five hundred to an inch; in that from the Cotswold and 
 Leicester, eighteen hundred; while frequently less than 
 five hundred can be counted in the coarse Algerian wool. 
 As a rule it may be said that the fineness of the fibre, or 
 its diameter, is directly as the number of serrations. . 
 
 (48) 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 49 
 
 To this peculiar cup-like structure wool owes much 
 of its usefulness. If the fibres are rubbed together when 
 wet, the edges of the cups become interlocked and 
 entangled. The resulting solid mass is called felt, and 
 the process is known as felting. 
 
 Carding is also dependent upon the number of ser- 
 rations. Ordinarily in dealing with fibres, the first ob- 
 ject is to draw all the fibres parallel with each other, and 
 roll them into a sliver or loose skein. Yarn is com- 
 posed of one or more slivers twisted on the spinning 
 mule. In carding the object is to entangle and entwine 
 the fibres. The resulting sliver, instead of being of par- 
 allel fibres to which quite a twist must be given in order 
 to hold them together, is composed of fibres already so 
 interlocked that only a moderate twist is necessary to 
 preserve its shape. What is known as hard spun yarn, 
 is yarn in which the slivers have been twisted to a con- 
 siderable degree. Woolen yarn, except in making 
 woolen warp, is never "hard spun," though when de- 
 signed for clothes it is always twisted more than the 
 yarn which enters into hosiery and knit goods. The 
 absence of hard spinning in woolen cloths lends to 
 woolens lightness, combined with bulk and strength. 
 
 As the process of carding depends upon the felting 
 qualities of the wool, and the felting qualities depend on 
 the number of serrations, which in their turn indicate 
 the fineness of the fibre, it is only the finer fibres which 
 can be carded. True, the coarse kinds of fibre and hair 
 are passed through the carding engine, but these are 
 alw r ays mixed with some wool of good felting properties, 
 in order to preserve the shape of the sliver. In the long 
 coarse wools, the fibres must be drawn parallel; treated, 
 in other words, like cotton. To do this the processes 
 of gilling and combing are employed, and the re- 
 sulting yarn is called worsted, just as woolen yarn 
 results from the process of carding. Here then we have 
 4 
 
50 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 the fundamental distinction between the woolens and 
 worsteds. In woolens the fibres are crossed and inter- 
 locked; in worsted, like the fibres of plants, they are 
 drawn parallel. 
 
 There is just as much theoretic distinction as ever 
 between woolen and worsted yarns. It is the character 
 of wool entering into worsted yarns which has changed. 
 When hand-combs were alone employed, no wool under 
 five inches in staple or length could be combed. In 
 1840, Heilman invented a machine which, by separating 
 the long wool or tops from the short wool or noils, and 
 at the same time drawing the long fibres parallel, per- 
 formed by machinery the work of the hand-comber. 
 This device was followed in 1853 by the invention of 
 the Noble, or circular combing machine. The latter 
 was so constructed that it was able to comb wool of com- 
 paratively short staple. But the great change in the 
 character of the wool used in worsted did not come 
 until the gradual perfection of the Holden square mo- 
 tion machine, and what is known as the French process 
 of combing. The first patent for the Holden machine 
 was taken out in 1848, and improvements are still being 
 made in its construction. It is now possible to comb 
 with advantage, fibres of three-inch staple, and even 
 fibres from one and a half to two inches in staple can be 
 used. As a result of these inventions, the finer and 
 shorter staple wools are employed in both carding and 
 combing. In fact, though pure merino wool is not gen- 
 erally combed, wool which is cut from a breed known as 
 the Delaine merino, and which is a little over three inches 
 in length, but in which the serrations are somewhat less 
 numerous than in that grown on the pure merino, 
 makes an excellent combing wool. On the other hand, 
 the improvement in carding enables us to card wools of 
 four to five inches in length, though we cannot as yet 
 card long combing wool. The long-wool sheep, who 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 51 
 
 once had the monopoly of the worsted trade, have thus 
 of late years been almost driven from the market, while 
 as a result of the increased variety of wools which can 
 be spun into worsted yarns, the use of worsted goods has 
 greatly increased. At the same time, though the theo- 
 retic distinction between worsted and woolens still ex- 
 ists, practically they are drawing closer and closer to- 
 gether. As far as the raw wool is concerned, there is 
 no difference between that used for carding and that 
 used for combing. 
 
 Fine wool is the only kind, except the very coarse 
 carpet wool, for which there is any large and steady de- 
 mand. The carpet wools, or rather the wool used in 
 carpets, is often so coarse that it cannot be used in 
 woolen and worsted yarns. The fibre frequently ap- 
 proaches more nearly the hair of the goat, than the wool 
 of the sheep. Of course, the backing of cloths can often 
 be partly made of the finer sort of wool found on the 
 surface of the ordinary carpets. 
 
 Having considered some of the distinctions between 
 wools, let us look at the different breeds Of sheep. 
 
 As before intimated, the fine wool sheep are the 
 Merinos. It may be said that they or their crosses are 
 the only breeds bearing fine wool. Yet one hundred 
 and twenty-five years ago, not one of these animals ex- 
 isted outside of the boundaries of Spain, and even as late 
 as the year 1800, Spain exported six million pounds of 
 wool to England alone. The fleece of the Merino often 
 brought as high as sixty-five cents to one dollar and forty 
 cents per pound. The rest of the continent of Europe 
 possessed numerous herds of sheep, carrying more or 
 less coarse and inferior grades of wool. Probably the 
 two most notable exceptions to the general worthless- 
 ness of the stock were the Friesland and Rousillon. 
 The first stood over three and a half feet in hight, and 
 were especially prized for the large quantity of milk 
 
52 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 yielded by the ewes. The wool bordered on hair. The 
 Rousillon were natives of France. Their fleece, though 
 comparatively thin, was almost as fine as the Merino. 
 
 The Merinos of Spain are said not to be indigenous 
 to that country, but to have been imported by the 
 Romans. In fact, an attempt has been made to trace 
 the breed from the country around the ancient port of 
 Dioscurias, on the Black Sea. * 
 
 Whatever their origin, the sheep of Spain, in the last 
 century, by fresh importations from Northern Italy and 
 careful breeding, had reached a very high state of per- 
 fection. In fact, though we have since more than 
 trebled the weight of the fleece, it is doubtful whether 
 we have improved its quality. 
 
 Two reasons had up to 1765 kept the Merinos within 
 the boundaries of the kingdom of Spain. The govern- 
 ment zealously guarded what was rightly believed to 
 be the nation's richest possession and most profitable 
 monoply. Strict laws were made forbidding the expor- 
 tation of the Merino. The more celebrated varieties, 
 the Escurial, Gualeloupe, Paular, Infantado, Montareo, 
 and lastly but not least, the far-famed Negretti, were 
 especially protected. There was also a firm conviction 
 
 * The reasons given for this view are interesting. Tzetes mentions 
 the fame of the wool grown by the Coraxi, as spoken of by Hipponax, 
 who lived about 540 B. C. This port is supposed to have had trade 
 with Miletus. It could, therefore, have readily supplied to that island 
 those sheep whose fleeces ranked first in the ancient world. The 
 Greeks are thought to have introduced the sheep of Miletus into 
 Southern Italy, for in the time of Pliny we find the wool of Tareutum 
 in the highest repute. The writer at the same time calls them Greek 
 sheep, and mentions that they have a short fine staple. According 
 to Palladius, they were called Asiatic sheep ; meaning by Asia, 
 Miletus and the adjoining ports of Asia Minor. Their fame is also 
 spoken of by Horace and Martial. The record of their importation 
 into Spain "is supplied by Columella, who states that the sheep of 
 Tarentum were taken to Baetis. This assertion is endorsed by Cal- 
 purnius. See Antiquum Textorum. 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 53 
 
 in the minds of all Europe that two things were abso- 
 lutely necessary for the production of fine wool ; the 
 climate of Spain, and the custom practiced by her peo- 
 ple of driving the flocks long distances to and from their 
 summer pastures. This latter belief, though all the 
 sheep in Spain were by no means transmute or migra- 
 tory, was shared by the Spaniards themselves. Laws, 
 called the "Rules of La Marche," were passed setting 
 aside large belts of country as roads over which the 
 sheep could be driven, and every precaution was taken 
 for their undisturbed passage. As the sheep were prin- 
 cipally owned by the nobles, in whose interest all legis- 
 lation was enacted, these "Rules of La Marche," often 
 bore heavily on the agricultural interests of the com- 
 mon people. 
 
 In 1775 and 1778 the Elector of Saxony obtained per- 
 mission to import from Spain one hundred rams and 
 two hundred ewes. Judicious crossing of these and 
 other importations with the native breeds, produced 
 inside of thirty years a race of sheep which have even 
 finer wool than the Spanish. They are known as the 
 Saxony-Merinos. 
 
 Between 1768 and 1788, the Merino was imported 
 into most of the smaller states of Germany. One hun- 
 dred sheep were brought to Wurtemburg in 1768. 
 These, however, were partly from the Rousillon flocks 
 of France. In 1783 and 1788, Spanish sheep were im- 
 ported into the Duchy of Brunswick and the Margravate 
 of Baden. 
 
 Frederick the Great in 1786, obtained a number of 
 sheep from Spain which were all lost, but Prussian 
 breeders bought Saxo-Merinos. One of these importers, 
 the enterprising and patriotic Count Von Magnis, on his 
 estates in Silesia, laid the foundation of the Silesian 
 breed. The present representatives of this breed bear 
 finer fleeces than any other sheep in the world. 
 
54 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 To the perseverance of Daubenton, France owes the 
 improvement of her sheep. In 1775 he imported a few 
 Merinos from Spain. By carefully dividing these into 
 seven herds, keeping some pure and mixing others with 
 the native breeds, he demonstrated, in the face of his 
 people's settled convictions to the contrary, that the 
 native sheep of France could be so improved that they 
 would ultimately produce very fine wool. In 1783 he 
 had the satisfaction of seeing eight hundred and thirty- 
 two pounds of wool, grown on the descendants of his im- 
 ported sheep, manufactured into cloth. As a result of 
 this practical proof, the French government imported 
 from Spain to Rambouillet, the national farm, three 
 hundred and sixty-seven rams and some ewes. Almost 
 one hundred died from sheep-pox. The rest were placed 
 under an agricultural board, whose attempts to increase 
 the size of the carcass, and weight of the fleece, were 
 crowned with success. In 1796 the average weight of 
 the clip had increased to six pounds and nine ounces, 
 while in 1801 the weight was nine pounds one ounce. 
 The price during the same period rose from five frances 
 ($1.00) to twenty-seven frances ninety-five centimes 
 ($5.59) per fleece, proving that the manufacturers rapidly 
 appreciated the value of the wool, although at first they 
 had attempted to depreciate it, thinking their profits 
 would be greater if the raw product continued to be im- 
 ported. From the Rambouillet stock are descended the 
 present breed of sheep known as the French Merino. 
 Their large size and hearty constitution enables them to 
 bear heavy fleeces, even when kept tmder rough condi- 
 tions. They are consequently popular in Utah, Arizona 
 and the extreme Northwest. 
 
 Without describing in detail the importation of the 
 Spanish Merino into the other countries of the conti- 
 nent, we can state that before the beginning of the 
 present century, a few of these animals could be found 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 55 
 
 in every State in Europe. During the present century 
 the careful experiments of the continental governments 
 of Europe have given their several peoples breeds of 
 sheep as nearly as may be adapted to their condition. 
 Of late years, since mutton has become the chief object, 
 especial attention has been bestowed upon feeding ex- 
 periments, and the production of mutton sheep. This 
 is particularly true of Germany and Austria. 
 
 The only country where the Merino has not proved a 
 success is England. In 1780 Lord Auckland induced 
 the Marchioness del Campo de Arlange to present to the 
 King, George III, five rams and thirty-five ewes of the 
 Negretti variety. These were kept at Oaklands, a 
 country seat of the Duke of York's, and considerable 
 effort was made to induce the farmers to cross them with 
 the native stock. But the Merino found in England 
 rival breeds of sheep, which had been the result of 
 years of care and thought. In the rest of Europe, as I 
 have stated, the native sheep bore coarse wool and gave 
 coarser mutton; in England, the wool by comparison 
 was long and lustrous, the carcass large, the mutton 
 juicy. The fine-wool stranger, in spite of the high 
 price obtained for his fleece, was unprofitable. People 
 refused to eat the comparatively coarse mutton. Then 
 too, the eye of the farmer had become accustomed to 
 his handsome, short-legged, fat, barrel-shaped sheep; 
 while the Merinos were long-legged, and troubled with 
 an excessive throatiness, which , gave, and still gives 
 them, an awkward, ungainly appearance. The damp 
 climate was another drawback. 
 
 If the Merino failed to obtain an undisputed footing 
 in the mother country, its success in Australia is one of 
 the industrial wonders of our time. Imported by Cap- 
 tain John McArthur in 1793, it was not until 1830 that 
 people began to realize the advantages which cheap 
 land, and an equable climate, give in the production of 
 
56 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 fine wool. In 1845, however, the exportation of wool 
 from the colonies had increased to twenty-four million 
 pounds (24,000,000); in 1880 it was three hundred and 
 ninety millions (390,000,000); and, notwithstanding the 
 loss from drought of ten millions of sheep in the first 
 years of the present decade, the exportation last year 
 (1889), * s estimated at five million five hundred pounds 
 (5,000,500). Ninety-five per cent, of the wool of Aus- 
 tralia is clipped from Merino sheep. On the other 
 hand, half of the sheep of New Zealand are "Crosses," 
 a term usually confined to a cross between a Spanish 
 sheep and one of the English breeds. 
 
 In South Africa, the Merino is practically the only 
 blood which has been used to improve the coarse sheep. 
 The wool now imported from these countries, while not 
 so fine as the Australian, is superior to that grown in 
 many of our western states and territories. 
 
 The first introduction of the Merino into the United 
 States was in 1793, when three fine rams were smuggled 
 out of Spain and sent to William Forest of Boston. That 
 gentleman killed and ate them, thanking the sender for 
 his present of mutton. • It is safe to assume he never 
 dined so expensively in his life, for the three amimals 
 were probably worth at the time and place over four 
 thousand dollars. The next attempt was more successful. 
 In 1 801 the celebrated ram Dom Pedro was imported to 
 Wilmington, Delaware. In the next six years he be- 
 came the sire of many fine-wool flocks in that State and 
 on the banks of the Hudson. Col. Humphreys Davis, 
 of Connecticut, and the Hon. R. R. Livingston, of New 
 York, also imported Merinos in the first years of the 
 present century. In 1809 William Jarvis, Consul at 
 Lisbon, bought at auction three thousand eight hundred 
 and fifty animals, and shipped them to the United 
 States. From this nucleus of about five thousand sheep 
 are descended the fine-wool flocks of our country. 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 57 
 
 Previous to 1801, there were two kinds of sheep in 
 North America. The animals to be found in the East- 
 ern and Middle States, including some in Virginia, were 
 the descendants of those brought over by the original 
 English immigrants. They were probably taken from 
 the poorer flocks of England. Thus we have an account 
 of a few sheep brought with the first settlers to James- 
 town, Virginia, in 1607. This is our earliest record. 
 Owing to neglect, the sheep of the colonies were not 
 materially different from those flocks with which the 
 Merino had been crossed on the continent of Europe. 
 Eighty years of care and patience have produced won- 
 derful results. The stud flocks of Vermont, New York, 
 Ohio and Pennsylvania produce the heaviest fleeces in 
 the world. In the grease, or unwashed, they have been 
 known to weigh over thirty pounds, while part of the 
 clip contains as fine, if not finer wool, than their Span- 
 ish ancestors. No praise is too high for the intelligent 
 perseverance which has produced this result; and while 
 we shall have occasion to criticise the standards of ex- 
 cellence which our breeders have adopted, we must ad- 
 mit that they have been marvelously successful along 
 those lines of improvement which they have considered 
 most desirable. The descendants of the cross between 
 the sheep of the colonists, and the Merino, is spread 
 over New York, Western Pennsylvania, Northern Vir- 
 ginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and 
 the other central Western States. 
 
 There was another sheep on our continent, besides 
 the descendants of those brought over by the Eng- 
 lish immigrants. In the pine woods of the South 
 Atlantic and Gulf Coast, in the Southwest, in Texas, 
 Mexico, and Central America, is found, the American 
 Scrub, the degenerate descendant of the early Spanish 
 importations. They, therefore, probably contain Merino 
 blood, though it is doubtful whether the Spanish govern- 
 
58 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 ment allowed any of the fine flocks to be sent to her col- 
 onies. The Scrub lias in common with his Spanish an- 
 cestors a wonderful hardiness of constitution. The fierce 
 battles of the rams at the rutting season, the rough food 
 and hard life, were causes producing a process of natural 
 selection which eliminated all but the strongest and 
 healthiest animals. The glory of the Spanish fleece 
 has, however, totally departed. The Scrub rarely pro- 
 duces more than two pounds of unwashed wool, which 
 at the same time is so coarse that it is almost exclusively 
 used in carpets. 
 
 The cross of the Merino and the Scrub is called the 
 Grade. The per cent, of Merino blood is designated by 
 fractions. Thus the first cross is a one-half blood, the 
 second cross a three-fourths blood, and the re-cross of a 
 one-half grade ram with a Scrub ewe is a one-quarter 
 blood. At present the Grade sheep is the most numer- 
 ous variety in the United States. The pure Merino 
 is not a profitable ranch animal. Their constitutions, 
 though by no means delicate, are not equal to the 
 rough treatment. In the language of the plains, they 
 cannot * * rustle ' ' for a living. Experience seems to in- 
 dicate that for the West, as long as we retain the present 
 practice of herding sheep on sparse lands, the best ani- 
 mal is a three-eighths blood. Except in the old South 
 Atlantic and Gulf States and in Tennessee and Southern 
 Kentucky, there are few absolutely unimproved Scrub 
 sheep left. The herds of Southwestern Texas and New 
 Mexico, however, have as a rule only a very small 
 amount of Merino blood*; though even in these districts 
 the character of the sheep is being rapidly improved. 
 Table III. will give the reader an idea of the extent to 
 which the amelioration of the native breeds, or more pro- 
 perly the early Spanish importations, has been carried. 
 
 While before the beginning of the present century, the 
 people of the continent of Europe did little to better the 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 59 
 
 character of their flocks, in England, from the time of 
 Edward I., and even earlier, considerable attention was 
 paid to raising sheep. All through mediaeval times 
 English wool was in high repute on the continent, and 
 was exported in considerable quantities to Belgium, 
 Holland and France. Edward I. attempted to prohibit 
 its exportation, in the hopes of stimulating native manu- 
 facturing industry. This prohibitory policy, though 
 somewhat modified, was continued until the reign of 
 Elizabeth. In 1660 it was again renewed ; the last 
 enactment remaining on the statute books until 1825. 
 In the latter years of the eighteenth century, instead of 
 being in a position to export wool, England began im- 
 porting fine fleeces from Spain. 
 
 In 1800 there were almost as many breeds of sheep in 
 England as there are counties. The slowness of commu- 
 nication between the North and South, together with the 
 fixed nature of land tenure, which kept estates in one 
 family for generations, and lent family pride to local 
 prejudice, prevented the intermingling of the sheep of 
 different counties, and gave to the breeds of each their 
 distinctive characteristics. This distinctiveness in some 
 respects they still retain, though each of the more cele- 
 brated varieties is widely scattered over the earth. 
 
 We must not suppose, however, that the English 
 breeds have not been improved in the last ninety years. 
 There is probably more difference between the Long- 
 wool and the Down sheep of our day, and those of the 
 eighteenth century, than there is between the original 
 Merinos imported from Spain and their modern descend- 
 ants. To appreciate the direction in which the im- 
 provement of English sheep has taken place, let us 
 glance at some of the most noted breeds. These may be 
 divided into two classes; the Long- wool, and the Down, 
 or medium wool sheep. The principal variety of the 
 Long- wool sheep is the Leicester. In fact, the Cotswold, 
 
60 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 Lincoln and other breeds of this class are rather sub- 
 varieties of the Leicester than distinctive breeds. The 
 Leicester was brought to its present state of perfec- 
 tion by Blakewell. The wool is ten inches long and 
 very soft. The Lincolns, which were once a distinct 
 breed but now contain much Leicester blood, have, as 
 will be seen by the table (Table I.), somewhat heavier 
 frames. The fleece is also heavier, and the wool coarser 
 and more lustrous. The heaviest sheep are the Cots- 
 wold, though their mutton is coarser in the grain. On 
 comparing the relative value of these animals, it must be 
 remembered that as a large and steady demand for long 
 wool has ceased, they are valued principally for their 
 mutton. 
 
 The Down breeds, or middle sheep, more nearly satisfy 
 the demand of modern markets. The principal varieties 
 are the Southdown, the Oxford, the Hampshire and the 
 Shropshire. The fineness of the fleece is in the order 
 named, though there is little difference between the first 
 three ; the Shropshire, however, is much coarser. The 
 wool of the Downs can be compared to that of a quarter 
 grade merino sheep, and is always marketable; while 
 the mutton, though less in quantity, is of better quality 
 than that of the Long- wool or heavy breeds. 
 
 Table I. will enable the reader to compare the com- 
 mercial value of these English sheep with the Mer- 
 ino. In its examination, however, two additional cir- 
 cumstances should be taken into consideration. The 
 lamb of the English breed is hardier, and reaches ma- 
 turity sooner than his fine-wool ed brother; but the 
 full-grown Merino sheep, except for marshy lands, has a 
 much better constitution. Two- thirds of the Grade 
 sheep of the West, for instance, are kept under condi- 
 tions which would in a short time kill any animal of 
 English stock. The wool of the Merino grows close and 
 thick, and becoming matted by the animal yolk or 
 
TABLE I 
 
 SHOWING THE RELATIVE VALUE OF THE DIFFERENT BREE 
 
 Unit. 
 
 Cotswold. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 7- 
 
 10% 
 
 1.6591 
 
 1-4594 
 
 35-34 
 
 35-35 
 
 30-44 
 
 25.66 
 
 7- 
 
 7- 
 
 50. 
 
 50- 
 
 200. 
 
 190. 
 
 170. 
 
 165. 
 
 no. 
 
 104.5 
 
 93-5 
 
 IO-75 
 
 Leicest 
 
 Length of Staple 
 
 Fineness in -j^g of an inch 
 
 Number of Serrations 
 
 Per cent, of Elasticity 
 
 Strain before breaking 
 
 Weight of Fleece 
 
 Live weight of Lambs at 3 months. 
 Live weight of full-grown Rams . . 
 Live weight of full-grown Ewes . . 
 Rams, Dressed weight ...... 
 
 Ewes, Dressed weight 
 
 1 inch. 
 
 Gr. 
 lbs. 
 
 1.5271 
 1800. 
 
 28.05 
 
 23.70 
 6 l / 2 
 
 45- 
 185. 
 160. 
 in. 
 
 96. 
 
J. X1.JJJ_^JJ/ A. 
 
 THE RELATIVE VALUE OF THE DIFFERENT BREEDS WHEN KEPT UNDER THK BEST 
 
 CONDITIONS. 
 
 of an inch, 
 itions . . . 
 ticity . . . 
 aking . . . 
 
 ,ambs at 3 months, 
 ill-grown Rams . . 
 all-grown Ewes . . 
 reight ...... 
 
 'eight 
 
 35-34 
 3°-44 
 7- 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 1034 
 1-4594 
 
 35-35 
 
 25.66 
 7- 
 
 5°- 
 190. 
 165. 
 104.5 
 
 10.75 
 
 10. 
 
 I-527I 
 1800. 
 28.05 
 23.70 
 
 ey 2 
 
 45- 
 185. 
 160. 
 in. 
 
 96. 
 
 Shropshire 
 Down. 
 
 5^ 
 
 7- 
 
 60. 
 170. 
 155- 
 
 93-5 
 
 78.275 
 
 4U' 
 
 ■7185 
 
 33-05 
 30-43 
 7- 
 
 43- 
 160. 
 145- 
 
 Hampshire,, ., _ 
 nnvm houth Down 
 
 6% 
 43- 
 
 155- 
 
 143- 
 82.5 
 78.55 
 
 22.95 
 12.78 
 
 40. 
 150. 
 140. 
 
 28.70 
 7-35 
 11. 
 30- 
 105. 
 95- 
 52-5 
 47-5 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 6l 
 
 grease, forms an almost impervious mass ; while the long 
 open fleece of the Leicester, or even that of the Shrop- 
 shire and Southdown, is but a poor protection against 
 cold winds and rain. Thus, though the English breeds 
 fatten easily, and require, in spite of their size, only from 
 ten to twenty per cent, more food to keep them in good 
 condition, still the Merino can survive and bear some 
 wool on the roughest and most scanty diet. 
 
 The principal homes of the mutton sheep outside of 
 the mother country are Canada and New Zealand. Most 
 of the sheep of the former province contain Shropshire 
 blood, and, as before mentioned, one-half of the sheep 
 of New Zealand are cross-breeds. The distribution of 
 the mutton breeds throughout the United States is 
 shown in Table III. The sheep of southern New Eng- 
 land, eastern New York and Pennsylvania, contain a 
 great deal of Shropshire and Southdown blood. The 
 improvement of the sheep of Virginia, and the slight 
 improvement which has taken place in the South At- 
 lantic States, have been almost exclusively with Shrop- 
 shire rams. In the western part of the Middle Atlantic 
 States and in the Central Western States, while the Me- 
 rino is still the most numerous breed, the English sheep 
 are rapidly gaining ground. This change has been es- 
 pecially marked since the fall in the price of wool, fol- 
 lowing the adoption of the tariff of 1883. Thus in Illi- 
 nois the proportion of mutton sheep has increased from 
 twenty to fifty per cent. The fall in the price of wool 
 seems but to have accelerated this change in the charac- 
 ter of the sheep. In 1870 there were few mutton sheep 
 west of central Pennsylvania or New York, yet we see 
 (Table III.) that in 1883 fifteen or twenty per cent, of the 
 sheep of all the Central Western States contained more 
 or less English blood, and in southern New England and 
 eastern New York the change from fine wool to mutton 
 sheep was already complete. West of the Mississippi, 
 
62 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 with the exception of the State of Iowa, there is little 
 else than Grade-Merino, though the States of Washing- 
 ton and Oregon have some Long-wool and Shropshire 
 crosses. In the Southwest, in Utah, in Nevada, and 
 even in Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and adjacent states 
 and territories, there are practically scarcely any sheep 
 which have English blood. 
 
 Let us now turn to the coarser wools grown on unim- 
 proved sheep. The bulk of the coarse wool of com- 
 merce is clipped from breeds which have been for cen- 
 turies similar to what they are to-day, because they 
 have been raised by the farming population of the 
 Orient, who are the most unprogressive of all Caucasian 
 people. Some breeds in the East are especially noted 
 for the immense size to which the tail is developed. 
 In parts of Asia Minor little two-wheeled carriages to 
 support the appendage have to be fastened to the ani- 
 mals, as the weight of the tail is too great to drag on 
 the ground. This practice of fastening little carriages 
 to the sheep is described by Herodotus as customary 
 with these people in his day. Fat meat being more 
 highly prized than lean, -a portion of the tail is consid- 
 ered a great delicacy. 
 
 Southern Russia exports immense quantities of carpet 
 wool, grown on her Dronskoi breed of sheep. The 
 wool is hairy, coarse, and about five inches long. The 
 sheep seldom carry more than one and a half to one and 
 three-fourths pounds of wool in the grease or dirt. The 
 fleece only shrinks in scouring, however, from ten to 
 sixteen per cent. The wool grown on the native sheep 
 of India is also coarse. The highest grades of carpet 
 wools come from Great Britain and South America. In 
 the former country, the wool is grown on the Highland 
 and Welsh Mountain breeds. The carpet wool of the 
 latter country is imported mainly from the Province of 
 Cordova, in the Argentine Republic. The majority of 
 
'WE WORLD, AND I HK ANNUA! PRODUCTION OF WOOL. 
 
 Pounds of Wool "Scoured." 
 
 Number of 
 
 Pounds of Average per Pounds of 
 
 Wool in the cent, ol Scoured 
 
 Slice],. 
 
 (,rea 
 
 42,000,000 
 
 224.000,000 
 
 56 
 
 3,500,000 
 
 1 6,000,000 
 
 20 
 
 30,000,000 
 
 60,000,000 
 
 3° 
 
 1 00,000,000 
 
 400,000,000 
 
 70 
 
 7,000,000 
 
 1 7,000,000 
 
 60 
 
 98,000,000 
 
 550,000,000 
 
 55 
 
 20,000,000 
 
 40,000,000 
 
 12 
 
 10,000,000 
 
 1 4,000,000 
 
 '5 
 
 1 0,000,000 
 
 1 4,000,000 
 
 ■5 
 
 22,000,000 
 
 97,000,000 
 
 60 
 
 6,000,000 
 
 9,000,000 
 
 16 
 
 29,000,000 
 
 133,000,000 
 
 20 
 
 22,000,000 
 
 1 1 0,000,000 
 
 3° 
 
 1 9,000,000 
 
 95,000,000 
 
 30 
 
 1 6,000,000 
 
 88,000,000 
 
 45 
 
 1 5,000,000 
 
 67,000,000 
 
 30 
 
 22,000,000 
 
 88,000,000 
 
 20 
 
 75,000,000 
 
 337,500,000 
 
 16 
 
 546,500,000 
 
 2,359.5°°.°°° 
 
 
 Number of She 
 
 Wool. „ d = g II II 
 
 I If I I 
 
 § 1 
 
 § 
 
 100.000,000 
 12,800,000 
 42,000,000 
 
 1 20,000.000 
 6.Soo,ooo 
 
 247,500,000 
 35,200,000 
 1 1 ,900,000 
 1 1 ,900,000 
 38,800,000 
 7,560,000 
 
 106,400,000 
 77,000,000 
 66,500.000 
 48,400,000 
 46.900.000 
 70,400.000 
 
 1 68,500.000 
 :, 2 lS, 560,000 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 63 
 
 the clip of South America is now above the grade of 
 carpet- wool, and the fleeces from that country will pro- 
 bably steadily improve, until little or no coarse wool is 
 grown there. 
 
 We have now discussed in a general way the character 
 and distribution of the different breeds. If the reader 
 will glance at Table II, he will see the relative amounts 
 of wool produced by our own and foreign countries. 
 The figures in the table do not pretend to be more than 
 estimates. They serve simply to enable one to obtain 
 a general view of the subject. It will be seen that 
 Australia is by far the largest wool-growing country 
 of the world. This is on account of the high average 
 weight of the clip. The shrinkage of wool in scour- 
 ing is due to the proportion of animal yolk or grease 
 in the fleece, and to the presence of such foreign sub- 
 stances as burrs, sand, and dirt. In such countries as 
 the United States, where many breeds are used, the aver- 
 age shrinkage which is about 51 per cent., tells us little 
 about the clip from any section. On the other hand, 
 in Australia, practically all the sheep being of pure Me- 
 rino blood, there is little variation in the shrinkage. 
 Owing to the wide difference in the amount of shrink- 
 age and weight of the fleeces, the number of sheep in 
 any country is a very poor indication of the amount of 
 the product. Thus Russia has nearly twice as many 
 sheep as the United States, yet the weight of our clip in 
 the grease is more than double that of Russia. When, 
 however, both these countries are compared on the basis 
 of their production of scoured wool, we find them almost 
 on a par. As a rule the wool of Merinos and their 
 crosses have more yolk and shrink more than the carpet 
 or combing wools. The large shrinkage of seventy-five 
 per cent, which we find in the wool of South America 
 is due in a great measure to the presence of burrs and 
 dirt. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 SHEEP-RAISING IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 As far as the method of sheep raising and the care 
 which is given to them is concerned, the sheep of the 
 United States can be roughly divided into three kinds, 
 viz. : the field, the ranging, and the roaming or Southern 
 sheep. 
 
 The first are those kept in fenced fields. This is the 
 method employed in all States north of Mason and 
 Dixon's line, and in the States north of Arkansas which 
 border on the Mississippi River. The sheep in the east- 
 ern parts of Kansas and Nebraska, in the more settled 
 parts of the Dakotas and Minnesota, and in Northern 
 Kentucky and Virginia, are also pastured in enclosed 
 fields; while throughout the old South a few sheep are 
 also kept in this way. The raising of what we have 
 called field sheep is essentially an auxiliary industry. 
 We seldom find a farmer exclusively engaged in the 
 business. The total number of the animals kept in 
 enclosed fields is about fifteen millions. 
 
 The vast majority of the Western sheep are run on 
 large ranches. One or two ranchmen will guard a band 
 of fifteen hundred or two thousand. Of these sheep it 
 may be said that the snow of winter freezes them, the 
 heat of summer scorches them, rain and hail beat upon 
 them, and they know no covering but the canopy of 
 heaven, no bed but the open prairie. True, in the ex- 
 treme North, in Washington, Northern Oregon, Mon- 
 tana and North Dakota, the flocks are usually separated 
 in winter into smaller bands and pastured near the 
 corrals or open sheds ; while during extreme weather 
 
 (64) 
 
OUR SHKEP AND THE TARIFF. 65 
 
 they are driven under the corrals for shelter and feed. 
 But even in these far Northern States the sheep are 
 placed on the ranch at every opportunity, and allowed 
 to ' ' rustle ' ' for a living. 
 
 The roaming sheep are confined exclusively to the 
 South, and particularly to the pine woods country along 
 the South Atlantic and Gulf coasts. These are the 
 sheep which receive absolutely no care, and which wan- 
 der, unhindered, over the waste pine lands and through 
 the " piney woods." For the heat of summer the trees 
 provide them with shade ; and as for winter, the equable 
 climate in which they live knows not the meaning of 
 the word. The land is sometimes free, that is to say, 
 owned by the State or the United States. In some 
 States, such as Georgia, there are no more free lands, 
 but there are still many wild or waste tracts, owned by 
 persons who never see them, and on which roam the 
 sheep and hogs of the small farmer. About April 1st 
 the inhabitants of a county or section of country partici- 
 pate in what is known as a " wool hunt." The sheep 
 seldom stray very far, for they are not wild animals. 
 The domestic blood of their Spanish ancestors still runs- 
 in their veins. For three hundred years they have been 
 neglected rather than abused. Thus, for the most part, 
 they have only ceased to be tame in one sense — they do 
 not turn to man. The English sparrow in our large 
 cities is said to look on human beings very much as 
 does the Scrub sheep of the South, without fear and 
 without affection. Thus the wool hunt, which means 
 catching the sheep, is not a very difficult undertaking. 
 Being caught they are sheared, marked with the owner's 
 brand, and turned loose for another twelve months. 
 Bvery man is entitled to the wool of those sheep marked 
 with his brand. The entire clip of the county is gener- 
 ally brought to the county town, and there sold in one 
 Jot to the highest bidder. 
 
66 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 Table III is designed to give a general view of the 
 present condition of the industry. The varying num- 
 bers of sheep in the several States from 1840 to 1890, 
 shown in the diagram, are taken from the Government 
 report on "Wool and the Manufacturers of Wool," 
 issued in 1888. The column giving the present number 
 of sheep in the different States and Territories, is based 
 on the latest State and National reports, and the opinion 
 of sheep raisers. The other information given in this 
 Table, as also that in Table V, is based mainly on esti- 
 mates made in reply to a circular containing some sixty 
 questions, sent out by the author, and on personal 
 letters from those actually engaged in the business. 
 Their accuracy and value must be tested largely by the 
 uniformity of the replies received from a State or Terri- 
 tory. A general impression is apt to be much nearer 
 the truth than an average of conflicting statements. 
 In the West, where sheep raising is conducted on a large 
 scale, there was little difference among my correspond- 
 ents regarding the weight of the fleece, or as to the cost 
 and price. In the East there was more variation in the 
 replies, and the averages, consequently, are of less value. 
 
 The character of the wool clip of our own country, 
 the proportion of the mutton to the fine-wool sheep, 
 and the per cent, of sheep improved, are things which 
 must be known before an intelligent discussion of the 
 needs of the industry can take place; yet they necessi- 
 tate a statistical research which the Government alone 
 is capable of performing. All that individuals can do 
 is to gather the opinions of practical men. No greater 
 benefit can be conferred upon an industry, than to 
 allow a committee from those actually engaged in it to 
 consult with the Chief of the Census concerning the 
 character of the statistics they wish to have collected. 
 
 The different facts shown by Table III. are brought 
 out in other parts of this work. 
 
I — ; 
 
 ■ofe 
 
 Wl — 
 
 m o - 
 
 CD 
 X 
 
 <-► 
 
 »-t 
 
 & 
 
 ^' 
 
 r-f 
 CO 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 67 
 
 The bulk of the clip of the United States is shipped 
 to Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, St. Louis, 
 and San Francisco. These cities rank as wool centres 
 in the order named. Whenever it is possible to obtain 
 what he considers a good price, the grower sells on his 
 farm or ranch to the buyers from the wool centres. In 
 this way most of the wool of the Eastern States is sold 
 on the farm. In the West, however, it is usually 
 shipped Bast by the raiser. In New England the large 
 majority of the wool is sold directly to local manufac- 
 turers. The wool grown in the old Southern States is 
 also mainly consumed by local mills. 
 
 Except in the West the market for mutton is not con- 
 fined to the large cities. In New England, New York 
 and Pennsylvania more sheep are taken by the local 
 markets than are shipped to the centres of population. 
 The same is true of the States of the Ohio Valley. The 
 sheep of Virginia and Maryland are sent to Baltimore 
 and Philadelphia. The sheep of the South are also 
 largely taken by local markets, except in southern South 
 Carolina and in southern Mississippi, where they are 
 shipped to the markets of Savannah and New Orleans 
 respectively. East of the Mississippi the proportion of 
 sheep killed for mutton now includes nearly all the 
 wethers and about thirty to fifty per cent, of the ewes, a 
 rate which, if no contagious disease prevails, keeps the 
 numbers of the flock about stationary. In the far West 
 the mortality among sheep is greater, and the desire 
 being to increase the size of the flocks, few of the ewes 
 are killed before they are five years old. Wool is the 
 chief object, so the wethers are also kept as long as the 
 ewes. Every spring in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, 
 Arizona, Idaho, and Eastern Oregon, large numbers of 
 these old sheep are brought up and driven into Kansas 
 and Nebraska, where they are fattened on cheap corn, 
 and in the winter and spring shipped by rail to St. 
 
68 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 Louis, Chicago and eastern markets. It is calculated by 
 Mr. Prince, of Idaho, that one hundred and fifty thou- 
 sand sheep on their way from Oregon to Nebraska, yearly 
 pass over the trail which runs near Boise City. A few 
 sheep are shipped all the way by rail, but the rates are 
 very high. From Boise City to Chicago the rate amounts 
 to about 87 cents per head, and from Colorado about 50 
 cents. From Austin, Texas, and Helena, Montana, to 
 Chicago, the rate is also 87 cents. These statements are 
 the results of calculations based on the authority of the 
 tariffs published for double-deck cars, as from points west 
 of Kansas the rates per head are not given. Single-deck 
 cars are forty per cent, less per car, or about twenty per 
 cent, more per sheep. The railroads, it is charged, re- 
 fuse to supply double-deck cars, or permit shippers to 
 put in the decks. Therefore it has been found that the 
 practice of driving sheep into Kansas and Nebraska is 
 more profitable, though the long distance the animals 
 have to travel, and the uncertainty of the climate and 
 rainfall of the latter states, introduces a very large ele- 
 ment of risk. 
 
 When the wool reaches the market it comes in com- 
 petition with foreign importations. It is argued that 
 Americans and foreigners do not produce under similar 
 circumstances, and that the American wool -grower 
 labors under great disadvantages. These disadvantages 
 are usually classed under two heads: our climate, and 
 the dearness of our labor. Before dealing with climate 
 and cost, and in order to give us a better idea of the 
 present conditions under which sheep are raised, I desire 
 to speak of some other drawbacks to the industry in our 
 country which are not generally known. 
 
 The first of these difficulties is the lack of uniform and 
 standard grades of wool. The grading in the Philadel- 
 phia market, for instance, is a territorial division rather 
 than one based on any intrinsic distinctions. The wools 
 
States 
 
 Maine . I 
 New Ham 
 Vermont 
 Massachu! 
 Rhode Isk 
 Connectici 
 New York 
 New Jersc 
 Pennsylva 
 Delaware 
 Maryland 
 West Virg 
 Ohio . . 
 Indiana . 
 Illinois . 
 Michigan 
 Wisconsir 
 Miunesoti 
 Iowa . . 
 North am 
 Missouri 
 Montana 
 Washingt 
 Oregon . 
 Kansas . 
 Nebraska 
 Wyoming 
 Colorado 
 Utah . . 
 Nevada . 
 Arizona 
 New Mex 
 Texas . . 
 Californu 
 Louisiam 
 Mississip 
 Alabama 
 Georgia . 
 Florida . 
 South Ca 
 North Ca 
 Virginia 
 Ken tuck] 
 Tennesse 
 Idaho . . 
 Arkansas 
 
 anotner mettiod. 01 grading wool, me wool irom tne 
 
TABLE III.— Part II. 
 
 TATES AVD TERRITORIES. 
 
 ie . . . 
 Bampali 
 noiit . . 
 iai husetts 
 Ie [gland 
 
 ,' 1 1 1 ■ i < l . . 
 
 Ilgafl • • 
 
 on mi 
 leaota . 
 
 ii and 5< 
 ouii , . 
 i. in. i . . 
 hington 
 
 on m- . 
 hi. i . . . 
 
 I"! ni.i . . 
 
 iatana 
 iama . . 
 
 th Carolina 
 th Carolina 
 
 ;ini.i . 
 
 UK-W.V . 
 
 nessee . . 
 
 blood. 
 Pull tilood. 
 Southdown cross. 
 
 Mixed. 
 
 \ l.l 1. 
 
 Mixed. 
 
 Mixed. 
 
 y 4 to full blood. 
 y. blood. 
 
 Shropshire. 
 '.. blood. 
 
 L 
 
 irub. 
 
 Scrub. 
 
 Low grade Cross, 
 lood. 
 
 H blood. 
 Scrub. 
 
 s - 
 
 5 g.g 
 
 M 
 
 !«.30 
 
 a - 
 
 the Ravages of Dog* 
 
 a a * 
 
 ? an 
 
 31 
 
 °*« 
 
 
 v. 
 
 h 
 
 • 5 
 : I 
 
 is.**) 
 
 40,000 
 20.000 
 
 80,000 
 
 21.250 
 
 24,000 
 50,000 
 
 1 No sheep before this date. 
 
 t Indicates that much of the wool is either a very low grade of clothing wool or carpet woo . 
 
■ 
 
 vxx\~ uaocu un any UlIl'lllS] 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 69 
 
 from Ohio, Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia, 
 are first distinguished by the States in which they are 
 grown. They are also divided into clothing and comb- 
 ing wools. The latter, about one-fourth of the entire 
 clip, has nothing in common with the long-combing 
 wool of the Lincoln and Cotswold, but is the Delaine 
 combing wool, grown, as before explained, on the De- 
 laine merino sheep. The grades above medium clothing, 
 or delaine wools, are known as fine, fine X, XX, etc. ; 
 those below as coarse one-fourth blood. The majority 
 of the wool from the States mentioned reaches the mar- 
 ket in the dirt, or unwashed state. A larger proportion 
 of the wool from this section, however, is washed than 
 from any other part of the country. In Pennsylvania 
 and Ohio the wool is sometimes washed on the sheep's 
 back. This operation is usually performed by dipping 
 the animal into a running stream — a barbarous practice, 
 as nothing is more injurious to sheep than to become 
 thoroughly wet; besides, the wool when it reaches the 
 market is frequently known as unmerchantable, i. e,, 
 poorly washed, and brings but little higher than un- 
 washed wool. 
 
 The wools west of the Mississippi river are usually 
 called Territories. There is no Delaine, and now very 
 little carpet wool from this section. The greater part is 
 medium clothing. The wool from each State and Ter- 
 ritory is graded as fine, fine X, XX, and above; fine, med- 
 ium, common, and coarse. The ram's wool in which 
 there is a large quantity of dirt and grease is known by 
 the further appellation of heavy. The proportion of the 
 fleeces from the different States which would be graded 
 above and below medium, is given in Table III. There 
 are no statistics on the subject, and the figures must not 
 be regarded as more than the expression of opinions of 
 experienced dealers and breeders. In Boston there is 
 another method of grading wool. The wool from the 
 
7<D OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 Middle States, Ohio and Michigan, is graded as XX 
 Picklock, XX, X, No. i, No. 2, and Common. X and 
 above is supposed to mean wool of full Merino blood. 
 No. 1 denotes three-fourths Merino; No. 2, half Merino; 
 and coarse, one-fourth blood and below. The clip of 
 California is sold largely in Boston. As the sheep in 
 that State and Texas are usually shorn twice a year, the 
 clips are known by the further designation of Fall and 
 Spring. The wool from California, especially that from 
 the southern counties, is apt to contain a good many 
 burrs. When not in this condition it is spoken of as 
 "free." 
 
 In Chicago the grades are similar to those in the Phil- 
 adelphia markets, except that there are no quotations 
 for wool grown east of Indiana. On the other hand, the 
 wool from the States immediately west and south of 
 Chicago, is sent exclusively to that city. 
 
 This territorial division of wools makes anything ap- 
 proaching standard grades an impossibility. The wool 
 from Colorado, for instance, is twenty per cent, better 
 to-day than a few years ago. The change in Utah has 
 been even more marked. Arguments from a compari- 
 son of price-lists are thus rendered useless. The repu- 
 tation which a State or Territory has had in the past 
 affects the value of the wool, and discourages attempts 
 to improve the fleece. In Texas, if one ranchman im- 
 proves the character of his sheep, he will obtain little 
 more than the price received by his neighbors, though 
 the buyer will sell the wool at an advance to the manu- 
 facturers. But failure to reward an attempt to improve 
 the fleece is not always the fault of the middle-men. 
 Even the commission merchant cannot sell a consign- 
 ment of wool from Texas as high as a consignment from 
 Pennsylvania or Ohio, though there should be no differ- 
 ence in the quality, character or condition of the fleeces. 
 Thus the old proverb of giving a dog a bad name holds 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 7 1 
 
 good in the wool trade. The more ignorant the popula- 
 tion, and the smaller the scale on which sheep-raising is 
 carried on, the more unequal is the competition between 
 breeder and dealer. In the South, for instance, ask one 
 who still raises sheep in spite of the ravages of curs and 
 blacks, why he does not try to improve the character of 
 the wool, and he will probably point to an instance 
 where such an attempt was made, and the single buyer, 
 who passes yearly through the country purchasing for 
 local mills, refused to pay more for the clip. Even when 
 the clip is sold at auction in the county town, the farm- 
 ers, being ignorant of the value of their product, do not 
 always drive a good bargain. 
 
 The wool of all ranch sheep varies yearly in the 
 strength and elasticity of the fibre, in the proportion of 
 sand and dirt with which it is mixed, and in the num- 
 ber of kemps or dead hairs it contains. This is due to 
 variations in the climate from year to year. Change in 
 the food, provided the sheep has sufficient nourishment, 
 contrary to the common impression, will have little or 
 no effect on the quantity or quality of the wool. It has 
 been contended that the fact that Australian sheep were 
 fed on natural grasses all the year round, lent an even- 
 ness to the fibre which could not be obtained where the 
 animals were placed on dry fodder during the winter 
 months. But the careful experiments of Win. McMur- 
 trie, Ph. D., given in his report on "Wool and other 
 Animal Fibre" published by our Government (1886), 
 indicate that there is no difference in respect to the 
 evenness of the fibre, between the Australian and well- 
 fed Vermont Merino. On the other hand, the slightest 
 diminution in the quantity of nutriment, when the ani- 
 mal has had barely sufficient to keep him in good con- 
 dition, immediately affects the character of the fleece. 
 If the winter is short and mild, and if the spring rains 
 make the summer grasses on the prairie thicker than 
 
72 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 usuai, the wool will be twenty per cent, above the aver- 
 age, the fibre comparatively strong, and the fleece free 
 from dirt. On the other hand, a hard winter and a dry, 
 hot summer will render the fibre, however fine, useless 
 for any purpose where strength is required. To illus- 
 trate the effect of climate. When the snow is deep, the 
 half-starved animals find with difficulty the white sage 
 bush which forms their main, and in many cases their 
 sole winter diet. The rate of the fibre's growth is 
 greatly lessened, while the small portion grown is very 
 weak, and at the same time, that which was grown the 
 previous summer and fall, when the animal was better 
 fed, is also affected. The whole fleece is thus filled 
 with kemp. If the summer is hot and dry, the quan- 
 tity of the finely powdered sand, which weights the 
 fleece and cuts the wool, is greatly increased. 
 
 The weakness of the wool from the Territories is not 
 confined to years when the winter has been severe or the 
 summer dry. West of the ninety-ninth parallel, except 
 possibly in Western Oregon and parts of Montana and 
 California, sheep in the best of years never receive suffic- 
 ient nourishment for twelve months together. The way 
 in which sheep are kept in Utah, and the effect of the 
 insufficient nourishment on the fibre, is well brought 
 out in the following, taken from a letter written by Mr. 
 Charles Crane, President of the Utah Wool Growers' 
 iVssociation, and the largest owner in that Territory : 
 
 "The sheep when shorn in June have usually an 
 abundance of nutrition, feed, grasses, etc. (This must 
 be taken from a western ranchman's standpoint.) Hot 
 days, and the sheep being fat, makes the oil or yolk 
 come to the surface of the wool. This continues until 
 the fall, when the feed is dry and the sheep ^commence 
 to get poor. Cold comes on, and no shelter is afforded 
 them. Snow, rain, sleet, etc., pour down on them. The 
 sheep get poorer, the wool stops growing, and grows but 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. J$ 
 
 little during the whole winter. But as soon as green 
 grass starts up in the spring, up comes the wool, with 
 the nice oil in it to give it life. But the old wool (*". e. 
 that which has grown the previous summer), is harsh, 
 brittle, dry and comparatively rotten. Thus when 
 shorn, half of the wool has yolk, while the other half 
 has none. Result — a defective staple, weak fibre, etc." 
 
 From the above it will be seen that many western 
 fleeces, no matter how fine they may be, could never, 
 unless the sheep receive more care than they do, equal 
 the clips of Australia. 
 
 The difference in the character of the clip of any 
 State from year to year, renders the necessity for 
 standard grades more imperative than if the quality of 
 the wool was uniform. The manufacturer, not know- 
 ing how much scoured wool he is buying, taking each 
 year the clip of a different ranch, and having to pur- 
 chase with the wool he wants a great deal of wool 
 which he does not need, naturally sees the price is low 
 enough to protect him. On the other hand, the Austra- 
 lian wools have been fine for a number of years. The 
 industry is conducted on such a large scale, that the 
 clip of a station or run is often well known in the 
 London market. Thus the flocks of Sir Samuel Wil- 
 son, or the Brcildown, Mount Bute, Victoria clips, are 
 famous the world over. In England, the agents of 
 manufacturers often buy by the name of the breed or 
 owner, without looking at a sample of the wool. The 
 same thing is true of English wools in this country. 
 One county in England has produced the same wool for 
 years. When the manufacturer buys, he knows as well 
 as any sample could tell him, the character of the pro- 
 duct. 
 
 To add to the disadvantage under which American 
 wools labor from the lack of standard grades, because of 
 the great variations in the fleeces from year to year, the 
 
74 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 wool growers make no attempt to sort the wool. In 
 Southern Africa and Australia the wools are often sorted 
 before shipment. There are always several grades of 
 w r ool in one fleece. The finest grade is cut from the 
 sides, back and shoulders of the animal ; another grade 
 grows on the haunches and breast; a third comes from 
 the belly. Of course, there may be many sub-divisions 
 of the above classification. After sorting, the wool is 
 shipped in sacks or bales, weighing from two hundred 
 to a thousand pounds. Those from Australia are from 
 six to seven hundred pounds in weight, those from 
 Montevideo and other countries of the Rio Plata will 
 run as high as one thousand pounds. The wool from 
 the Cape, having a greater per cent, of yolk, is heavier 
 than the Australian, but the bales are smaller. The 
 average weight last year was between three and four 
 hundred pounds. Bales from the Hast are very irreg- 
 ular in size, and in the number of pounds of wool. 
 English wool is imported in sacks which will average 
 two hundred and forty pounds a piece. American wool, 
 on the other hand, comes into the market in separate 
 fleeces. Each fleece is rolled into a bundle and tied 
 by a heavy twine. Where foreign wool is imported in 
 separate fleeces, a portion of the animal's wool is used 
 as a cord, and the fleeces themselves are always placed 
 in sacks. Thus the buyer does not have to pay for 
 twine at its weight in wool. Then too, the fleece is 
 never stuffed, as is almost the invariable practice in this 
 country. Stuffing consists in rolling up in the fleece 
 locks and tags, or broken pieces of wool, together with 
 the soiled buttocks and the fibbs, or short coarse locks 
 from the legs and face. Not infrequently pieces of dirt 
 shaken from the fleeces in clipping are added. The 
 wool growers make a great mistake in thus weighting 
 their wool. Anything which renders the buyer uncer- 
 tain as to the value of what he is purchasing, not only 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 75 
 
 reacts on the selling price, bnt handicaps the grower in 
 his struggle with foreign competition. Many recognize 
 this. Some have tried to stop the practice, others have 
 attempted to sort their fleeces, but they have met with 
 little success. The dealers refused to pay more for 
 sorted wools. Thus, the few who have tried it, found 
 sorting did not pay. As for stuffing, not to stuff your 
 wool would be like a manufacturer trying to pay his 
 hands twenty per cent, higher than his rivals: unless 
 you have united action on the part of the manufacturers, 
 it cannot be done. Competition, that supposed panacea 
 for all human ills, makes it impossible for a man to be 
 more honest than his neighbor. A bad practice, like 
 bad money, drives out the good. Wool growing is no 
 exception to this rule. To induce the individual wool 
 grower to stop stuffing, one would have to make such a 
 course more profitable. As a matter of fact, it has been 
 found that for one to make a change, results in a loss to 
 him as an individual; for again, as in the case of im- 
 proved wool, the dealer or manufacturer refuses to 
 reward his efforts. 
 
 This exemplifies a truth uniformly overlooked by the 
 advocates of ' ' laissez faire. ' ' Competition, it is asserted, 
 causing every one to seek his own interest, will natur- 
 ally produce the least expensive and therefore the best 
 methods of production. Unfortunately, as in the case 
 of stuffing, often an improvement which might be better 
 for all, if all undertook it, would be the ruin of one who 
 singly attempted it. 
 
 After the fleeces reach the market they are sorted. 
 This may, at first glance, seem to make the grades of 
 wool as quoted more stable than they might appear from 
 the foregoing discussion. The sorter has in his mind 
 what XX Ohio, or one-half blood Ohio, should be like; 
 and when a fleece from that State is brought to him, he 
 sorts the wool according to his own idea, regardless of 
 
j6 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 the animal from which the wool is clipped. Thus a 
 single fleece may pass into two or more grades. This 
 explains what sometimes puzzles the Western ranchman. 
 He has a flock of sheep which he knows to be one-half 
 blood or medium. He ships the clip to market, and it 
 is graded as one-quarter coarse and two-thirds fine. 
 Now, of course, this would greatly lessen the force of 
 some of my remarks on the variations in the condition 
 of the fleece, if it were not customary for brokers and 
 commission merchants to change the fineness of a par- 
 ticular grade from year to year. Thus "fine X and 
 above ' ' is said to be graded twenty per cent, higher in 
 Philadelphia this winter (1890) than last year. Dealing 
 in ' ' futures ' ' is therefore an impossibility. If I con- 
 tract to deliver to " A " on the first of June ten thousand 
 pounds of fine X Ohio, and when the date comes I should 
 desire to avoid my bargain, I can practically offer him 
 any wool I choose. He may say that the fleece is not 
 what he ordered. I may reply, it is what I call fine X. 
 Or, if Ire desires to withdraw, he can refuse to take the 
 wool which I send him, no matter how fine it may be. 
 Hence there never has .been a contract, u fine woo 1 " 
 being a term varying with every year, in every market, 
 and almost with every dealer. With us then there is an 
 imperative necessity for standard grades. These grades 
 must necessarily be of scoured wool. The difference in 
 the shrinkage, and the variations from year to year of 
 even fleeces from the same ranches, render anything like 
 standard grades of wool in the dirt impossible. 
 
 A wool exchange has been suggested as a means 
 whereby standard grades could be established. Its 
 practicability the author does not feel himself in a posi- 
 tion to discuss, but every scheme whose object is to 
 brine the wool grower nearer the manufacturer and 
 which enables the former to appreciate the wants of the 
 latter should be carefully considered. Theoretically 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. J J 
 
 there is much to be said in favor of such a project. The 
 present competition between the grower and the middle- 
 man is a very unequal one. The former, shut up on his 
 lonely ranch, knows little of the needs of the market or 
 the prospect of next year's crop outside of his own 
 State. His sole means of judging of the fairness of the 
 price bid for wool is the price he has received in pre- 
 vious years. He knows not when to accept, nor when 
 to refuse an offer. A price one cent higher than in 
 former years may be low, or, on the other hand, a price 
 one cent lower may be high; yet in all probability he 
 will accept the first and refuse the last. The ranchmen 
 now lose all the little advantages of trade which spring 
 from the knowledge of future demand. The cotton ex- 
 change has obviated these difficulties in that industry. 
 A wool exchange, both on account of the smallness and 
 varied nature of the product, will be a much more diffi- 
 cult undertaking ; yet, with our genius for organization, 
 there seems to be little reason why it could not be ac- 
 complished. However, whether a wool exchange, sim- 
 ilar to our cotton exchange, will be beneficial or not, 
 certain it is that the wool growers need a strong, intelli- 
 gent National Association, which will, by united effort, 
 render impossible all such practices as stuffing. 
 
 The other drawbacks to the success of the industry in 
 America, touch more nearly the actual raising of the 
 sheep themselves. One of these is the ignorance of the 
 average farmer. I do not inclue ranchmen in the term. 
 It seems to be the universal testimony, that those who 
 are at present in the business, for the most part, under- 
 stand it. ' This could not have been said a few years 
 ago. Of late, the inexperienced ranchmen have lost 
 capital, and gained experience. At the same time, I 
 do not wish to imply that the American farmer of 
 the Middle and New England States is not far mere 
 intelligent than the peasants of Europe, who seem to 
 
78 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 understand the raising of sheep; but simply that sixty 
 per cent, of our farmers do not know how to keep these 
 animals. To a query addressed to persons in each 
 State, who undoubtedly understand the business, asking 
 whether the fanners in that State used proper care, the 
 answers received stated that forty, fifty, or in Western 
 Pennsylvania, Ohio, and parts of New York, sixty per 
 cent, take good care of their stock; the rest are slovenly. 
 In New Jersey and Southern New England a man who 
 can raise sheep is regarded as having a peculiar gift; 
 just as before the people of Illinois learned how to raise 
 hogs, the neighbors would say of one who was success- 
 ful, "So-and-so has a knack of raising hogs." In New 
 England, in 1840 and 1850, people knew how to care 
 for sheep. But as the price of land rose and the price 
 of wool fell, raising sheep for wool became unprofitable. 
 Then would have been the time to introduce the mutton 
 breeds. But there were no Federal or State stock farms 
 to sell, at low cost, rams suited to the condition of the 
 people. The fine-wool animal was killed off, and no 
 breed arose to take his place. It is only within the last 
 ten or twelve years that- there has been an effort to in- 
 troduce the Shropshire, Southdown, and other English 
 rams. What took place in Southern New England, 
 Eastern New York, New Jersey and Eastern Pennsyl- 
 vania, thirty-five to forty years ago, is taking place to- 
 day in Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
 and Michigan. Now we have Agricultural Experiment 
 Stations in all of these States. The wool growers ask 
 Congress for higher duties, but not a word is said, nor 
 appropriation asked, to conduct stock farms or to carry 
 on experiments in breeding. Small farmers cannot pay 
 high prices for their rams, and good Cotswold or Shrop- 
 shire rams command anywhere from one hundred to five 
 hundred dollars. The number of mutton sheep in the 
 country has largely increased, but they are not, even in 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 79 
 
 New York, Indiana and Illinois, dispersed among small 
 growers as they should be. These, seeing 110 immediate 
 profit in fine wool, are rapidly killing off their sheep. 
 Thus, the possibility of establishing a great industry, 
 and of adding to the food supply of the nation, is being 
 lost, not because raising sheep for mutton is unprofit- 
 able, but because we are bound down to an a priori 
 theory, which seems to exclude all breeding experiments 
 within the province of government. 
 
 It may be objected that without the aid of government 
 we have succeeded in producing remarkably fine horses 
 and the finest hogs in the world. This is true, and an 
 explanation of the reasons why we have succeeded in 
 these two cases, while we have partly failed in the case 
 of sheep, will show the necessity for the State providing 
 fine rams at a moderate cost. Take the case of horses. 
 In the first place, a good horse is easily selected by 
 those who are accustomed to them. Few farmers, it is 
 true, own their own stallions. But a farmer who owns 
 one, seldom has a sufficient number of mares to keep 
 the animal exclusively for his own use. Thus he will 
 make a business of renting him to his neighbors. 
 What would our race of horses be to-day if every farmer 
 had to own his own stallion ? But we seldom find one 
 who can afford to own a good ram, who has not sufficient 
 use for him in his own flock. On the other hand, where 
 on account of the rapidity of multiplication the male is 
 cheap, as in the case of the hog, the intelligence of our 
 farmers has been sufficient to produce wonderful results. 
 Every farmer who raises pigs can afford to possess the 
 best boars. We now have marvellous uniformity in 
 kind, and excellence in quality. A picture of one pig in 
 the Chicago market would do for any other. The ram, 
 however, is not only expensive, but difficult to select. 
 One who knows little of the wool market cannot from 
 the appearance of the animal, as in the case of horses 
 
80 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 and pigs, or even by weighing the fleece, select the best 
 animal. Thus in order to diffuse among small farmers 
 a breed of sheep especially fitted for the climatic and 
 economic conditions of the country, two things appear 
 to be necessary: first, long-continued and patient ex- 
 periments, involving a considerable outlay of time and 
 money ; second, willingness to sell rams at a very low 
 cost. This combination is never found outside the gov- 
 ernment Experiment Stations, or government Stock 
 Farms. 
 
 Concerning the South, and the interest in that section 
 of our country, I shall have more to say later. Those 
 who raise sheep, if allowing them to roam in the pine 
 woods can be called raising, thoroughly understand the 
 animal with which they deal. Intelligent Northerners 
 who have gone South to teach the natives how to raise 
 sheep, have uniformly failed, not only to instruct, but to 
 succeed themselves. But, though the Southerner under- 
 stands his sheep as they are, he has not the remotest 
 idea how to improve either the mutton or the wool. 
 Like the Armenian or Persian, he can handle profitably 
 the sheep which his father and grandfather raised before 
 him; but give him an animal which requires a different 
 treatment, and he will invariably fail. The sheep of 
 Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama are absolutely 
 unimproved, and in spite of prohibitory tariffs, they will 
 so remain until immigration or education changes the 
 character of the inhabitants. 
 
 To turn to another drawback. The chief 'glory of a 
 Vermont ram is the unparalleled weight of his fleece. 
 As before mentioned, fleeces have been clipped which 
 weighed over thirty pounds. This increase of weight is 
 not entirely due to the increase in the amount of wool. 
 Prizes at State Fairs and by Breeders' Association have 
 been uniformly given for the heaviest clip. Weight 
 then, not the fineness or evenness of the fleece, has been 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 8 1 
 
 the principal object. Yolk bears down the scales as well 
 as wool. Thus the proportion of this animal grease has 
 been so increased that the shrinkage of the heavier 
 fleeces is sometimes over seventy per cent. The prizes, 
 if ever given solely for weight, should be distributed on 
 a scoured and not an unwashed basis. A certain amount 
 of yolk is indispensable, but too much only serves to 
 chill the animal in cold weather. Weight, however, 
 should not be the only object. The increase in the 
 amount of wool is certainly desirable, but to sacrifice 
 everything to that end is to erect a false standard. 
 
 The success of wrinkly Merinos is a proof of how with 
 us the scales preponderate over all other considerations. 
 The object in Australia has been to put upon the market 
 a fleece, every part of which shall be as near as may be 
 similar in length and in fineness to every other part. 
 Sheep growing fibres side by side which differ in length, 
 diameter and strength, are not used for breeding pur- 
 poses. The evenness of the fibre from those colonies 
 adds greatly to the value of the clip. On the other 
 hand, in our desire for weight, we have produced breeds 
 whose wrinkly skin causes the wool to lie in folds upon 
 the animal's back, neck, and throat. The fibre which 
 grows between the folds is both finer and more elastic 
 than that which comes from the top of the wrinkles. I 
 make this assertion on the authority of Mr. McMurtrie. 
 He found the fibres taken from between the folds meas- 
 ured .0008385 of an inch in diameter, while those from 
 the tops of the wrinkles measured .0009751 of an inch. 
 The fibres from the tops were also longer in staple. 
 And here it may be remarked that the fineness of the 
 fibres growing between the folds would seem to indicate 
 that the custom practiced by the Romans, of covering 
 their sheep, in order to increase the softness and fineness 
 of the wool, was not so useless as is generally supposed. 
 
 It is also asserted that in making the weight of the 
 6 
 
82 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 wool practically our only object, we have paid too little 
 regard to the strength of the animal's constitution. Cer- 
 tain it is that after eighty years of experience, we have 
 failed to produce a fine- wool sheep as strong as our native 
 scrub. It is fair to state, however, that the sheep of our 
 Middle and Eastern States are peculiarly free from all 
 kinds of contagious diseases. Grub in the head and 
 paper skin carry off some of the lambs, while among 
 full-grown sheep, indigestion, liver complaint, and in 
 damp locations foot rot, are the most serious disorders. 
 Nevertheless, the mortality is not large. In Indiana, for 
 example, only 36,764 sheep died in 1889, out of a total 
 of 950,000, showing that the State was free from con- 
 tagious disease. Ohio, out of a sheep population of 
 3,500,000, lost 178,873. In the South, the sheep are 
 very hea thy, though loss is sometimes occasioned by 
 diarrhoea, brought on by eating the flowers of the 
 partridge pea. 
 
 In all States west of the Mississippi River, however, 
 and especially in Texas, Arizona and New Mexico, the 
 scab is one of the ranchman's worst enemies. Like 
 mange in horses and dogs, or the itch in men, the scab 
 is a cutaneous disease. It is propagated by a minute 
 insect, the acarus. The sheep rub, bite and tear the 
 affected parts. The disease is always accompanied by 
 great loss in the quantity and quality of the wool, and 
 if not attended to, will shortly result in the animal's 
 death. It first appeared in Texas just before the break- 
 ing out of the late war. Though not directly contag- 
 ious, scabby sheep leave the acari on all objects with 
 which they come in contact. These animalculae remain 
 alive for a long time, ready to fasten themselves on other 
 sheep. A pasture which has lately been inhabited by 
 animals troubled with the scab, is therefore, unfit to use. 
 
 The scab is kept in check in the West by dipping the 
 animals in a solution of turpentine immediately after 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 83 
 
 shearing. The disease has been greatly increased on 
 our Western ranches by the low state of the sheep's 
 vitality, owing to exposure and poor feeding. In fact, 
 scab is often resisted by sheep in a perfectly sound con- 
 dition, and no better proof could be given of poor 
 nourishment than the presence of that disease. Our 
 State and National Governments have done little to 
 help the grower in his efforts to eradicate this serious 
 obstacle to successful wool growing. Sheep affected 
 with the malady are not always separated from the rest 
 of the herd, and whole bands of more or less scabby 
 sheep, distributing as they go , the fatal parasite, are 
 allowed to be driven across lands to which other flocks 
 have access. In Australia, on the other hand, the 
 strictest regulations are enforced. All sheep shipped 
 into the country are quarantined and clipped, while 
 sheep on the runs suffering from this or any other con- 
 tagious disease, must be immediately killed. By such 
 means, except in western Australia, all contagious dis- 
 eases have been stamped out of those colonies, while 
 with us the trouble is only temporarily kept in check by 
 the application of "dips." 
 
 The next, and we believe hitherto the greatest draw- 
 back to the success of the industry in the West, are the 
 Scrubs themselves. The fact that we have what we 
 may call a native American breed of sheep, thoroughly 
 acclimated, has been looked upon as one of our national 
 blessings. None can deny that advantages have resulted 
 from finding in the South and West a hardy race of 
 animals. But aside from their constitution, the Scrubs 
 are wretched beasts. In the first place, they are not fit to 
 eat. As a consequence, the people who raise them have 
 as a rule a positive distaste for mutton. The pound and 
 a half of wool which they bear, while it might be 
 coarser, is very far from fine. Where the scrub has been, 
 or is, there the industry is on the wane or in a stationary 
 
84 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 condition. Those States which never saw the Scrub, but 
 only his improved descendant, are to-day increasing 
 their flocks. Thus the wool from New Mexico, southern 
 and even northern and central Texas, does not equal that 
 of Montana, either in fineness or weight of fleece. Yet 
 ten years ago there was scarcely a pound of wool grown 
 in the latter state. Only the best Grade animals have 
 been imported, and the industry has made rapid strides, 
 in spite of cold, and the expense attendant on winter 
 feeding. The number of sheep in Mexico and Texas, 
 on the other hand, has either remained stationary or 
 decreased. Scrub sheep were not found in Michigan, 
 Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, or the Dakotas, and to-day 
 the character of the clip of all these states is excellent. 
 If we had had no sheep in the country, or rather no Scrub 
 sheep, it would have taken at first somewhat longer for 
 the industry to have spread over the West; yet the history 
 of the wonderful increase of the sheep in Australia, 
 where both ewes and rams were imported, shows that 
 success of the industry depends upon favorable con- 
 ditions, not native breeds. As for the advantages of 
 the strong constitution possessed by the Scrub, it is a 
 question if flocks of Merinos imported into the country 
 and allowed to increase would not be as strong as 
 crosses of indigenous and hardy ewes with imported 
 and unacclimated rams. But, even if our supposed 
 importation of Merinos could not have withstood the 
 effects of exposure in such a climate as that of Colorado 
 and Wyoming, or the wretched living of Utah and 
 Arizona, the fact would not have been an unmixed 
 evil. It might, for instance, have confined our endeav- 
 ors to raise large flocks of sheep to those parts of the 
 country where climate and pasturage were suitable. 
 The u hustling" qualities of the Scrub have led us to 
 waste our energies in trying to herd these animals on 
 every tract of cheap land from the borders of Canada to 
 the Rio Grande. 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 85 
 
 The Scrub is the greatest enemy to the industry in 
 the West, but the Bast and the South have a far worse 
 foe. As will be seen later, part of Tennessee and 
 South Kentucky is an ideal sheep country. Equable 
 climate, cheap, good land, and nearness to the markets, 
 combine to make this section the home of the fine-wool 
 industry. Yet there is no part of the United States 
 where sheep are fewer or more worthless. The causes 
 which make that part of our country, where physical 
 conditions are most favorable for raising sheep, one of the 
 worst in which the industry can be undertaken, are ex- 
 clusively social. The old South is kept from being the 
 greatest wool and mutton producing section of the 
 United States; not because the climate is severe or the 
 land poor, for both are eminently favorable, but because 
 of ignorance, indolence, darkeys and dogs. The cur is 
 the bane of sheep-raising in the South, but the cur is the 
 result of the character of the people. We must not sup- 
 pose, however, that this dog nuisance is confined to the 
 South. In the Eastern States, in New England, and the 
 old West, large numbers of sheep are annually killed by 
 the canine. At the same time there is no better criterion 
 of the intelligence of the agricultural population of a 
 State, than the proportion of the sheep which are annu- 
 ally sacrificed on the altar of a desire to keep a number 
 of worthless curs. A population which will disregard 
 their material prosperity for the sake of an occasional 
 hunt, is not many steps removed from barbarism. Is it 
 any wonder that amongst the most illiterate portion of 
 our population, the desire for the possession of a large 
 number of nondescript dogs is developed to the highest 
 degree ? Every darkey, and the majority of the white 
 trash of Tennessee, the Gulf and South Atlantic States, 
 keep from one to six hounds — long, lean, lank, hungry 
 beasts. The dog must live, and he certainly can never 
 do so off the "crumbs which fall from his master's 
 
86 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 table." Ergo, he supplements his own scanty meal 
 by a taste of mutton. One-fourth of the sheep of 
 Florida, Georgia and Alabama disappear annually to 
 satisfy the appetite of the cur and his hardly less de- 
 structive master. This does not only mean that the 
 cost of raising sheep is increased ; it makes sheep- 
 raising, except in a desultory half-hearted way, an im- 
 possibility, and renders the increase and improvement of 
 the flocks an impracticable dream. Even to have three 
 per cent, of the sheep of the State killed, as in Massachu- 
 setts, implies a great deal more than one might suppose. 
 It denotes that sheep have to be more or less watched 
 or strong fences provided. The barrier that will keep 
 a sheep in, will by no means keep a dog out. Thus 
 the liability of flocks to be annoyed by dogs, even if 
 none are killed, will increase the cost of raising sheep 
 from ten to fifty per cent. The effect on the farmer is 
 worse than the increase in the expense. When one, 
 after years of painstaking, collects a flock of nice Meri- 
 nos or Southdowns, to have half of them mangled by 
 dogs, and the rest ruined as the result of fright, is some- 
 thing which damages will never repay. The farmer 
 may start to keep sheep again, but two visitations end 
 all idea of sheep raising. 
 
 The success of those who are not troubled with the 
 cur, is an indication of the magnitude of the evil. One 
 of the most energetic sheep-raisers south of the Ohio is 
 Mr. Polk Prince, of Guthrie, Kentucky. He gives one 
 dollar to his men for every dog they kill. The plan 
 works admirably. He is seldom troubled with dogs, 
 and as his sheep cost but little to raise, he naturally 
 finds the business exceedingly profitable. The raising 
 of wool and mutton is successfully carried on in some 
 counties of Southwestern Virginia, because from this 
 section of the State the negro and his dog have emi- 
 grated. Craig county, for example, has only a score of 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 87 
 
 negroes and practically no dogs. As a result, sheep pay 
 better than any other stock. 
 
 We must not blame everything, however, on the 
 negro. The dogs and the blacks are certainly a most 
 formidable evil, but if the white population wished to 
 eliminate the former, they could easily do so. Con- 
 trolling the legislatures of -the States, they could pass 
 laws taxing the cur out of existence. But unfortunately 
 it is not the darkey alone who loves to possess a large 
 number of curs. Many of the poorer sort of whites would 
 rather kill all the sheep in the United States than lose 
 their tobacco, their whiskey and their hunt. When we 
 realize that the comparatively intelligent farmers of the 
 Northern States seem to be utterly incapable of uniting 
 in any determined effort to eradicate the evil, one almost 
 feels that he cannot blame the people of the South for 
 their negligence, when he remembers that their an- 
 cestors were cursed b^ social conditions which induced 
 habits of indolence, and that they themselves are sur- 
 rounded by an ignorant, inferior race, struggling for 
 political supremacy; conditions as unfavorable to social 
 progress as can well be imagined. We cannot, there- 
 fore, be surprised if the dog question is the one subject 
 on which the whites and blacks are united, the former 
 falling to the intelligence of the latter. Industries may 
 languish, land lie idle, but the cur must remain. 
 Where the evil resulting from his presence is most form- 
 idable, as in Florida, there we find the least chance for 
 any remedial legislation. He will be a brave legislator 
 who will propose a dog law, and a rapid return to private 
 life will be the sure reward of his temerity. The follow- 
 ing extract from a letter written by one holding an 
 official position in Florida, well illustrates the temper 
 of the people: 
 
 ' ' As long as there are coons (four and two-legged), 
 deer, bears, possums, rabbits and partridges in Florida, 
 
88 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 just so long the sheep will be kept down, that worthless 
 dogs, and equally worthless darkeys, may exist. Laws 
 are passed to protect partridges and mockers. This is 
 all right, but the man who would hint that a dog law 
 could be passed would be a fit subject for Barnum. 
 Dozens of men in Florida live by hunting and fishing. 
 The women and children pick cotton to buy tobacco. 
 If a dog law was passed, what a howl would be set up at 
 once ! The wretched legislator would be relegated to 
 private life with a rapidity that would lead him to in- 
 quire, ' who struck Billy Patterson ? ' For once there is 
 no color line, no political boundary. On the question 
 of dogs, Black Republican, Radical Democrat, Prohibi- 
 tionist and Conservative can rally round the standard of 
 one dog rampant, or one slut couchant, sable ; six pups 
 levant, regardant, sable or argent. Reverse, sheep being 
 devoured, argent. But joking aside, the temperature 
 will be decidedly frigid when a dog law will be estab- 
 lished in the South. n 
 
 In some instances we have been retrogading on the 
 subject of dog legislation. In Kentucky and Missouri 
 the dog tax has been repealed. The rest of the South- 
 ern States have never had such a tax. In all the North- 
 ern States we find either State or local taxation of dogs. 
 The money collected forms a fund which is paid to 
 those whose sheep have been attacked and killed or n- 
 jured. This, while it compensates the farmer for his 
 pecuniary loss, does little to encourage the industry. 
 The farmer rarely re-invests the money so paid in 
 sheep. As to the number actually destroyed, the official 
 returns from Massachusetts place the loss in that State 
 at 1,900, or 3 per cent, of the entire sheep population; 
 from Connecticut 2,119, or 5.84 per cent. In the other 
 Northern States the proportion varies from 1 per cent, 
 in Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan, to 4.63 per cent, 
 in Indiana. These figures are given in Table III. 
 
OUR SHKKP AND THE TARIFF. 89 
 
 Where official returns could not be had, the numbers 
 are averaged from the opinions of farmers. The pro- 
 portion in the South is much larger; still it is fair to 
 these States to say that the figures given practically 
 includes the stealings by two-legged animals. The 
 figures speak for themselves. A total of 716,678 sheep 
 annually destroyed by dogs, is not a good showing for 
 a nation confessedly believing in progress. Yet in 
 Massachusetts, when it was proposed to muzzle all dogs 
 in the State, ladies attended the sitting of the Senate 
 Chamber with poodles in their laps, and an eloquent 
 speaker made such a moving address on cruelty to 
 animals that members were observed to weep. I do not 
 wish to be understood as advocating any law enforcing 
 the muzzling of dogs, but the incident shows how ignor- 
 ance in one section and sentimentality in another clog 
 the wheels of intelligent legislation. 
 
 As will be seen when we speak of cost and profit, a 
 fair return could be had from the right kind of sheep, not 
 only in the South, but in all the southern New England 
 and in the Middle States. Not, however, where the cur 
 is in the majority as in Delaware, New Jersey, Massachu- 
 setts and Rhode Island. Whenever this is the case it is 
 only a question of time when sheep raising will be 
 abandoned. A tax of ten dollars a year, strictly en- 
 forced, would, we believe, be a practical remedy for the 
 dog nuisance. This tax need not be levied on the 
 thorough-bred dog, which seldom chases sheep. Collies, 
 for instance, when properly trained, are their best pro- 
 tectors; but if we are ever to have small flocks of sheep 
 distributed among our farmers, we must destroy the 
 mongrel hound by heavy taxation. 
 
 In the far West, as in all thinly settled countries, there 
 is little or no trouble with the dog, but the coyote, pan- 
 ther, wolf and fox take his place and cause almost as 
 much trouble. In New Mexico, indeed, there is little 
 
90 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 annoyance from coyotes; but in Texas they cause the 
 ranchmen a great deal of annoyance and considerable 
 loss. The chief result of the presence of a number 
 of coyotes, as in the case of dogs, is not so much the 
 actual destruction of the sheep, but the great increase 
 in the expense necessary to prevent such destruction. 
 If it were not for these wild animals,, a herder could 
 take charge of a flock one-third larger than it is possi- 
 ble for him to guard at present. On ranches labor 
 is practically the only item in the cost, therefore wild 
 animals must add fully one-third. There is also an 
 actual loss annually of three to five per cent. Worse 
 than this, the presence of wild animals renders all 
 other methods of raising sheep impossible. In Aus- 
 tralia, for instance, sheep are never herded, but are 
 kept in large paddocks or enclosed fields. This method 
 has, as will be seen, many advantages, and if practiced 
 in parts of our country would greatly reduce the cost 
 of growing wool and mutton. Yet it would be idle 
 to leave sheep unprotected in regions infested with wild 
 beasts. After building the paddock, you would have 
 to hire almost as many men as before to guard the 
 flock. This has been the actual experience in southern 
 California, where sheep often run in large fields sur- 
 rounded by stone fences which were built by the Span- 
 iards. Of late the number of wild animals has increased, 
 and it has been found impossible to leave sheep without 
 a guard. 
 
 The legislation on the subject of coyotes, panthers 
 and foxes has been practically unproductive. It consists 
 in giving bounties for the heads of the animals killed. 
 In Texas the bounty is one dollar for panthers and 
 fifty cents for coyotes, but as the proof of death in- 
 volves a notary fee almost equal to the bounty paid, 
 the law is well nigh useless. In Iowa, where the farm- 
 ers are overrun with wolves, a law granting a bounty 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 91 
 
 of ten dollars on every female wolf killed, was intro- 
 duced into the Legislature last year. That body, how- 
 ever, adjourned without action on the matter. If passed 
 it is hoped that the law will prove efficacious, as at 
 present these animals make sheep-raising in the State 
 practically impossible. It is a waste of time to de- 
 scribe to a farmer the profits on sheep, when he knows 
 that if he purchases a flock he will have to spend a life 
 of constant vigilance to protect them from wild beasts. 
 A gentleman who has had some experience says: "Any 
 time in the night I may be called upon to chase wolves, 
 and twenty-four hours will seldom pass without my 
 discharging my gun several times in order to frighten 
 these animals." Under such conditions, the highest 
 prices and the greatest demand, will not make the State 
 a great wool or mutton producing country. The extent 
 of the drawback to successful sheep-raising resulting 
 from the presence of wild animals, is well shown by 
 the following extract from a letter written by Wm. L,. 
 Black, Esq., of Fort McKavitt, Texas. I take pleasure 
 in copying this portion of Mr. Black's letter in extenso, 
 as it deals with the subject from the standpoint of a 
 practical wool grower: 
 
 1 ' Wild animals and scab are the only drawbacks to 
 producing wool at a very much reduced rate, and it 
 therefore calls for the most careful consideration in 
 treating of the subject of sheep husbandry in the United 
 States. While the immediate cost of producing wool is 
 equivalent to fifteen cents per pound under the most 
 favorable conditions, it can just as well be produced at 
 five cents, and afford the grower a larger profit. To 
 reach this end, however, it is necessary to remove and 
 destroy wild animals that are now the direct cause of 
 probably two-thirds of this expense, in the wages of 
 shepherds and incidental losses from flocks by frequent 
 attacks of prowling coyotes and wolves, resulting not 
 
92 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 only in the loss of the sheep actually killed, but some- 
 times the loss of several hundred at a time that are cut 
 off from the main flock and scattered on the prairies. 
 The simple expense of land rent, shearing and lambing 
 would be trifling, if sheep could be run loose in pastures, 
 as they now do in Australia. That it is practicable to 
 do this has been clearly demonstrated by our formidable 
 foreign competitor, who had the same experience in 
 early days as we are now having; and it would be very 
 easy to pattern after her methods. ' ' 
 
 Concerning the last suggestion thrown out by Mr. 
 Black, I shall have more to say in a later chapter. To 
 exterminate the wild animals, he proposes an increase in 
 the bounties. These, he thinks, should be paid by the 
 United States government, and be sufficiently high to 
 attract large numbers of hunters and trappers. With- 
 out discussing the merits of the plan, we agree with 
 Mr. Black, that State action in many instances will 
 prove useless. One State may destroy the wild animals 
 within her borders, but unless her neighbors have sim- 
 ilar laws, there will be a constant migration of animals 
 into the- more enterprising State. She will not only be 
 required to kill all her own foxes, coyotes, panthers and 
 wolves, but also a considerable portion of those belong- 
 ing to her neighbors. We may not want a national, 
 but we certainly want a uniform law on this subject. 
 
 In treating of certain drawbacks to the sheep in- 
 dustry in the past and present, I have not lent ammuni- 
 tion to those who assert that we cannot raise wool in 
 this country. Of all the drawbacks I have mentioned, 
 there are none which are of a necessary and permanent 
 nature. So far as we have seen, there is no reason why 
 we should not try to establish the industry in the United 
 States. Many urge that it is too expensive. The force 
 of the argument can only be intelligently estimated 
 when we know the cost of raising sheep in our own and 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 93 
 
 other countries. We now know something of the in- 
 dustry and its distribution among the different foreign 
 countries and the States of the United States. In the 
 next chapter we shall examine the protection which our 
 government has given to wool in the past, and also the 
 rates of duty established by our present tariff. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE DUTY ON RAW WOOL AND OUR IMPORTS FROM 
 FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 
 
 The present division of wools into Class I, Class II, 
 and Class III, embracing clothing, combing and carpet 
 wool respectively, was first adopted in the tariff of 1867. 
 The object was to make the wool used in woolen yarn or 
 the clothing wool, the wool used in worsted yarn or the 
 combing wool, and the wool used in carpets, pay differ- 
 ent rates of duty. As we are at present capable of 
 combing short-staple wool, it is impossible to make any 
 distinction between combing and carding wool based on 
 the different uses to which they are adapted. The cus- 
 tom house officials do not attempt to discover the use to 
 which the imported article is to be put. The name 
 combing is still exclusively confined to the long-staple 
 wool of the Leicester, Cotswold, etc. As far as wool in 
 the dirt is concerned, the classification of clothing and 
 combing is of little moment, as there is only a differ- 
 ence of one cent per pound in the duty; but scoured 
 combing wools pay only double duty, while treble 
 duty is paid on all scoured wools of the first class. 
 The definition and classification of carpet wool has 
 caused a great deal of trouble. Not more than ten 
 million pounds of wool suitable for carpets is grown 
 in the United States. There is a firm in the city of 
 Philadelphia who use that much carpet wool an- 
 nually. In order that our carpet manufactories can 
 continue, over 85 per cent, of the wool employed in 
 carpets must be imported. The duty should be much 
 lower than on clothing wool, as the proportion of raw 
 
 (94) 
 
uwii xu a. panic max country, instead 01 tne aivision 
 
TABLE IV.— ,( A." 
 
 DUTY ON RAW WOOL FROM 1 789. 
 
 July 1st, 
 
 May 22d, 
 1824. 
 
 May 19th, 
 
 'July 14th, 
 1832. 
 
 Free. 
 & 40 p 
 
 August 30th, 
 1842. 
 
 X cent. 
 
 July 30th, 
 
 * March 3rd 
 1857. 
 
 Free 
 24 p. c 
 
 May 2nd, I June 30th, 
 
 5P-C. 
 3 cents. 
 9 cents 
 
 & 10 p. 
 
 3 cents. 
 
 Mnrch 2nd, 
 1867, 
 
 & 10 p. c, 
 &iop. c. 
 
 March ird, 
 
 1% cents. 
 
 McKinlej 
 
 ,,,, I Ills. 
 
 cent, until June 1, 1825; 25 per cent, until June 1, 1826; 30 per cent, afterwards 
 f March 2, 1S33, Sec. 1, provided that " from and after the 3'st of December^. ,^ 
 :d 20 per cent, ou the value thereof, 
 icember, 1839, another tenth part 
 
 half thereof shall be deducted. « Thibet, Angora, and all other goats' hair 
 imposed by the Act of March 2, 1867. 'All classes scoured, treble duty; Class 
 
 4^t7p^r^^d7 5 per C ent. on July i, .829; •teJWJ^jjJWjJJ 
 
 The 
 all cases where duties are imposed on foreign imports by the Act ol Ui 
 ^ ™of"^h"^-^U -deducted; fTom and after the g of £ cembe, «»^"^t* 
 «« te **»^!i^^S£r^ ir/h^n^re^^per,,,,, ..,,<, 
 
 mohair 
 washed, double duty 
 
 'Costing 13 cents or less. 
 
scanned? Y/N 
 
 (94^ 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 95 
 
 material used in carpets is much greater than the pro- 
 portion used in clothes, and a duty on raw material 
 falls more heavily on the manufacturer of carpets than 
 on the manufacturer of cloth. In accordance with these 
 ideas the tariff of 1883, which imposed a duty of 20 per 
 cent, per pound on clothing wool, fixed the rate on car- 
 pet wool, costing 12 cents or less, at 2^ cents. But 
 when we speak of wool which is suitable for carpets, we 
 do not include all wools imported under class three. If 
 one will take into his hand a sample of imported carpet 
 wool, while he will notice that two-thirds is composed 
 of long coarse hairy fibres, he will also observe an ad- 
 mixture of wool having a moderately short, fine staple. 
 Wool grows much finer near the body than at the ends. 
 Few animals have such coarse fleece that there will not 
 be some clothing wool growing under the coarser fibres. 
 Every lot of carpet wool can be separated, and the 
 finer staples worked into cloths. Thus a considerable 
 amount of the so-called carpet wool imported comes in 
 direct competition with wool grown in the United States. 
 The new Tariff as introduced into the House provided 
 that carpet wools costing 12 cents or less per pound, 
 should pay a duty of 3^ cents per pound. This would 
 have injured the carpet men, without doing away with 
 the present importation of considerable quantities of 
 wool suitable for cloths below the regular rates of duty. 
 The bill as finally passed has wisely modified the whole 
 system of rates on carpet wool. The dividing line is 
 placed at thirteen instead of twelve cents. On the 
 cheaper grades a duty of 32 per cent, is imposed instead 
 of a specific duty, while carpet wools above thirteen cents 
 pay fifty per cent. duty. To draw an accurate line be- 
 tween carpet and clothing wool is practically impossible. 
 As a matter of fact the wools are classed as carpet, not so 
 much because of their quality, but because they were 
 grown in a particular country. Instead of the division 
 
96 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 into combing, clothing, and carpet wool, a more accu- 
 rate division would be Long, Fine, and Coarse. And 
 although it may not appear logical to combine a distinc- 
 tion of diameter with one of length, yet it must be re- 
 membered that the long wools, though by no means as 
 fine as Merino, are very far from resembling hair, like 
 some of the coarser grades of carpet wools from Russia 
 and the Mediterranian. 
 
 All our tariffs on wool have been based on the un- 
 secured product, regardless of the extent of the shrink- 
 age in scouring. The duty on scoured clothing wool is 
 treble that on wool in the dirt or grease, and is practic- 
 ally prohibitory. As we have seen, there is great varia- 
 tion in the amount of shrinkage in the wool from 
 different countries, and that this is true even of coun- 
 tries which grow the same grade of wool. Thus the 
 fine wools of Australia shrink fifty per cent. ; those of 
 South America seventy. As a result there is a dis- 
 crimination against the finer South American wools, 
 and the importation of fine wool from the Rio de la 
 Platte is prevented. We find another example among 
 carpet wools. The Bagdad wool of Asia only shrinks 
 about fifteen per cent.'; consequently the tariff on this 
 wool is very low in comparison with that on other 
 carpet wools. As a consequence it is only the superior 
 quality of the South American carpet wool, and the 
 mixture of fine staple which it contains, that makes 
 its importation profitable. If our tariff rates were 
 placed on a scoured wool basis, this discrimination 
 between different countries would not exist. Our 
 manufacturers, when they had to go to foreigners 
 for their raw material, would have the whole world to 
 choose from, instead of being confined to certain coun- 
 tries where the wool has a low per cent, of shrinkage. 
 The trouble of course will be to fix the proportion of 
 shrinkage for the different grades of wool from each 
 
I 
 
 snoq 
 saoq 
 saoc| 
 
 sruol 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 97 
 
 country. The difficulty, however, is not insurmount- 
 able, as for any one year the per cent, of shrinkage of 
 the same grade of wool from the same country does not 
 vary to any great extent. 
 
 Previous to the present tariff a mistake in classifica- 
 tion gave rise to a practice very detrimental to wool 
 growers. From 1883 to 1889 we imported 22,149,983 
 pounds of shoddy, mungo, waste, etc. This lumping 
 together of all kinds of shoddy and waste was one of 
 the mistakes of our tariff. Shoddy is wool or cotton 
 which has been used in cloth. It is made from rags 
 torn in a powerful macule, so arranged that it cuts 
 and separates the fibres. Anything long enough to 
 have two ends can be turned into shoddy. Where dura- 
 bility combined with lightness is not required, shoddy 
 is a very serviceable commodity. The fact that it has 
 been used before does not interfere with its properties as 
 a heat retainer. As a substitute for pure scoured wool, 
 it is much more employed in England than in this coun- 
 try; for cotton, the other great substitute for wool, is 
 relatively much dearer there than with us. The im- 
 portation of shoddy does not hurt the wool grower but 
 the cotton planter, and the duty benefits the Southerner 
 and not the Westerner. 
 
 Some kinds of waste are very different products from 
 shoddy. Ring waste and wool tops are highly purified 
 articles of scoured wool, which have had the inferior 
 fibres, or so-called noils, removed by the process of 
 combing. Ring waste, which was entered as waste, at 
 a duty of five cents per pound, consists of those fibres 
 which have slubbed or tangled in the process of spin- 
 ning the tops into yarn. Garnetted waste, which was 
 also admitted at the same duty as shoddy, is the product 
 of the Garnett machine. In spinning, the slivers fre- 
 quently become entangled, and portions have to be re- 
 moved. These are fed to the Garnett machine for the 
 7 
 
98 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 purpose of removing the twist given to the fibres by the 
 carding engine. The product is really highly scoured 
 wool, and should always have paid the treble duty im- 
 posed upon the scoured product. If it is contended 
 that the duty would then be prohibitory, as the rate on 
 scoured wool is proportionately much higher than on 
 the unwashed product, I reply that this is rather an ob- 
 jection to the duty on scoured wools. To admit a pro- 
 duct dutiable at the rate of thirty cents a pound at ten 
 cents a pound, simply because it is called waste, is hold- 
 ing to the name and disregarding the substance. 
 
 The new tariff obviates the evil as far as the importa- 
 tion of ring waste is concerned. All shoddy and waste 
 pays a duty of thirty cents per pound; but the rags, out 
 of which the shoddy is made, will be admitted at ten 
 cents per pound. This prevents ring waste and gar- 
 netted waste from being mixed with shoddy, and thus 
 admitted at the lower rate of duty. Mungo is admitted 
 at ten cents per pound. This is a kind of shoddy made 
 from fine, but old woolen rags. Fine wool has, as we 
 know, a short staple, and when these rags are torn in a 
 powerful machine, the resulting shoddy, now called 
 mungo, is more like dust than wool. If there is any 
 mixture of ring waste it can be easily detected, and 
 therefore it is impossible that there can be any evasion 
 of the present rates on scoured wool. Shoddy proper, 
 having a comparatively long staple, can be easily carded, 
 but it is impossible to card mungo, and it is therefore 
 pounded into the cloth, on which a nap is afterwards 
 picked by the needles of the teasing engine. The 
 mungo, when the cloth is put into rough use, quickly 
 works out. The little short tufts which are apt to pull 
 out of our rough overcoats are a sample of the wrong 
 use of this product. 
 
 As intimated, we import from Australia nearly all the 
 fine wool which we do not produce at home. In fact, 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 99 
 
 with the exception of Uraguay, which sends us about 
 three million pounds, and Southern Africa, which sends 
 us about one million five hundred pounds, all the fine 
 wool imported comes from that country. Ninety per 
 cent, of the combing wool is grown in Great Britain. 
 The total importation of the wools of this class, how- 
 ever, is only a little over eight million pounds. Our 
 carpet wool comes from Southern Russia, the countries 
 of the Eastern Mediterranean, India, and the province 
 of Cordova in the Argentine Republic. The bulk of 
 our wool from these countries, as from Australia, passes 
 through England. That country sends us in all only 
 nine million pounds of wool grown in the boundaries of 
 Great Britain, but she is the immediate country of ship- 
 ment of eighty per cent, of all the wool imported. It 
 would be interesting if some one could calculate how 
 much we pay for this indirect method of importation. 
 
 As will be seen by looking at the table, there has 
 been little change in the amount of the duty on the dif- 
 ferent grades of wool since 1864. The duty on clothing 
 wool has varied between ten cents per pound and eleven 
 per cent, in the tariff of 1867, to ten cents in the tariff 
 of 1883. The duty on combing wool has followed the 
 duty on wool of the first class; that on the lower orade 
 of carpet wool has varied from 3 cents per pound to 
 2y 2 cents. The duty on the higher grades of carpet 
 wool was 6 cents in 1867, an d 5 cents in 1883. 
 
 In respect to the amount of duty on raw material, the 
 tariff of 1890, besides the change to ad valorem duties on 
 carpet wool and an increase in the amount of duty on 
 waste, has made three alterations. In clothing and 
 combing wools, the old distinction between wools cost- 
 ing over thirty cents has been abolished. As no wools 
 are imported which are worth in London over twenty- 
 five cents, this change is wholly immaterial. For all 
 wools of Class I the rate has been raised from 10 to 1 1 
 
IOO OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 cents per pound; and in Class II from 10 to 12 cents. 
 With our present information it would be impossible to 
 discuss the effect of these changes. We must first deter- 
 mine the cost of raising sheep in our own and foreign 
 countries. 
 
 The second part of the table accompanying this 
 chapter is partly designed to show how far the industry 
 in the United States is capable of increasing. On the 
 amount of this possible increase depends, in a large 
 measure, the extent of the benefit which we can expect 
 from a tariff on raw wool, provided that tariff is neces- 
 sary for the increase of the industry. Our manufacturers 
 consume about 325,000,000 pounds of unwashed wool an- 
 nually. Of this we import 100,000,000 pounds. As the 
 majority of the wool imported falls under Class III, 
 measured by the value of the wool, we import less than 
 one-third ; but on the other hand, as the per cent, of 
 shrinkage of most of the carpet wool is slight, measured 
 by the actual number of pounds of scoured wool, we 
 import much more than one-third. If we take the 
 average shrinkage of the wool from the different coun- 
 tries, and the pounds in the grease or washed state im- 
 ported from each, we find that in 1889 there was im- 
 ported into the United States about 70,000,000 pounds 
 of scoured wool. 
 
 Besides this we also import 140,000,000 pounds of 
 scoured wool in manufactured goods. The present 
 annual product of scoured wool in the United States 
 is about 100,000,000 ; our total annual consumption 
 being therefore about 310,000,000 pounds. To supply 
 this demand we would have to increase our present pro- 
 duction by 210 per cent. 
 
OF THE UNITED STATES; ALSO THE COST OK RAISING SHEEP, AND THE RETURN FROM SALE OF WOOL IN FOREIGN COUf 
 
 I % M 
 
 V:''- 
 
 ilhl 
 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE COST AND PROFIT OF RAISING SHEEP IN THE DIF- 
 FERENT PARTS OF THE UNITED STATES AND IN FOR- 
 EIGN COUNTRIES. 
 
 Like the U X" of Algebra, cost and profit stand for 
 uncertain quantities in most industries. The raising of 
 sheep is no exception to the rule. One makes a profit 
 where another fails. The return being based on the 
 prices of wool and mutton, though these may vary from 
 year to year, is more easily ascertained than the cost. 
 All men in one State or section of the country sell in 
 the same market, but in production the personal ele- 
 ment confuses our calculations. 
 
 In Table V, I have tried to set forth the cost and 
 return from raising sheep in each State and Territory, 
 and also the cost of raising sheep and return from wool 
 in Australia and other foreign countries. The table 
 also shows the decline in prices in America since 1882. 
 This decline seems to have reached low- water mark in 
 1886-7. The increase in the price in some of the west- 
 ern States, such as Utah and New Mexico, is mislead- 
 ing, being due to the improvement in the fleece. 
 
 The average price which one will receive for his wool 
 is not difficult to ascertain. The price of mutton, how- 
 ever, is more uncertain, and the figures given in the 
 table must not be taken for more than an outline. 
 There is probably nothing which varies so greatly as 
 the price of meat, not only with the season of the year, 
 but also with the age and condition of the animal. Old 
 ewes or wethers may not bring three dollars per hun- 
 dred pounds, when at the same time and place three- 
 
 (101) 
 
102 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 months-old lambs, weighing from forty to fifty pounds, 
 will demand seven and nine dollars per head. 
 
 In dealing with the cost of sheep raising, I have at- 
 tempted to illustrate in the diagram, not only the total 
 cost, but the per cent, which should be assigned to food, 
 interest, labor and land. To give the average propor- 
 tion of the cost of keeping a sheep for one year, which 
 is due to interest or to wages in a State the size 
 of Pennsylvania would be impossible. Even if practi- 
 cable, such an average would be useless. A general 
 statement or average is only valuable when individual 
 instances will not in all likelihood vary from that aver- 
 age in any considerable degree. In dealing with cost 
 and profit, I was therefore obliged to confine myself in 
 many instances to parts of States, such as Western Mas- 
 sachusetts and Southern Wisconsin, etc. 
 
 THE RETURN FROM FIELD SHEEP. 
 
 Under this head, we shall first look at the return for 
 Merinos, and then compare the result with the return 
 for the English breeds. 
 
 The annual increase of the field Merino when kept 
 under the present conditions is about 75 per cent. The 
 loss of lambs and sheep is about 15 per cent. If you 
 own one hundred ewes, sixty sheep can annually be 
 sent to market without reducing the number of your 
 flock. But to calculate the average return per sheep 
 from the sale of mutton, we must remember that a flock 
 is never composed entirely of ewes. The number of 
 ewes and wethers born is about equal. Unless killed as 
 lambs, these wethers are usually kept until they are 
 two years old. Suppose a farmer has one hundred ewes, 
 and does not care to increase or reduce his flock. At 
 the end of each year he will have a flock of 220 ani- 
 mals, distributed as follows:. One hundred ewes over two 
 years old, thirty ewes and thirty wethers two years old, 
 
,s8 
 
 
 fOf'l.s 
 
 for , s 
 
 f f JC«J 
 
 sir 
 
 ■■ ■ ■ 
 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 103 
 
 and sixty lambs twelve months old. He can then send 
 thirty of his old ewes and thirty wethers to the market. 
 Not counting the lambs under a year old, his flock 
 would always consist of 160 sheep, sixty of which, or 
 $jy 2 per cent., are annually sold for mutton. The net 
 return for mutton, over the expense of killing and ship- 
 ping to the nearest market, will average about five cents 
 per pound (live weight). The live weight of the Me- 
 rino is about ninety pounds. Thus the annual return 
 from the sale of mutton averages for every sheep in the 
 flock $i.68%\ To this we must add 7^ pounds of wool 
 at 26 cents per pound, or $1.95, which makes a gross total 
 of $3.6334^. It maybe interesting to compare this re- 
 sult with the probable result under free trade prices. 
 Under free trade, the price of wool grown on fine Me- 
 rinos would probably fall to 19 cents, the average price 
 for such wool in London. This would reduce the gross 
 return to $3.31^. The gross profit of Southdown 
 sheep to the average Eastern farmer is now somewhat 
 more than from pure Merinos. The returns from the 
 English animals may be estimated as follows: 
 
 4 l / 2 pouuds of wool at 25 cents per pound $1 12^ 
 
 52.8 pounds of mutton at 5 cents per pound (44 per cent, of 120). 2 64 
 
 Total from Southdown $3 7 6 /^ 
 
 Total from Merinos 3 6 4 
 
 Difference 12^ 
 
 In explanation of the large return from the sale of 
 mutton, we must remember that the Down breeds are 
 noted for their fecundity. An annual increase of 120 
 per cent, is not unusual. 44 per cent, of the flock 
 annually sent to market is therefore rather an under 
 than an over estimate. It may be asked why in com- 
 paring the gross profits of the two breeds, merino and 
 Southdown, I have made a difference of only three 
 
104 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 pounds in the weight of the wool, while in Table I the 
 difference is given as four and one-half pounds ? There 
 I was comparing sheep kept by experienced breeders. 
 In estimating the actual returns received by farmers, 
 we must remember that it is much easier to raise an 
 animal bearing a large quantity of good mutton than 
 one bearing a large amount of fine wool. It is true that 
 many merinos carry fleeces weighing fifteen pounds. 
 These, however, are not owned by even "good average 
 farmers," but by breeders. In discussing the present 
 relative advantages of the different breeds of stock, we 
 must deal with the ordinary man and the profit to him, 
 not with the specialist. 
 
 RETURN FROM RANCH SHEEP. 
 
 The best ranch sheep, those of Montana, Oregon, 
 etc., will clip 6% pounds of wool, which at 20 cents per 
 pound is $1.25 per sheep. The poorest ranch sheep, 
 those of New Mexico, 2% pounds of wool, which will 
 sell at the rate of 15 cents per pound. The return from 
 the wool in New Mexico will therefore be 37^ cents. 
 
 The calculation of the return from mutton is, as in the 
 case of field sheep, somewhat more difficult. The an- 
 nual increase over the death rate for both lambs and 
 sheep is about fifty per cent, of the number of ewes, in 
 Montana, and forty per cent, in New Mexico. The 
 profit per pound of mutton over the cost of transporta- 
 tion, is three and two cents, respectively. The average 
 weight of the Montana sheep is fifty pounds; the weight 
 of the sheep of New Mexico, forty pounds. Suppose 
 we start with a flock of 1,000 ewes, and we do not desire 
 to increase our flock; but, as wool is the chief object, we 
 intend to keep our wethers until they are five years old; 
 what proportion of our flock could we send annually to 
 market, estimating the increase as in Montana at 50 per 
 cent.? At the end of the first year we will have 1,000 
 
OUR SHKEP AND THE TARIFF. 105 
 
 ewes, and we will also have 500 lambs; at the end of 
 the second year, 1500 sheep and 500 lambs. Fully one- 
 half of the increase are wethers. Two hundred and 
 fifty, or one-half the annual increase, are therefore all 
 the ewes which can be killed in any one year. At the 
 end of the fifth and each succeeding year, the flock 
 will number 2,250, and 500 lambs. Of the sheep, 
 1,250 are ewes, and 1,000 are wethers; 250 of these lat- 
 ter, being five years old, are ready for the shambles. 
 Each year, therefore, 500 sheep can be sent to market. 
 This is 22 per cent, of the flock. As the average 
 weight of a Montana sheep is fifty pounds, to calculate 
 the average return per head, we can assume that each 
 sheep yields 22 per cent, of fifty pounds, or eleven 
 pounds of mutton annually. At three cents per pound, 
 this makes the return from mutton thirty-three cents 
 per year. 
 
 As a result of the above, in Montana, the credit side 
 of the account would stand thus: 
 
 Wool, 6% pounds per sheep, at 20 cents per pound $1 25 
 
 11 pounds of mutton per sheep (22 per cent of 50 lbs.; at 3 
 
 cents per pound 33 
 
 $1 58 
 
 In New Mexico: 
 
 2*4 pounds of wool per sheep at 15 cents per pound 37^ 
 
 8 pounds of mutton per sheep (20 per cent, of 40 lbs.) at 2 
 
 cents per pound 16 
 
 53 J A 
 
 These figures represent the gross profits on the best 
 and meanest ranch animals, when no increase in num- 
 bers is desired. The duty on wool coming in competi- 
 tion with that from Montana is 10 cents; that on the 
 clip of New Mexico, either five or ten cents, according 
 to whether it would be classed as carpet or clothing 
 
106 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 wool. But the fall in the prices of Montana and similar 
 wool under free trade cannot be measured by the amount 
 of the present duty. It would not be likely that the 
 wool from Montana, for instance, would fall below fif- 
 teen cents, the average price for similar Australian and 
 South American wools, and that grown in New Mexico 
 would not fall below twelve cents, the price now paid 
 for similar wools in the London markets. 
 
 The gross- profit under free trade in wool therefore 
 stands as follows: 
 
 Montana: 
 
 6% pounds of wool at 15 cents per pound 93^ 
 
 Return from mutton (unchanged) 33 
 
 $1 26^ 
 
 New Mexico: 
 
 2 )/ 2 pounds of wool at twelve cents per pound 30 
 
 Return for mutton (unchanged) 16 
 
 ~6 
 RETURN FROM ROAMING OR SOUTHERN SHEEP. 
 
 To calculate the return from these sheep is very 
 simple: 
 
 There are 2}4 pounds of wool, which will sell at 22 
 cents per pound. This makes 55 cents. The wool, 
 though little better than carpet, sells at a good figure 
 on account of the slight shrinkage in scouring. This 
 shrinkage is seldom more than 35 per cent. The return 
 from mutton is so uncertain that it cannot be estimated 
 with any pretension to accuracy. In Table V. we have 
 placed it at 25 cents. The sheep belonging to the poor 
 whites, however, are seldom sold for mutton. 
 
 COST OF RAISING FIELD SHEEP. 
 As before stated, a farmer in Pennsylvania, Ohio, 
 New York or the East, seldom devotes himself exclu- 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 107 
 
 sively to sheep raising. This is due to the cost of land. 
 Land in Pennsylvania, for instance, which will support 
 six sheep to the acre, will cost about $55. Calculating 
 the rent at 10 per cent., the usual rent for land where 
 the landlord pays the taxes and keeps the fences in 
 repair, this is already 92 cents, which is as much as 
 the entire cost of raising sheep in Australia or South 
 America. In New York, land which will support 
 five and one-half sheep to an acre will cost $40. 
 This is at the rate of 75 cents per sheep a year. 
 The section of country comprising Southeastern Ohio, 
 Washington county, Pennsylvania, and Northwestern 
 West Virginia, is the centre of the fine- wool industry in 
 the United States. Indeed, the finest wool in the world 
 comes from this district. Even here, however, the 
 farmer seldom devotes himself exclusively to raising 
 sheep. Where no more sheep are kept on a farm than 
 the land which must be allowed to lie fallow every year 
 will support, or, to be more accurate, where the number 
 of sheep is not sufficient to affect the production of 
 agriculture, the item of land does not enter into the 
 cost. On the other hand, where sheep raising is the 
 sole pursuit, the entire cost of the land all falls on this 
 industry. In this case its value will be regulated, as in 
 Australia, by the number of sheep it can support. Be- 
 tween these two extremes are the cases where more land 
 is left in pasturage than is necessary to rest the soil, yet 
 the farmer by no means confines himself to stock-raising. 
 Thus the item of land, in the cost of sheep, not only 
 varies with the cost of the land and the number of 
 sheep per acre, but also with the extent to which the 
 raising of sheep interferes with the farmer's production 
 in other directions. In the section of country above men- 
 tioned, and the same may be said of Central New York 
 and Southern Wisconsin, many of the farmers keep a 
 greater number of sheep than is sufficient to utilize 
 
to8 I 'i R SHEEP ani> THE TARII r. 
 
 their waste and fallow lands. At the same time they 
 do not confine themselves to sheep-raising, In all the 
 othei portions of our country, however, where field 
 sheep are raised, we seldom find a farmer keeping 
 enough sheep to interfere with his production of other 
 crops and breeds o( stock. 
 
 The last tart will explain what the reader has prob- 
 ably noticed, that sheep can still be raised in New 
 l [ampshire and Vermont, where the total tost appears to 
 ho greater than the return. If only a very few animals 
 
 arc- kept the item oi' laud lived not he- taken into 
 consideration. But if the tanner increase his flock to 
 such an extent that he is obliged to restrict his cultiva- 
 tion oi other things, then the item oi land begins to 
 enter into the cost ; while it" he devotes himself exclu- 
 sively to sheep-raising, the cost oi land tails entirely on 
 that industry, and the total cost of keeping sheep would 
 
 equal the amount indicated in the diagram. 
 In the following table we have taken the average cost 
 
 Oi laud used tor sheep-raisiiu; in the section indicated. 
 In most oi the States where field sheep are raised, the 
 
 rental value of land appreciates much more rapidly than 
 its value for grazing purposes. That is to say, the item 
 
 of land in tlu- eost oi eaeh sheep IS much larger where 
 the animals are placed on very fertile soil, than where 
 they are run cm poorer and cheaper land. The figures 
 
 given below demonstrate the truth oi this statement 
 
 Whatever may regulate the value oi' land in these 
 States, it is certainly not the relative capacity for carry- 
 ing sheep. 
 
or;i< SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 K>9 
 
 Stats. 
 
 Vermont. 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 , West . . . . 
 
 <« <« 
 
 < < < < 
 
 N'-w York 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Pennsylvania, West 
 
 i < < < 
 
 West Virgina, North w 
 Ohio, South eastern 
 
 Illinois and Indiana . . . . 
 
 Hil higan, South 
 
 Michigan, North 
 
 Wisconsin, South 
 
 lo.v.i . 
 
 Missouri, North 
 
 Land Chat will 
 bring 
 
 f20 # ooper*4 re. 
 15.00 
 
 10.00 " 
 
 8.00 " 
 
 /\>>.'/> " 
 
 too 00 " 
 
 40.00 " 
 
 $O,00 " 
 
 60.00 " 
 
 55.00 " 
 
 40.00 " 
 
 40.00 " 
 
 50.00 " 
 
 40.00 " 
 
 $0.00 " 
 
 40.00 " 
 
 J5.00 *' 
 
 [O.00 " 
 
 Will 
 
 •upporl 
 
 to an 
 
 tu re 
 
 3 " 
 
 2 " 
 
 .5 " 
 
 8 " 
 
 5^ " 
 
 6 " 
 
 7 " 
 
 6 *' 
 
 7 " 
 6 •' 
 
 5# " 
 
 6 " 
 
 s " 
 
 X " 
 
 6 " 
 
 6 " 
 
 2 " 
 
 Whir b 
 
 t of 
 
 fo.67 per sheep. 
 
 ,50 " 
 
 .?> " 
 
 .46 " 
 
 .80 " 
 1.2.5 
 
 •75 " 
 
 .87 " 
 
 .86 " 
 
 ,94 " 
 
 1.90 " 
 
 ,67 " 
 
 .75 " 
 
 .10 " 
 M 
 
 The cost of raising field sheep depends on two other 
 -rs besides the cost of land, namely: the cost of feed 
 and the cost of labor. An investigation into the first 
 must necessarily be more accurate, and therefore more 
 satisfactory, than any investigation into the cost of land 
 ry sheep requires three pounds of clover hay, or its 
 equivalent, per day; or, to be more accurate, three 
 
 pounds of clover hay for everyone hundred pounds of 
 live weight. Three pounds of clover hay is equivalent 
 to four and one-half pounds of millet, ten and one-half 
 pounds of sorghum, and fifteen pounds of prairie hay. 
 
 To obtain the best results this dry fodder should be 
 mixed with oats or corn, ensilage, beets, etc. It is prac- 
 tically impossible to give the equivalent of clover hay 
 in oats or corn. Much depends upon the character of 
 the result required. The price of the hay, however, 
 forms a very fair basis for judging the cost of feeding. 
 On the calculation of three pounds of clover hay per day, 
 
IIO OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 hay being at ten dollars per ton of 2,000 pounds, the 
 cost per sheep will be 45 cents per month. At nine 
 dollars the cost per month will be 40^ cents, at seven 
 dollars 31 }4 cents, at five dollars 22^2 cents, and so on. 
 The actual cost of clover hay, or its equivalent, varies 
 from nine to ten dollars in Massachusetts to five and six 
 dollars in Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa. Prairie hay in 
 Kansas is about two dollars per ton. The cost of food 
 is the most important element in the question of the 
 profitableness of field sheep. The cost of land can be 
 eliminated by restricting the number of the sheep to 
 those the farmer can raise on the land without affecting 
 his production of other things ; but the sheep must 
 be fed. 
 
 The item of labor only enters into the cost of field 
 sheep when enough are kept, say over one hundred, 
 to necessitate the employment of an extra hand, either 
 all the year, or at the lambing season. While the ani- 
 mals are in the field they require little or no care. 
 In winter, when the sheep are housed, one man can 
 attend to about five hundred. During the lambing 
 season there should be one man to every one hundred 
 ewes. WhCre sheep are kept on good-sized farms in 
 connection with other stock, one man for two months to 
 every one hundred sheep, will cover the cost of labor 
 and shearing. Where flocks of less than a hundred are 
 kept, no extra hands will have to be employed. In the 
 Bast, when shearers are hired, shearing costs from six 
 to ten cents per sheep. The proportion which the cost 
 of labor bears to the total cost, as shown in the diagram, 
 is based on the assumption that sheep are kept in con- 
 nection with other stock, with but one extra hand to 
 every hundred animals, for two months in the Spring. 
 Where the number of the flock is under one hundred, 
 the labor of caring for them is usually said to be more 
 than compensated by the value of the manure. Except 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. Ill 
 
 in Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, the flocks rarely 
 exceed fifty sheep, and even in this last section the aver- 
 age is below a hundred. 
 
 In order to estimate the total cost of keeping field 
 sheep, to the items already discussed one must add 
 interest on the investment. This has been calculated 
 at six pef cent, on three dollars per head, or eighteen 
 cents per sheep a year. Three dollars is a low price 
 for sheep in the Bast, if the animal is sold separately 
 and is in good condition ; but is probably all that could 
 be obtained for an average flock if sold in one lot. The 
 cost of the buildings is insignificant, and the interest 
 on all permanent improvements, even when the most 
 approved folds are built, will never amount to over five 
 cents per sheep a year. When small flocks are kept 
 they are housed in the main part of the barn, or in a 
 shed which leans against a larger building. 
 
 As will be inferred from the above, the cost of keep- 
 ing sheep per head varies with the proportion of the 
 number of the sheep to the size of the farm. Flocks 
 numbering less than one hundred, conducted in con- 
 nection with other agricultural pursuits, are decidedly 
 more profitable per sheep than when the industry is 
 conducted on a larger scale. Thus in western Massa- 
 chusetts if sheep-raising was made the sole industry, 
 the cost per sheep would stand as follows : 
 
 Food for four months and a half $2 02 
 
 Labor. One man at $17 per month for every 100 ewes. Board 
 
 for two months at $6.00 per month 46 
 
 Land (2 sheep to an acre at the rent of $1.00 per acre) 50 
 
 Interest on the cost of buildings and other permanent improve- 
 ments 05 
 
 Interest on value of the stock, calculated at six per cent, on $3 
 per sheep 18 
 
 Total • • . . #3 21 
 
112 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 The cost per sheep for flocks under one hundred 
 sheep is : 
 
 Food as above $2 02 
 
 Interest on value of sheep, as above 18 
 
 Total $2 20 
 
 The cost where more sheep are raised than the farm- 
 er's waste and fallow land will support, raising sheep 
 not being his sole occupation, varies between these two 
 extremes. As a matter of fact, the farmer in all the 
 Eastern, and even in States of the Ohio valley, except 
 in a few localities, raises so few sheep that the items of 
 land and labor seldom enter into the cost. 
 
 The diagram also indicates the effect of climate. In 
 Vermont sheep have to be fed for six months and a half. 
 The item of food amounts to $2.34 per sheep. In Ken- 
 tucky, except possibly for one month in the year, the 
 animals can find sufficient grass, and the cost of food 
 seldom exceeds 36 cents. 
 
 COST OF RANCH SHEEP. 
 
 Ranch sheep raising is conducted by men who are 
 devoting their whole energy to solving the problem of 
 cheap wool. The estimates of the cost of raising sheep 
 in Pennsylvania often vary from fifty to one hundred 
 per cent. , but in Montana and Texas the extreme esti- 
 mates of ranchmen, in reply to my circular on the sub- 
 ject, did not differ twenty-five per cent. The item of 
 land in many sections can be disregarded. The owner- 
 ship of a small tract or water right will give the posses- 
 sor a free range on Government lands. Of course, it 
 cannot be laid down as a universal proposition that the 
 item of land never enters into the cost. In Texas, for 
 instance, many own or rent their land. The rent or 
 cost, however, is still very low. 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 113 
 
 In the New England States food forms the bulk of 
 the expense; among ranch sheep, except in the extreme 
 Northwest, food does not enter into the cost at all. 
 For instance, even in Colorado, in spite of the cold of 
 the winter, the little hay which is given seldom amounts 
 to more than three cents a head. Labor, therefore, and 
 interest on the investment, are the chief items. The 
 latter remains practically constant, but the former 
 varies according to the character of the population. It 
 may astonish one who imagines that labor in a new 
 country is particularly mobile, to learn that for a herds- 
 man in Montana the wages are from thirty to thirty-five 
 dollars a month; in New Mexico, fifteen dollars; yet 
 we do not observe a great exodus from the Territory to 
 the State. 
 
 The cost of labor per sheep, exclusive of the cost of 
 shearing and burring, varies from 15.42 cents in New 
 Mexico, to 44.4 cents in Utah and Nevada. The small 
 cost in the first-named Territory is due to the great size 
 of the herds, and the low wages. With five thousand 
 sheep in a band, two men to watch the band, and an 
 overseer, for every four bands, who is only paid forty 
 dollars a month, we have that combination of con- 
 ditions under which sheep can be herded at the lowest 
 cost. 
 
 Roughly speaking, there may be said to be two 
 methods of herding sheep. First, you may divide your 
 flock into bands, numbering fifteen hundred or two 
 thousand each. Every two bands will require at least 
 three men. You then superintend the business your- 
 self, or hire a manager at fifteen hundred or three 
 thousand dollars per year. Where you have 50,000 
 sheep, if you pay your manager $2,000, and his expenses 
 are $500 more; he will only cost you at the rate of five 
 cents a sheep. The wages and expenses of the herds- 
 men will average about $25 per month; $18 for wages, 
 8 
 
114 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 and $7 for provisions. There will be about a thousand 
 sheep to each man. This makes the item of labor 30 
 cents plus five cents, or thirty-five cents. The other 
 method is to have one man, sometimes called an overseer, 
 for every two, three, or four bands. The overseer is 
 paid about as much again as the ordinary herdsmen. 
 There are also one or two herdsmen to each band. If 
 there is an overseer for every three bands, at the cost of 
 fifty dollars per month, then on the basis of two thou- 
 sand sheep to a band, our overseer will cost ten cents per 
 head, or five cents more than by the other method. In 
 Texas there is usually an overseer for every two bands, 
 and fifteen or eighteen hundred sheep in a band. 
 Larger herds when frightened become unmanageable. 
 In fact, after one has improved the quality of his flock, 
 he usually reduces the number to twelve hundred or a 
 thousand. The coyote and other wild animals alone 
 prevent sheep being run in much larger herds. If the 
 danger from this source were removed, there is no reason 
 why we should not have double the number in a band, 
 thereby reducing the cost by almost as great an amount 
 as the tariff enhances the price. 
 
 In Utah, on the ranch of Charles Crane, there is an 
 overseer for every three bands, together with two men 
 to each band of a thousand or fifteen hundred sheep. 
 This makes the cost of labor forty-four cents, but the 
 success of Mr. Crane proves that it is not always the 
 cheapest methods of herding which are the most profit- 
 able. In Oregon and Washington, during the summer 
 months, the sheep are taken on the ranch in bands 
 numbering about two thousand. It is usual to have 
 two men accompany a band. On the large ranches in 
 Colorado, storemen, and also captains, are employed, or 
 men who pass between the various bands and hunt for 
 stray sheep, scattered by the storms or the coyote. As 
 before stated, south of Colorado sheep are not fed. 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 115 
 
 Even in that State and Wyoming the cost of feeding 
 amounts to little, though ranchmen are now consid- 
 ering the advisability of providing a greater quantity 
 of fodder. The severe winter of Montana necessitates 
 an outlay of twenty to fifty cents per head ; the amount 
 varying greatly with the severity of the season. 
 
 The item of interest on permanent improvements and 
 on the value of sheep themselves forms an important 
 part of the cost. A gentleman who has one hundred and 
 twenty thousand sheep on a ranch in Colorado, claims 
 that one hundred thousand dollars will cover the total 
 cost of all improvements, such as wells, store-houses, 
 houses, sheds and corrals. At 10 per cent, interest, this 
 is at the rate of S}4 cents per sheep a year. The inter- 
 est on the value of the sheep themselves I have taken 
 as 6 per cent, on 60 per cent, of the nominal value of 
 sound animals. As in the case of the field sheep, I 
 consider that interest should be calculated on the price 
 of an average flock, and not on the selling price of ani- 
 mals carefully selected and sold separately. Average 
 sheep in good condition, sold in small lots, are worth 
 $2.00 apiece in Utah, Arizona and New Mexico; $2.50 
 in Northern and Eastern Texas, and $3.00 in Oregon, 
 Washington and Montana. The Interest, therefore, 
 will be 7t<j, 9 and 9r 8 o cents per sheep respectively. In 
 calculating the total cost of ranch sheep, we must 
 add to the items already discussed from 5 to 7 cents per 
 sheep for shearing, and also from 5 to 10 cents more 
 to cover all extras. Thus, in Montana the shearing 
 will cost six cents, and the extras amount to about ten 
 cents, while in Arizona shearing will be done for five 
 cents, and the extras will not exceed eight cents. In 
 the diagram we have included the cost of shearing and 
 the extras in the item of labor. 
 
 One of the significant facts in connection with the 
 cost of ranch sheep is the great difference between the 
 
Il6 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 Northwest and the Southwest. Take Montana and 
 New Mexico, for instance. Everything seems to be 
 in favor of the wool grower in New Mexico. The 
 wages are almost half, and the climate of Montana 
 necessitates the employment of a larger number of men. 
 As a result the item of labor amounts to twenty-six 
 cents more in Montana. In New Mexico the sheep 
 need never be fed; in Montana feed costs twenty- 
 five cents, and should amount to one dollar if the 
 animals were properly kept. In New Mexico shelter 
 is not needed, in Montana shelter must be provided. 
 In New Mexico the total cost is not over forty-five 
 cents, in Montana it is between eighty cents and a 
 dollar. One might imagine that men would never at- 
 tempt to raise sheep in the latter State, or if they did, 
 that the competition of such States as New Mexico 
 would render any such attempt fruitless. Yet what 
 are the facts? In 1883 there was scarcely a sheep in 
 Montana. Now there are eight hundred thousand, 
 and the number is constantly increasing. In New 
 Mexico the number is the same now (1890) as in 1883. 
 Besides this, it is claimed that the average New Mex- 
 ican has not made money, while the efforts of the 
 ranchmen of Montana have been almost uniformly suc- 
 cessful. As was previously stated, one of the causes 
 for this unlooked-for result is the difference in the 
 character of the sheep ; the fact that New Mexico has 
 been the home of the Scrub, while Montana started 
 with an improved animal. But the Scrub is not re- 
 sponsible for all the difference. The character of the 
 people must also be taken into consideration. In New 
 Mexico the care of sheep is left largely in the hands of 
 half-breeds, and more or less degenerated Mexicans. 
 Then,' as in Texas, New Mexico has been over-run with 
 inexperienced persons from other parts of the country, 
 having a little capital and great expectations. On the 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 117 
 
 other hand, the success of the Montanians is due to their 
 enterprise rather than to any favorable natural condi- 
 tions. 
 
 THE COST OF SOUTHERN OR ROAMING SHEEP. 
 
 As before explained, the majority of the sheep in this 
 section roam unattended over the waste lands. The 
 total expense is in the catching, shearing and marking. 
 To this we might possibly add the interest on the value 
 of the animals themselves. The regular price is two 
 dollars per head, whether the animals are sold separ- 
 ately or in lots; and one might almost add, whether 
 in good or bad condition. With interest at seven per 
 cent, this is only fourteen cents per sheep, which makes 
 the total cost thirty-nine cents per year. No Southern 
 farmer, however, would think of estimating interest as 
 part of the cost, as the proceeds of the sale of his few 
 sheep would not be sufficient to invest. If he parts 
 with any of his flock, it is simply to eke out the slender 
 living of the year. 
 
 ^ Those sheep which are kept in enclosed fields in the 
 South are but little more expensive than those which 
 run on the free or waste lands. The sheep are never 
 numerous enough to occupy fields which would other- 
 wise be used for raising tobacco or cotton, and therefore 
 the cost of land, as likewise the little cotton-seed meal 
 which is occasionally fed to them, can be disregarded. 
 
 COST OF RAISING SHEEP IN AUSTRALIA. 
 
 Let us now turn from the conditions and cost of rais- 
 ing sheep in the United States to those in foreign coun- 
 tries. And especially let us look at the cost and condi- 
 tions of raising sheep in Australia. This is the country 
 in which the industry has made its greatest triumphs. 
 What is the secret of its success? In order to answer 
 this question or to appreciate any fact connected with 
 
Il8 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 the industry in Australia, we must not only have a 
 knowledge of the method of raising sheep, but also 
 some insight into the land system.* Sheep in Aus- 
 tralia, except in a few unimportant instances, are not 
 herded. Ask a colonist how many attendants he re- 
 quires, and he will reply that sheep have no attend- 
 ants in our sense of the word. They are allowed to run 
 in large fields or paddocks. The fences are usually of 
 wire. There is great variety in the size of these 
 paddocks. In some places they contain as many 
 as thirty square miles, in others not more than two 
 thousand acres. The larger paddocks are usually 
 found where the grass is sparse. Near the coast the 
 grasses being much heavier, on account of the more 
 frequent rains, the paddocks are smaller, the best sheep 
 being frequently changed from one to the other. Sheep 
 farms are known as stations, or runs, though if one man 
 owns a large run he may have two or more farms or sta- 
 tions, where the men live and where the supplies are 
 kept. Thus the word station means either the build- 
 ings on a run, or the run itself. Though the govern- 
 ments of the colonies have made some attempt to limit 
 the size and number of runs which may be owned by 
 one person, nevertheless those who were early in the 
 field have built up immense estates. Thus, S. Mc- 
 Caughey, of New South Wales, owns one million two 
 hundred thousand sheep, which graze on three and one- 
 half million acres of land. It is not unusual to find a 
 man owning a flock of twenty thousand. 
 
 The rate of farm wages in Australia, $292 to $365 per 
 annum, is not very different from the rate for similar 
 labor in the United States, being somewhat more than 
 in the southern or southeastern States, and somewhat 
 less than in Montana and on the North Pacific coast. 
 The secret of the low cost of sheep in Australia, there- 
 
 * See Appendix. 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 119 
 
 fore, is not the difference in the rate of wages; for that, as 
 far as the employer is concerned, is often in favor of the 
 United States. Is it then in their method of enclosing 
 sheep in large fields ? To answer this, let us investigate 
 the outlay necessary to keep a definite number of sheep 
 in Australia, under the paddock system, and compare the 
 result with the cost of herding the same number of 
 sheep in the United States. For this purpose we will 
 take a flock of 20,000 fine Merinos. With us, these 
 sheep would be divided into bands of twelve hundred 
 each. I make the number twelve hundred instead 
 of the usual fifteen hundred or two thousand, because 
 I am comparing the finest sheep in both countries, 
 and am supposing that the best care possible under a 
 herding system is being given to the flock. For these 
 twenty thousand sheep there will be twenty-five men, 
 or an average of one man and a half to each band. 
 Wages in northeast Texas, where the climate is not 
 unlike Australia, are fifteen to eighteen dollars a month 
 and board, which latter is calculated at from six to 
 eight dollars. This makes the labor twenty-five dollars 
 per month a man, or three hundred dollars a year. 
 Seven thousand five hundred dollars is therefore the 
 total cost of labor per annum for twenty thousand sheep; 
 in other words, thirty-seven and one-half cents per head. 
 The cost in Victoria, as elsewhere in Australia, or in 
 this country, will vary greatly with the character of the 
 run, and the carrying capacity of the laud. Near the 
 coast, on imported grasses, there will be as many as six 
 or seven sheep to an acre. In the interior the number of 
 sheep per acre rapidly decreases, while in the Mallee 
 country, of which we shall have something to say in the 
 Appendix, six, seven, and even ten or twelve acres, will 
 be required to rear one sheep. For our comparison, let 
 us take an average of one sheep to every two acres. I 
 may state that, though in Victoria this average would be 
 
120 
 
 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 considered as only fair land, in Western Australia it 
 would be regarded as very good pasturage. In Queens- 
 land the average is somewhat higher than the figures we 
 have taken. * To support twenty thousand sheep, forty 
 thousand acres will be required. This we can divide into 
 ten square paddocks of four thousand acres each. This 
 enables the sheep to be changed from one paddock to 
 another, thus utilizing the land to the best advantage. 
 These paddocks will require upwards of sixty-seven and 
 a half miles of fence, even when the boundaries are 
 arranged in the most economical manner. Of course, a 
 run owner can seldom build his paddocks so as to enclose 
 the greatest number of acres with the least amount of 
 wire. The land is usually surveyed by the government 
 before purchase ; though in some instances the boun- 
 daries of the run are selected by the purchaser. Even 
 in this latter case, its general character is defined by 
 certain rules. In New South Wales, for instance, the 
 distance between the sides of the parallelograms and 
 rectangles into which the land may be divided, must 
 never be less than one-half the length of the longest 
 side. Of course, the. lessee or owner can always cut up 
 the interior of his run into paddocks of the size and 
 character he may prefer. The ten subdivisions into 
 which we have divided the land are perhaps more than 
 would be usual where only one sheep could be run to 
 every two acres, and would indicate that the owner de- 
 sired to improve the bearing capacity of the land. 
 
 *U. S. Consular Reports, No. 121, Oct., 1890, p. 256. 
 
 
 Colony. 
 
 No. of acres 
 per sheep. 
 
 Colony. 
 
 No. of acres 
 per sheep. 
 
 New South Wales. . 
 
 Victoria 
 
 Queensland 
 
 South Australia. . . 
 
 2.92 
 2.01 
 
 6-75 
 42.86 
 
 West Australia. . . 
 
 Tasmania 
 
 New Zealand . . . 
 
 176.70 
 
 5-23 
 2.21 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 121 
 
 For these sixty-seven and one-half miles of fence 
 we must have three men known as boundary riders. 
 A boundary rider is one whose duty it is to see that 
 the fence is in order. In a flat country one man can 
 take care of twenty-five to thirty miles of fence. 
 The land in Australia, except near the southern and 
 eastern coasts, is almost level, or only slightly un- 
 dulatory. The boundary riders receive $291.99 per 
 annum, and also their board. The board may be 
 calculated, as indicated above, at seven dollars per 
 month. Besides the boundary riders, four shepherds 
 must be employed. The shepherds being men of more 
 experience, are paid at the rate of $364. 97 per annum. 
 A cook, a storekeeper, and two general laborers, will 
 complete the permanent force at the station. A super- 
 intendent, of course, will be necessary. The salaries 
 of superintendents, however, ranging all the way from 
 $1,000 per annum to an interest in the business, are as 
 impossible to estimate as in America. In our compari- 
 son we have therefore omitted this item. The above is an 
 over-estimate of the number of hands, for all colonies ex- 
 cept Western Australia and Victoria. In the former some 
 sheep are herded, the Chinese and aboriginal inhabitants 
 being employed as laborers at very low rates of wages. In 
 Victoria greater care is given to sheep than in any other 
 colony, and consequently a greater number of hands are 
 employed. In Queensland the average is one man to 
 eight thousand sheep, or three men to twenty-four thou- 
 sand sheep, excluding cooks, storekeepers and general 
 laborers. The cost of labor in Australia for twenty 
 thousand sheep will, as a result of the above, amount to 
 $3667.07. This is 18.3 cents per sheep, against 37 }4 
 cents in the United States as a result of the herd- 
 ing process. The advantage of running sheep in large 
 enclosed tracts is obvious. But the difference is even 
 more striking if we reduce the calculation to Texas 
 
122 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 wages. Ten men at a cost of $300 per year is only 
 $3,000, or 15 cents per sheep. The true difference in 
 favor of the Australian system is therefore $22.5 cents. 
 
 Of course, this advantage is somewhat modified, when 
 we take into consideration the interest on the cost of 
 the fences. The cost of fencing per sheep depends on 
 the carrying capacity of the land. The expense which 
 attends the erection of a three-strand barb wire fence 
 in the United States is 51 j£ cents per rod, divided as 
 follows : 
 
 3^ pounds of barb wire at 6 cents per pound 22.5 
 
 1 post at 20 cents 20.0 
 
 .5625 pounds of fence staples at 5 cents 2.8125 
 
 Labor 5-9375 
 
 Total 51-2500 
 
 The cost in Australia will not vary materially from 
 these figures. 
 
 For sixty-seven and a half miles, the cost will 
 amount to $11,070. Interest on all improvements on 
 land should be calculated at 10 per cent, where the or- 
 dinary rate of interest is 6 to 8 per cent. The 10 per 
 cent, covers the cost of repairing or the loss from deteri- 
 oration. Ten per cent, on $11,070 makes $1,107 as the 
 annual cost of a fence large enough to enclose twenty 
 thousand sheep. This is at the rate of 5.535 cents per 
 sheep. Adding the cost of fencing to the cost of labor, 
 we have 20. 535 cents as the cost of doing in Australia 
 what it takes 37^ cents in the United States to accom- 
 plish. And remember, this is not due to the perennial 
 climate of these colonies, nor to the low rate of wages, 
 but simply to a difference in method. 
 
 The next two items of cost are strictly Australian. 
 Unsettled land can rarely be bought outright for pas- 
 toral purposes. New land suitable for sheep-raising is 
 usually leased from the government. In Victoria the 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 1 23 
 
 rent is based on the carrying capacity of the land. The 
 price is one shilling per annum for each sheep which the 
 land is capable of sustaining. This it somewhat higher 
 than in the rest of Australia. Besides the rent of one 
 shilling, permanent improvements to the value of 
 is. 6d. or 39 cents per acre on land that will bear two 
 sheep to the acre, have to be made by the lessee 
 within three years from the commencement of the 
 lease. These improvements consist in buildings, wells, 
 etc. They also include fences, but as I desire to 
 compare the paddock system with our own method 
 of herding, I have treated the cost of fencing as a 
 separate item. To the interest on improvements which 
 is calculated at ten per cent., must be added the interest 
 on the value of the stock itself. The value of sheep in 
 Australia varies considerably. In periods of drought 
 they have been known to be practically given away. 
 The normal price is about two dollars per head. When 
 the frozen meat trade is once firmly established, as it is 
 in New Zealand, prices for mutton will be much 
 steadier, though probably not a great deal higher than 
 at present. I have placed the price of shearing as 
 4 Y 5 cents per sheep. This covers the wages of the 
 shearers, which are from 20 to 25 shillings per hundred, 
 but a fraction more might possibly be added for board. 
 
 As a result of the above, the total expense per annum 
 is found to be 71.2683 cents per sheep, or $14,254.37 for 
 a flock of twenty thousand. There are many incidentals 
 which are not included in this calculation, but it is 
 believed that enough margin has been allowed on the 
 different items, especially on the interest on permanent 
 improvements, to cover all extras. The larger the 
 flock the smaller the cost per sheep. It must also 
 be remembered that we have based our calculations 
 on sheep which receive the best possible care. On 
 the other hand we have not included the cost of trans- 
 
124 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 portation of the wool, which of course varies with the 
 distance from the seaboard; and we have also omitted 
 the cost of fine wool rams. Many of these latter are 
 imported from Tasmania, California, or Vermont. On 
 the whole, seventy-five cents will probably cover all 
 the expense of raising the best sheep in Australia. 
 As the estimate includes interest on all money in- 
 vested, it indicates a rather higher cost than is often 
 quoted by those who, when they speak of cost, mean 
 simply the cost of labor. The statements I have made 
 are based on the statistics of our Consuls, of the gov- 
 ernment officials in the colonies and of large owners 
 and dealers. I nave the satisfaction to know that the 
 conclusion to which I have come concerning the total 
 cost of Australian sheep is similar to that of Mr. W. G. 
 Markham, who has spent some time in Australia in- 
 vestigating this subject. 
 
 On the opposite page is a condensed statement of the 
 foregoing discussion.* 
 
 * Since these statistics were compiled, I have received the following 
 from J. D. Connolly, our Consul in Auckland : 
 
 "I have endeavored to procure some reliable information in regard 
 to the cost of wool-growing in New Zealand, which, I hope, may 
 prove interesting to those engaged in similar occupations in the 
 United States. 
 
 "Th*e average cost per sheep a year to the breeders ( all expenses) 
 is about 60 cents. The average proportion of sheep to attendants is 
 one attendant to every 5,000 sheep. The average wages paid to at- 
 tendants is $4.86 per week and found. The average weight of a fleece 
 is : Merinos, 5 pounds ; cross-breds, 8 pounds. The average price 
 that the breeders receive per pound of wool is from 10 to 23 cents in 
 the grease — average, 17 cents per pound. The average size of a flock 
 on stations is from 30,000 to 80,000, and in paddock farming ( inclosed 
 in fields ) 200 to 3,000 sheep. Owing to the mildness of the climate, 
 shelter beyond that which is furnished by hedges is not necessary. 
 The character of their food is principally grass, except where sheep 
 are being prepared for freezing and export to England, when they are 
 fed on grass and turnips. The proportion of sheep and lambs lost 
 annually from exposure is about 5 per cent. It is found that sheep 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 125 
 
 SUMMARY OF COST OF RAISING 20,000 SHEEP 
 IN AUSTRALIA. 
 
 One sheep to every two acres. 
 
 3 boundary riders at $291.99 per annum 
 
 4 shepherds at $364.97 per annum 
 
 1 cook at $243.30 per annum 
 
 1 store-keeper at $194.64 per annum 
 
 2 laborers at $194.64 a year per man 
 
 Food for 7 men at $6 per month * 
 
 Cost of shearing 4.2 cents per head 
 
 Total cost of labor 
 
 Interest on permanent improvements (10 per cent. 
 
 on 36 cents per acre) 
 
 Interest on value of sheep (6 per cent, on $2.00 
 
 per head) 
 
 Interest on cost of fence 
 
 Total interest 
 
 Cost of land 
 
 Total cost ... 
 
 n> c> 2 
 
 $875 97 
 1459 88 
 
 243 30 
 194 64 
 389 28 
 504 00 
 840 00 
 
 $4507 07 
 
 1440 00 
 
 2400 00 
 1 107 00 
 
 $4947 00 
 4800 00 
 
 $14254 07 
 
 
 
 
 1* 
 
 rt> >-t 
 
 f° « 
 
 1-1 »> 
 
 n> 
 
 <T> 
 
 ' >d 
 
 ^4-3798 
 
 7.2994 
 
 1. 2165 
 
 •9732 
 
 1.9464 
 
 2.5200 
 
 4.2000 
 
 22.5353 
 
 7. 2000 
 
 12.0000 
 5- 535o 
 
 24.7350 
 24.0000 
 
 71.2683 
 
 COMPARISON OF OUR OWN AND AUSTRALIAN METHODS. 
 
 The total cost per annum of labor in Texas of herd- 
 ing fine sheep, on the basis of one man and a half 
 to a band of 1200 
 
 Total cost of labor per annum in Australia for the 
 same character of sheep at the same rate of wages. 
 
 Cost of fencing per annum in Australia 
 
 Difference in favor of the Australian system .... 
 
 For 
 
 20.000. 
 
 $7500 00 
 
 3000 00 
 1 107 00 
 3912 37 
 
 For 1 
 sheep. 
 
 37-5 
 
 15- 
 
 5-535 
 16.965 
 
 imported into New Zealand improve very much, both in constitution 
 and in quality. It is generally attributed to the uniform mildness of 
 the climate. No other satisfactory answer to this question is obtain- 
 able, although I have made numerous inquiries amongst those who 
 
126 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 As a result of this low cost and the great weight of 
 the fleece, together with the fine character of the wool, 
 the profits of a successful sheepman, or squatter, as he 
 is usually called when he leases government lands, are 
 not unfrequently very great. The weight of the Vic- 
 torian fleece is something wonderful. A station, such 
 as we have described, will average eight pounds per 
 fleece. The price in London for fine Victorian wool is 
 now 22 to 22 y 2 cents per pound. This is higher than it 
 has been for some time. A price of 23 cents means 20 
 cents on board a vessel in Australia, for from London 
 quotations one must deduct freight and sale charges, 
 which amount to over 1 % cents, and also interest on 
 the value of the wool during the voyage. Twenty 
 cents per pound on an average of eight pounds is $1.60 
 
 are familiar with the subject, than that the land, grass, and climate 
 are peculiarly adapted to sheep raising. 
 
 "The number of sheep exported last year with and without wool 
 amounted to 1,964,281, valued at $553,040. Thirty-seven thousand 
 eight hundred and twenty-six of the above number were shipped to 
 the west coast of America ( San Francisco ) of the value of $5,055. 
 
 <( The total value of wool exported from 1880 to 1889, inclusive, was 
 $207,622,565. The wool export for 1880 was 66,860,150 pounds, valued 
 at $17,473,450, whilst the returns for 1889 show the wool shipments to 
 be 102,227,354 pounds ($28,037,005 ), an increase during the ten years 
 of $10,563,550. 
 
 " I still entertain the opinion expressed in my report to the Depart- 
 ment of January 27, 1890, viz, that American wool buyers could buy 
 in this market and ship direct to New York or Boston much cheaper 
 than they could buy in London. It is reasonable to presume that the 
 London or middle-man's commission, together with the cost of trans- 
 shipment from London to New York, would at least be saved. I am 
 forced to this conclusion from the fact that many of the continental 
 buyers find their way to these colonies during the wool season. If 
 wool buyers on the Continent find it profitable to purchase their wool 
 from first hands, then would not American manufacturers find it 
 equally advantageous to pursue a similar course ? The experiment 
 seems worthy the consideration of those engaged in woolen manu- 
 factures." [Appeared in the U. S. Consular Reports, No. 121, Oct., 
 1890, pp. 347-8.] 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 1 27 
 
 per sheep, excluding the value of the increase and the 
 return from the sale of mutton. Even when wool was 
 at 16 cents in London and 14 cents in the colonies, the 
 return from wool alone amounted to $1.12, and the 
 price could probably fall to ten cents per pound without 
 driving many of the present owners out of the business. 
 Soon the Australians, by the extension of the frozen 
 meat trade, will be able to obtain a steady market for 
 their mutton. They will then turn themselves to solv- 
 ing the problem of breeding an animal which will at 
 once be a good mutton and wool producer. 
 
 The paddock system is undoubtedly the chief feature 
 in Australian success. But we would commit a grave 
 error did we not recognize the part played by the land 
 laws. Indeed, some knowledge of these laws is essential 
 to an understanding of the present conditions of the in- 
 dustry in those colonies. Their chief object, as will be 
 seen by a perusal of the note at the end of the book, is 
 to force the settler, or squatter, to improve the land be- 
 fore he obtains a grant in fee simple. By this means 
 they have insured the thorough settling of the country, 
 and restricted the growth of that pest of civilization — 
 the man who holds unimproved land, waiting for a rise 
 in its value owing to the improvements of his neighbor. 
 
 I regret that it was impossible for me to examine more 
 closely into the cost of sheep raising in other foreign 
 countries. The information given in the table as to the 
 average annual total cost per sheep, and the return from 
 the sale of the clip, was furnished by the United States 
 Consuls residing in the several countries. From the 
 fact that all the questions which I addressed to our Con- 
 suls were answered in the most painstaking manner, I 
 have every reason to believe in the accuracy of their 
 statements. It is curious to note that only in Australia, 
 South America and Natal, does the return for the wool 
 exceed the total cost per sheep. This would seem to 
 
128 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 indicate that the grower in other countries has other 
 sources of revenue from his animals besides the fleece. 
 This is the case. The Armenian, for instance, as I 
 shall have occasion to point out again, turns the milk 
 of his ewes into cheese, and sells as a great delicacy, 
 the fat cut from the animals' broad flat tail. * 
 
 *I have also received the following account of sheep raising in 
 Southern Russia : 
 
 4 ' The average cost per sheep a year to the breeders (all expenses) is 
 2 rubles (^1.09). 
 
 '"The average proportion of sheep to attendants is four attendants 
 to every 1,200 sheep, viz., three men and a boy. Each man receives 
 $50 a year, the boy $20. They are furnished with food and shelter 
 and part of their clothes. 
 
 "The average weight of a fleece is 9 pounds. 
 
 "The average price which the breeders receive per pound of wool is 
 from 10 to 12% cents. 
 
 "The average size of a flock is about 1,200. 
 
 "The sheep are never placed under shelter for a longer period than 
 three months — December, January and February. 
 
 "When under shelter the food consists of hay, straw, and occasion- 
 ally a little salt, otherwise it is grass. 
 
 " 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. 
 
 "On the importation of sheep into the country the wool grows 
 coarser and loses its grease! 
 
 "The change of climate and the change of nourishment is undoubt- 
 edly the cause of this change of fleece, as foreign sheep are usually 
 fed on hay and barley." [Reported in U. S. Consular Reports, No. 
 117, p. 255, June, 1890.] 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE INDUSTRY. 
 
 From the result of my investigation into the cost of 
 raising sheep and the distribution of the industry, I am 
 led to believe that the success of sheep raising in any 
 section depends upon three factors: namely, the charac- 
 ter of the people, the climate, and the method employed. 
 The relative importance of these factors varies in differ- 
 ent countries. In the United States at the present time 
 the character of the people is a far more potent factor 
 than climate. If we look on the Diagram in Table V 
 in connection with the number of sheep in each State 
 and Territory shown in Table III, we will see that there 
 is little connection between the cost of raising sheep and 
 the condition of the industry. 
 
 In Delaware, for instance, the annual return from 
 raising sheep with proper management would be over 
 190 per cent, on the investment, yet there are only 
 22,000 sheep in that State, or one to every seven per- 
 sons. We have already compared sheep raising in New 
 Mexico and Montana. Montana is less favored by 
 nature, but the industry is in a far better condition than 
 in New Mexico. The South, however, is by far the 
 most striking example of the effect of the character of 
 the people. Within three hundred miles south of 
 Philadelphia the actual cost of raising sheep is less 
 than in Utah, Arizona, or New Mexico. Central Ken- 
 tucky, Tennessee, western North Carolina, and Vir- 
 ginia, are places which nature seems to have especially 
 prepared to be the home of the fine-wool sheep. These 
 districts are well watered, have an equable climate, 
 unrivalled pasturage, and cheap land. Nothing seems 
 9 (129) 
 
130 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 to be desired ; yet there is not any part of the United 
 States where sheep culture is in a more deplorable con- 
 dition. In Tennessee some farmers have a few miser- 
 able Scrub sheep, to which they give little or no 
 thought. In Kentucky and Virginia the industry is 
 only in a slightly better condition. The trouble is 
 with the people, not with nature. Sheep could not 
 be raised in the best portions of Australia, by the pres- 
 ent population of many of the Southern States. I have 
 spoken of the ravages of dogs, and of the impossibility 
 of raising sheep in a country overrun with an ani- 
 mal like the Southern cur; but at the same time we 
 found that the cur is the result of bad social conditions, 
 which foster a spirit of shiftlessness. Energy and 
 thrift must be infused into the people before we can 
 hope that they can deal with the dog problem. Char- 
 acter and social conditions, however, are subject to 
 change, while physical conditions are comparatively 
 permanent. With every improvement in the condition 
 of the South, the energy of the people of the Northern 
 States will be less distinctively characteristic, and the 
 physical differences between these two sections of our 
 country will come more prominently into play. This 
 fact must be borne in mind in any speculation as to the 
 future of the industry. And in comparing the relative 
 influence of social and physical causes on the future de- 
 velopment of wool-growing, we must also remember 
 the differences between raising sheep on a large and on 
 a small scale. The former will always be conducted 
 in the parts of our country which are comparatively 
 thinly settled, and where consequently land can be ob- 
 tained for a moderate sum. When a district is thickly 
 populated, each acre must be put to its best possible 
 use, which usually implies a careful rotation of crops 
 and stock. Under these last conditions more depends 
 on the efficiency of labor, and less on the bounty of 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 131 
 
 nature. Thus physical conditions play a more import- 
 ant part when large bodies of sheep are raised, than 
 when there is a dispersion of small flocks among a 
 farming population. For instance, if we wish to estab- 
 lish sheep raising in the South it will be much easier 
 for northern companies to buy large farms and clear 
 the country of dogs, than directly to disperse among 
 the present population good breeds of sheep. 
 
 If we are ever to have large flocks of fine-wool ani- 
 mals in this country, or produce the wool necessary for 
 our own consumption, it must be by developing the 
 industry in those sections where the physical conditions 
 make it possible to raise sheep in large bodies at a low 
 cost. In seeking the parts of our country where, if once 
 established, the industry would have the greatest de- 
 velopment, we must look more at the climate and soil, 
 than at the present social condition of the people. For 
 all that has been said concerning the fineness of the 
 clip of the Northwest, does not render any less true the 
 proposition that the sections of our country possessing 
 an equable climate must ultimately contain the ma- 
 jority of the large flocks of fine-wool sheep. The 
 climate is the true test of what the expense of feeding 
 ought to be. Thus in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and 
 Nevada, the cost of feeding sheep, though practically 
 nothing, is so only at the expense of a heavy annual loss, 
 sometimes amounting to fifty per cent., of lambs and 
 sheep, and a great deteriation in the quantity and 
 quality of the fleece. The mean annual temperatures 
 given below, together with the mean temperatures of 
 the coldest months, and the average number of sheep 
 and lambs annually lost from exposure, will give us a 
 general idea of the climate in the different States of 
 the West. 
 
32 
 
 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 
 
 
 Average 
 
 Average 
 
 
 
 
 per cent. 
 
 per cent. 
 
 
 Mean 
 
 
 of lambs 
 
 of sheep 
 
 
 temp, of 
 
 
 lost 
 
 lost 
 
 
 the 
 
 Mean 
 
 through 
 
 through 
 
 
 coldest 
 
 temp, in 
 
 expos- 
 
 expos- 
 
 
 month 
 
 1887. 
 
 ure and 
 
 ure and 
 
 
 in 1887. 
 
 
 poor 
 feeding. 
 
 poor 
 feeding. 
 
 Fort Randall, South Dakota . . . 
 
 —8.6° 
 
 37-2° 
 
 10% 
 
 2% 
 
 Fort A. Lincoln, North Dakota . 
 
 — 10. 
 
 45- 
 
 15 
 
 10 
 
 Fort Keogh, Montana 
 
 8.6 
 
 42.9 
 
 15 
 
 10 
 
 Fort Hays, West Kansas . . 
 
 
 23- 
 
 5i-4 
 
 20 
 
 10 
 
 Fort Sidney, West Nebraska 
 
 
 23-4 
 
 47.6 
 
 20 
 
 10 
 
 Colorado Springs, Colorado . 
 
 
 29.9 
 
 
 30 
 
 20 
 
 Laramie Fort, Wyoming . . 
 
 
 24.4 
 
 " 4V.8 ' 
 
 30 
 
 25 
 
 Boise City, Idaho 
 
 
 36. 
 
 53-i 
 
 20 
 
 8 
 
 Ogden, North Utah 
 
 
 34- 
 
 54-3 
 
 50 
 
 8 
 
 Carlin, North Nevada .... 
 
 
 38-4 
 
 48.9 
 
 50 
 
 8 
 
 Maricopa, South Arizona . . 
 
 
 5i-2 
 
 74.2 
 
 20 
 
 5 
 
 Shelden Fort, New Mexico . 
 
 
 43-i 
 
 62.5 
 
 25 
 
 10 
 
 Modesto, California 
 
 
 53-4 
 
 72.1 
 
 20 
 
 5 
 
 Gala, Oregon (Valley) . . . 
 
 
 46.6 
 
 63-5 
 
 22 
 
 5 
 
 Fort Kalmath, Oregon . . . 
 
 
 41. 
 
 50. 
 
 15 
 
 5 
 
 Walla Walla Fort, Washingtoi 
 
 1 . 
 
 4i-5 
 
 5*.8 
 
 20 
 
 5 
 
 The uncertainty of the climate in a great part of the 
 West, not its severity, is the principal, drawback. This 
 is true of places as far south as Northern Texas, for in- 
 stance. Usually the temperature of the Willamette Val- 
 ley, Oregon, is one almost perfect for producing fine wool ; 
 but even here there are occasioual storms, and some 
 food and shelter ought to be provided. In many parts 
 of the West a blizzard may carry off half of the flock 
 on one night, while the rest of the year, or for many 
 years, shelter may be entirely unnecessary. The aver- 
 age annual loss of lambs and sheep taken from esti- 
 mates of ranchmen near the places whose temperature 
 is given in the table is a good illustration of what I mean. 
 The coldest climate does not coincide with the greatest 
 death-rate from exposure. In Montana the ranchman, 
 counting on bitterly cold weather, is prepared for it 
 when it comes; but in sections like Southern Kansas, 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 1 33 
 
 Colorado and Utah, where tlje climate is uncertain, 
 only shelter of the most wretched sort, if any, is pro- 
 vided. It is in these last States therefore that the 
 greatest losses from exposure occur. While the climate 
 of the Central Northwest is too cold, the climate of 
 Southern Texas, New Mexico and Arizona is too warm. 
 The fleece tends to grow lighter in weight, for nature 
 throws off that which is superfluous. 
 
 The soil and the rainfall are other important factors 
 in determining the value of any section as a grazing 
 country. In order that fine wool may be grown success- 
 fully, the soil on which the sheep run must not be of such 
 a character that the wool will be filled with sand, which 
 not only weights the fleece, but cuts the fibre. This 
 fact makes the Gulf coast, which has an excellent 
 climate, unsuited for growing fine wool. In Southern 
 Georgia and Northern Florida, besides the sand itself, 
 sand-burrs become entangled in the wool and adversely 
 effect the condition of the fleece. The trouble with 
 sand exists not only on the western Atlantic and 
 Gulf Coast, but wherever there is a sandy soil and a 
 scarcity of vegetation. The grass is sparse throughout 
 the greater part of Southern and Western Texas, New 
 Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Nevada. In many districts 
 in these States the approach of a band of sheep is indi- 
 cated by the great cloud of dust. The thinness of the 
 grass, to which is due the prevalence of the sand, also 
 proves that the sheep have insufficient nourishment, 
 which in itself is enough to injure the condition 
 of the fleece. We can never hope to permanently 
 establish the fine- wool industry on a large scale in those 
 parts of our country where the soil or rainfall render 
 the food scarce or uncertain, and where the fleece is 
 filled with sand, though these sections may always pro- 
 duce considerable medium, or even fine-staple wool. 
 
 The necessity of having soil somewhat more fertile 
 
134 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 than a desert is seen even more clearly when we con- 
 sider the proper method of raising sheep. In examin- 
 ing wool growing in Australia we found that the true 
 cause of the low cost of production, is not so much the 
 climate of that country, as the land laws and the custom 
 of raising sheep in enclosed fields. It is not practical for 
 us, at this late stage of our national history, to adopt the 
 principal points of their land system. The younger 
 nations have profited by our irretrievable mistakes. It is 
 still, however, easy for us to adopt the paddock. The 
 moment we change our ideas as to the proper method 
 of raising sheep in large flocks — and change we must 
 if we are ever going to make a success of the fine-wool 
 industry in this country — a considerable modification 
 will take place in our ideas as to the best place to run 
 them. It is cheaper to herd sheep where the land it- 
 self costs nothing; for it requires almost as many men 
 to watch the sheep on land carrying two sheep to an 
 acre, as on land which will not carry one sheep to every 
 five acres. Little is gained therefore by herding sheep on 
 expensive land. But with the paddock system, the cost 
 of the fence must be taken into consideration. The 
 cheapest land ceases to be the most profitable land on 
 which sheep can be raised. In Australia the best paying 
 animals are run on land which rents at over fifteen cents 
 a year per sheep. There are plenty of desert lands in the 
 interior, but nobody thinks of utilizing them. In Idaho, 
 on the other hand, sheep are often driven one hundred 
 and fifty miles in a year in search of pasturage, and a 
 flock seldom remains more than two days at the same 
 camp. To enclose such a tract would be impossible. 
 If I am right in saying that the adoption of the paddock 
 system is essential for the permanent success of wool 
 growing on a large scale in our country, then only those 
 districts which combine an equable climate and good 
 pasturage can hope to become the home of the fine- wool 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 135 
 
 industry. Unfortunately for the interests of wool grow- 
 ing in the United States, on many Western ranches we 
 are attempting to raise sheep in the wrong places, and in 
 the wrong way. Southern California, parts of Texas and 
 Oregon, are practically the only sections where fine wool 
 is raised to any considerable extent, which are adapted 
 to the industry. As before intimated the natural ad- 
 vantages are all in favor of the Old South. Western 
 North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky have climates 
 which will rival that of Australia. The mean tempera- 
 ture of Central Tennessee is 6o°; that of Melbourne, 
 Victoria, 57. 5 ; while as in Anstralia there is no time of 
 the year when the sheep require to be fed or housed, and 
 unlike Australia there is no danger of drought. Land 
 is cheaper on the average than in Victoria; grass is 
 plenty and markets for wool lie within hundreds instead 
 of thousands of miles. Social conditions are at present 
 a strong, almost insurmountable, obstacle. But the 
 South is awakening. Its natural resources are being 
 developed, and we believe that if the condition of the 
 wool market remains favorable, its great advantages 
 in respect to sheep raising will be realized, and we shall 
 witness the formation of companies for the purpose of 
 prosecuting the industry on an extended scale. 
 
 Cause and effect in the social and economic develop- 
 ment of any country react on one another to such ex- 
 tent that it is often impossible to separate the one from 
 the other. Immigration to the South will lead to the 
 establishment of many industries; but the industries in 
 their turn will transform the character of the people, and 
 make the slovenly and shiftless enterprising and indus- 
 trious. The more successful the industry, the greater is 
 its effect on the moral and social conditions of society, 
 and in agriculture the successful industries will be those 
 for which the soil and climate are especially fitted. We 
 should therefore seek to develop each section along 
 
I36 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 those lines laid down by nature. The South being es- 
 pecially adapted to sheep raising, no industry has a bet- 
 ter chance of success, and consequently no industry can 
 confer greater benefits on the people. 
 
 The raising of large flocks in the Southern States is by 
 no means inimical to the increase in the number of small 
 flocks kept by farmers. In examining the cost of keeping 
 field sheep, we saw that the chief differences in the cost 
 of production arose from the number of sheep raised by 
 any farmer in relation to the size of his farm, and from 
 the climate. Where very few sheep are raised, only the 
 cost of feeding and interest on the value of the animals 
 need be taken into consideration. The establishment 
 of sheep farms in the Northern States, and indeed in any 
 portion of our country where the sheep have to be fed, 
 is not the least expensive method of raising these ani- 
 mals, and therefore would not be advisable. By this I 
 do not mean to infer that each farmer should keep only 
 a few sheep, or confine himself to the number which his 
 waste land can support. An industry which is con- 
 ducted solely on land for which there is no other use 
 will never amount to a great deal. Raising sheep to 
 clear land of briars will produce neither good mutton 
 nor fine wool. An industry begins to be truly benefi- 
 cial to a country and an aid to its development only 
 when a good commodity is produced. In New Jersey 
 the farmers raise sheep to clear the land of briars, and 
 the industry confers but a limited advantage on the com- 
 munity. In Ohio they raise sheep for wool and mutton, 
 and the industry adds millions to the wealth of that 
 State. What our farmers want is to add a new industry 
 to those they already possess; not on the one hand to 
 devote themselves exclusively to sheep raising, nor on 
 the other hand to raise in a half-hearted way a few non- 
 descript animals. It would, however, as in the case of 
 any other industry, be worse than useless to encourage 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 137 
 
 sheep raising in places totally unfitted for its develop- 
 ment. Feeding so materially affects the cost that we 
 can never hope for any great increase, except possibly 
 on stock farms, in those sections of our country where 
 the animals have to be fed over four months and a half. 
 On the other hand, in the parts of our country where 
 the winters are comparatively short, the feeding, though 
 necessarily expensive, does not add as much to the cost 
 as might be supposed. The farmer must look to the 
 mutton as well as to the wool for his return, and the best 
 mutton returns are only obtained when the sheep are 
 fed to a considerable extent. The belt of country east 
 of the Rockies lying between the thirty-eighth and 
 forty-second parallel is well calculated for raising sheep 
 in small flocks. Southern New England is also suited 
 to this purpose on account of the close proximity of 
 large markets. 
 
 And here we may point out that the broken undulat- 
 ing country along the Ohio, mentioned in the second 
 chapter, as well as the land in western Massachusetts and 
 northern New York, also sections where agriculture is 
 not in as favorable condition as might be desired, are at 
 the same time excellent sheep districts. Indeed, we 
 will seldom find better grazing country than in southern 
 Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. The climate, though the 
 sheep have to be housed for a short time in the winter, 
 resembles that of northern Kentucky, rather than that 
 of the central and northern portions of the L,ower L,ake 
 regions. The blue grass is a native of the soil. The 
 sheep being well suited to the higher ground, if they 
 increase in numbers, will utilize the very land which is 
 now unsuccessfully devoted to wheat. In fact, the whole 
 belt I have spoken of as best suited for the development 
 of the field sheep, coincides very closely with those dis- 
 tricts where there exists the greatest agricultural depres- 
 sion. The district along the Ohio we have already men- 
 
138 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 tioned; southern central Pennsylvania, southern New 
 England, eastern Kansas, are all places in which the 
 natural possibilities for extending the industry are 
 good, and where at the same time the condition of 
 agriculture is not as favorable as it might be. 
 
 But there is another advantage which will spring from 
 the general introduction of the industry among the farm- 
 ers. Sheep require a great deal of intelligence on the 
 part of those who raise them. There is no occupation 
 in which farmers can engage where superior intelligence 
 lends such a distinct advantage. At the same time, 
 throughout a large part of our country there exists a 
 marked tendency for the brightest boys to drift toward 
 the large cities. This is due to a variety of compli- 
 cated causes many of which we need not enter into 
 here. But the chief cause will, we believe, be found in 
 the fact that, though in the city the boys will be re- 
 quired to work harder, there is a greater chance for them 
 to acquire a larger income. As a result of this tendency 
 for the brighter boys to drift toward the city, in many 
 sections of our country agricultural production is not 
 carried on by as intelligent a class as it would be if 
 it were possible for the farmer, by producing a greater 
 variety of crops and stock, to make his income greater 
 than it is at .present. Thus an agricultural industry 
 which was especially profitable to the intelligent farmer 
 would lead many a boy who now drifts toward the cities, 
 to remain on the farm and use his intelligence, not only 
 in the production of wool and mutton, but also in the 
 production of other agricultural commodities. 
 
 We can, therefore, answer in the affirmative the ques- 
 tion whether an increase in the production of wool and 
 mutton will relieve the farmer in those parts of our 
 country where the establishment of a new industry 
 seems to be the only way in which to counteract the 
 depression resulting from the present tendency to the 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 1 39 
 
 over-production of the staple crops. The natural de- 
 velopment of the industry, by which I mean its in- 
 crease in those sections which by nature have been 
 fitted for it, will confer a great benefit on our country. 
 And in helping to establish it we are conforming to 
 the rule which is the true key of national prosperity; 
 namely, to develop our resources along those lines 
 which nature has prescribed. By this I do not mean 
 to grow tobacco in one section, corn in another, wheat 
 in a third, and sheep in a fourth, but rather to develop 
 all the varied resources of the different parts of our 
 country, without forcing the cultivation of any commo- 
 dity in a district which is unfitted for its production. 
 
 The benefits of an increase in the industry being 
 manifest, is it necessary for our Government to do any- 
 thing in order to insure this increase ? For we must re- 
 cognize that the time for abstract discussion of the 
 proper sphere of government has long passed. At the 
 present day we deal with facts. We want to increase an 
 industry which will be of great advantage to the people. 
 If Government protection and direction are necessary to 
 'this end, then protection and direction are legitimate 
 spheres of governmental activity. 
 
 The cur, though a great obstacle to the successful 
 prosecution of the industry in the East and South, can 
 at present only be directly dealt with by the States. As 
 we have pointed out, the prevalence of the evil is 
 largely the result of the character of the people. In the 
 South the cur can only be exterminated by those who 
 undertake to grow sheep on a large scale. Like Mr. 
 Polk Prince, of Kentucky, having established their 
 sheep farm, they will, in defence of their property, 
 effectually settle the dog nuisance. In the North the 
 dog pest, though a formidable evil, has by no means 
 reached such magnitude as in the Southern States. 
 When we can demonstrate to the farmers as a class that 
 
140 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 sheep raising can be made to pay, their own interest will 
 lead them individually and through the State Legisla- 
 tures to abolish the evil. The coyotes, foxes, wolves 
 and the panthers of the West, however, are not the result 
 of the character of the population, and yet in many 
 States they form an insurmountable barrier to the adop- 
 tion of the paddock system. The State governments 
 and individual enterprise do not seem able to cope with 
 the evil, and it is therefore proper that the Federal 
 Government should lend its assistance. 
 
 We have seen that among the farmers of the East 
 the lack of sheep suited to their conditions is the 
 main cause of the decline of the industry. The fu- 
 ture success of the field sheep depends largely on the 
 diffusion of the proper breeds among small farmers. 
 I have shown that the establishment of stock farms to 
 supply our farmers with good rams at moderate prices is 
 necessary to this end. We have already established 
 Agricultural Experiment Stations. This is a step in the 
 right direction, but we should realize that our whole 
 duty toward the agricultural portion of our population 
 is not done when we distribute seeds and analyze 
 manures. 
 
 By a suitable breed of sheep for the Eastern farmer, I 
 mean sheep in which mutton will be the first considera- 
 tion. I do not, however, wish to be understood as 
 advocating a total disregard of the character of the 
 wool. Thus the Cotswold, Leicester, and other sheep, 
 bearing long combing wools, for which there is little or 
 no demand, should not be introduced. The Shropshire 
 and Down breeds are more nearly in accord with our 
 conditions; besides yielding the best mutton, they pro- 
 duce wool for which there is a steady demand. Then too, 
 in any improvement in our Eastern sheep, the Delaine 
 Merinos should not be overlooked. As before ex- 
 plained, these sheep grow a fine fibre of three to four 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 14 1 
 
 inches in length. Owing to improvements in combing, 
 the wool is admirably adapted to making fine worsteds. 
 The varieties of Delaine wool grown in Pennsylvania, 
 New York and Ohio, are peculiar to America. The 
 Delaine sheep is somewhat larger than the ordinary 
 Merino, and takes on fat more easily. Thus the 
 varieties of Delaine Merino, such as the Dickinson and 
 Black-top, are much nearer our American conditions 
 than any other breeds we have produced. On the other 
 hand, an increase of the quantity and quality of mutton 
 is to be desired. It would therefore appear that the 
 suitable sheep for the Bast lies somewhere between the 
 Delaine and the Down. Both these approach what 
 should be our standard of excellence, the one dvino- 
 prominence to the wool, and the other to the mutton, 
 while at the same time neither is a poor mutton or 
 wool-bearing animal. 
 
 Having seen that the introduction of the proper 
 breeds of sheep, as also the extermination of wild ani- 
 mals, are two things which can be said to be practically 
 essential in order to establish the industry in this coun- 
 try on a proper basis, let us now turn to the more im- 
 portant question of the tariff. For though we have 
 shown that the benefits to be derived from the increase 
 in the number of sheep far outweigh any sacrifice which 
 is implied in a tariff on wool, we have yet to decide 
 whether a tariff is necessary to increase such produc- 
 tion. If we look at Table V. the first fact that strikes 
 us is the general profitableness of the industry, even 
 under free trade prices. Our investigation proves that 
 it is possible to raise wool and mutton in the United 
 States as cheaply as in any country in the world. This 
 indicates that permanent protection will be unnecessary, 
 but it does not show that temporary protection is use- 
 less, or even that it may not be indispensable to the 
 future prosperity of the industry. I use the words 
 
142 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 temporary and permanent in the sense explained in the 
 first chapter. 
 
 In studying the profits of sheep raising as shown by 
 the table, certain other facts must also be taken into 
 consideration. The column indicating the return from 
 mutton is necessarily based on the assumption that there 
 is a steady demand for that meat. This cannot be said 
 to be strictly the case. The people of the United States 
 have not, as a nation, a strongly developed desire for 
 mutton. The demand is fluctuating. Even after the 
 sheep arrive at the market, they may sometimes have to 
 be disposed of for next to nothing. True, we consume 
 yearly about 325,000,000 pounds of mutton, but then it 
 should be remembered that we also consume about 
 3,570,000,000 pounds of beef, a proportion of 1:10.94-. 
 The English, on the other hand, consume about 875,- 
 000,000 of mutton and 1,554,000,000 pounds of beef, a 
 proportion of 1:1.8. • 
 
 In America, outside of the cities, there is no demand 
 for mutton. Farmers, as a rule, prefer pork. Even in 
 the cities it is the testimony of hotel and restaurant 
 keepers, that while they always know about how much 
 beef their patrons are going to eat, the amount of mutton 
 is an uncertain quantity. The taste, too, for beef is 
 universal, but you seldom find a dozen persons who 
 all like mutton. As a consequence, the principal roast 
 of all large dinners must be composed of beef. ' ( Peo- 
 ple complain of the eternal fillet," remarked one of 
 the most celebrated caterers of the United States, ' ' but 
 when they are given mutton there is much more dis- 
 satisfaction. ' ' 
 
 The cause for our uncertain and comparatively slight 
 demand for the meat of the sheep is largely due to the 
 fact that the average mutton which comes even into our 
 highest-priced markets is far from being of the best 
 possible quality. As for the cheap western mutton in 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 143 
 
 the Chicago market, it is coarse-grained and stringy. 
 The prejudice which exists against this article of diet is 
 thus, to a certain extent, well founded, and will only 
 be eradicated by the supply of a better quality of meat. 
 The classes of society in our large cities who have now 
 an opportunity of eating good mutton and lamb, are rap- 
 idly losing their exclusive desire for beef. A strong taste 
 for pork characterizes the great bodies of our farming 
 population. A good example of how a desire for mut- 
 ton, or in fact for any new article of diet, can be intro- 
 duced, is found in Oregon and Washington. I will let 
 one of my correspondents, Mr. V. H. Lamara, of Rits- 
 ville, Washington, tell the story. He says : "I think I 
 can tell why mutton is much higher here than it used 
 to be. In the years 1877, ^S and 1879, mutton sheep 
 were very low, from $1.00 to $1.25 per head, and a 
 great many sheep were bought up and driven east to 
 the border States, fed through the winter, and put on 
 the Chicago and other markets in the spring. Beef 
 had been very low for a series of years. People were 
 educated to eat our bunch-grass beef. Every body said 
 it was the finest in the world, and like Johnnie Bull, we 
 became a nation of beef-eaters. There existed a strong 
 prejudice against mutton, which was inherited from the 
 eastern immigrants. But a change came over the spirit 
 of our dreams. Beef commenced going up after the 
 hard winter of 1880-81, and finally culminated in such 
 high figures in 1883-84, that people began to seek 
 cheaper meat, and it was then that mutton gradually 
 came into use. The people found it so much better 
 than they expected, that it has come to be generally 
 eaten, and now the demand is greater than the supply. n 
 A distinct advantage arising from the increased produc- 
 tion of unimproved sheep, and their distribution among 
 the farmers, is that the people will then be supplied 
 with better mutton, thereby largely increasing the con- 
 
144 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 sumption of that meat, and consequently increasing the 
 demand for sheep. 
 
 The benefits of increasing the kinds of meat or vege- 
 tables which a people are willing to consume, can 
 hardly be over-estimated. Not only is it apt to lead to 
 a better use of land, but it minimizes the power for evil 
 which those who gain control of any industry may 
 possess. If with every slight increase in the price of 
 beef, for instance, the people would considerably in- 
 crease their consumption of mutton, no combination 
 of producers or slaughterers of beef, however rich and 
 powerful they might be, could greatly increase the 
 price with profit to themselves. The Standard Oil 
 Company is the strongest monopoly we have, yet it has 
 had to decrease the price of oil to the consumer; for, 
 unless the price of oil is low in comparison with gas, 
 the people will greatly reduce their consumption of oil. 
 In other words, when the people can satisfy a desire for 
 meat or light by any one of several commodities, it is 
 impossible to greatly increase the price of any of them. 
 
 But whatever the benefits which would result from an 
 increase in our desire for mutton, we must recognize 
 that at present this desire among the mass of our people 
 is to a large extent undeveloped; and to deal with the 
 question of profits on sheep to-day, the uncertain de- 
 mand for the meat must be taken into consideration. 
 
 We must also remember that the Western ranchman 
 lives in constant fear that his stock will : be swept away 
 by a blizzard or scattered by coyotes. To be sure, not 
 over five per cent, of the sheep in Texas are lost by 
 exposure, but this loss is not distributed equally. If one 
 could calculate on a regular annual loss of twenty per 
 cent, it would not have as bad an effect on the industry 
 as this liability, though comparatively slight, to total 
 ruin. It may be objected to this last statement that I 
 have admitted that sheep should not be raised in dis- 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 145 
 
 tricts subject to blizzards. True, but we shall never 
 establish the industry in the right way by destroying 
 that which we have already accomplished. Even under 
 the most favorable conditions, it will take many years 
 before we can develop the industry on a large scale in 
 those sections suited for its future growth. As such 
 States as Montana become more populous, the inhabi- 
 tants will drift from sheep raising into other pursuits. 
 It will be a natural and therefore an easy transition. 
 It is better to allow the temporary continuation of an 
 industry in places unsuited for its future development 
 than to throw a large class of our fellow-citizens into 
 bankruptcy. Finally, we must also bear in mind that 
 sheep raising with us is virtually in the position of a 
 new industry. Among other things, we want to change 
 the whole method of raising sheep in large flocks, intro- 
 duce new breeds among our farmers, and greatly in- 
 crease the number of sheep. 
 
 To induce any one to undertake raising wool or mut- 
 ton on a permanent and extensive scale, the prospect 
 of large profits must be held out to them. A person 
 might enter into a well-established industry on the hope 
 of a moderate return, but the return must be consider- 
 ably larger to lead him to experiment in a new field of 
 labor. Then, too, the small Eastern farmer has forgot- 
 ten how to raise sheep. Just as the farmers in South- 
 ern Pennsylvania are possessed with the idea that Dela- 
 ware is the only spot in the United States where peaches 
 can be grown, so many farmers in the East are filled 
 with the notion that sheep cannot be raised with a 
 profit ; that it was something their fathers did when the 
 country was new, but now, when the land is more or 
 less thickly populated, sheep raising must move farther 
 west. One of the difficulties in starting an industry 
 arises from the fact that the cost to the persons brought 
 up in the business is not the cost to beginners. To the 
 
146 OUR SHEEP AM) Tin-: TARIFF. 
 
 latter it must, from the nature of the case, be more ex- 
 pensive. This is especially true of raising animals re- 
 quiring such intelligent care as sheep. A striking exam- 
 ple of the truth of this is seen by a comparison oi the 
 profits of sheep raising in England and in Pennsylvania, 
 In England the sheep cost about $2. 25 per annum, while 
 the gross profit from the wool is 90 cents, and from the 
 mutton #1.80. The net profit is therefore 45 cents, as 
 against #1.1334 in Pennsylvania. Yet there are com- 
 paratively few mutton sheep in Pennsylvania, and over 
 twenty million in (heat Britain. The Englishman un- 
 derstands sheep. He is sure of a steady though small 
 profit. In America sheep raising to many of our farmers 
 is in the experimental stage. We also want the number 
 of sheep in this country to increase. The profits from 
 the sale of mutton estimated in Table No. V. are based 
 on the assumption that all animals which can be spared, 
 without permanently reducing the number of the flock, 
 are sent to the shambles. If we wish to establish this 
 industry we must not only insure to the beginner a profit 
 when his flock is stationary, but also when there is an 
 annual increase. As is shown in our diagram, in the 
 greater part of our country the return from wool under 
 free trade would not amount to the cost of raising the 
 sheep ; but if we are to expect our flocks to increase, we 
 must practically place the wool-grower above the neces- 
 sity of sending any of his ewes to market to make both 
 ends of his account meet. 
 
 Thus, though the facts concerning the cost of raising 
 sheep in the United States undoubtedly prove that a 
 tariff will be unnecessary when once the industry is 
 firmly established on a proper basis, yet at present the 
 margin of profit under free-trade prices would be too 
 narrow to give sufficient encouragement to the farmers 
 to increase their flocks or to the ranchmen to invest the 
 large amount of capital necessary to buy grazing land 
 
P AND THE TARIFF. 147 
 
 and build large paddocks. At the same time, any fur- 
 ther increase in the tariff is unnecessary. It is part of 
 our present policy to greatly add to the number and ex- 
 tent of our woolen factories. Even the present con- 
 sumption of our mills necessitates an importation 
 of fully 70,000,000 pounds of scoured raw wool annu- 
 ally. It will therefore be a number of years before 
 we can hope to begin to supply the home demand for 
 raw wool. To increase the duty on wool beyond the 
 point necessary to attract investment would be to hurt 
 our manufacturers, without conferring any correspond- 
 ing advantage on the country. The changes in the rates 
 on raw wool introduced by the McKinley bill were the 
 subject of a good deal of criticism, for which there was 
 little foundation. The changes from ten to eleven cents 
 per pound on clothing wool and from ten to twelve 
 cents per pound on combing wool were so small as to be 
 of little moment. The other changes in the tariff of 
 1890, and those which are of the greatest importance, 
 :n the classification of waste, and the change from 
 specific to ad valorem duties on wools of the third class. 
 As I have shown in Chapter V., these changes were 
 rendered necessary by the evasions practiced under the 
 Act of 1883, and they all tend to insure that wool shall 
 be assessed according to its character. 
 
 Of course no tariff bill dealing with such a varied 
 product as wool is absolutely perfect. This much, 
 however, I think both free trader and protectionist must 
 admit, that the classification and arrangement of the 
 new duties on raw wool, waste, shoddy and rags, are 
 more scientific than any we have hitherto had from 
 Congress. There is one class of wools which we might 
 have preferred to have seen placed on the free list. As 
 has been stated, we produce but a limited quantity of 
 wool suitable for carpets. To protect this wool seems 
 only to retard the increase of fine-wool sheep. The 
 
148 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 tariff on the coarse carpet wool is, therefore, a premium 
 on keeping the wool of our own flocks coarse, when fine 
 wool could be grown at no greater expense, except in 
 the first cost of rams. For it is just as cheap to raise 
 sheep bearing medium clothing wool, or fine wool, as 
 to raise those bearing the coarsest fleeces. The coarsest 
 wools in our markets come from Turkey and Russia, 
 yet the sheep of those countries cost their owner as much 
 to raise as the finest animals in Australia. Fine wool is 
 dearer than coarse, first, because those who possess the 
 requisite intelligence to raise sheep bearing fine wool 
 have, in one sense, a monoply. The inhabitants of 
 Asia Minor, for instance, cannot raise fine wool, no 
 matter how high the price held out to them. The 
 wool from the eastern Mediterranean is coarse because 
 the people are ignorant, not because fine wool would be 
 more expensive. Then, the Armenians depend for 
 their return more on the milk of the ewes, which they 
 make into cheese, and on the carcass and pelt, or hide, 
 than on the clip. They can, therefore, afford to sell 
 the wool at a low figure. At the same time it would 
 be inconsistent to tax fine wool at eleven cents per 
 pound, and admit it free of duty when mixed with carpet 
 wool, and as we have seen, nearly all carpet wool when 
 in the dirt is mixed with finer staples. This fine wool 
 is often sorted out before scouring, and used in cloths. 
 The separation of the long and coarse from the short 
 fine staple could be performed in England, or other 
 country of immediate shipment. The coarse wool or 
 carpet wool proper might then be admitted free of duty, 
 while carpet wool mixed with fine fibres could be placed 
 under Class I or II. With this exception, we are happy 
 to think that the rates of duty in our present tariff are 
 as good as could have been devised. 
 
 The people, through their federal govennment, have 
 taken one step in the right direction ; they have given 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 149 
 
 the industry protection. The trouble is that they now 
 seem to be inclined to do as they have always done; let 
 the industry grow as best it may, without attempting to 
 rid the plains of wild animals, or to diffuse among the 
 farmers a breed of sheep suited to their conditions, and to 
 investigate the cheapest methods of growing wool. Let 
 us continue our policy of protection, and to this policy 
 couple these other aids to the production of fine wool 
 and good mutton, and I see no reason why we cannot 
 make the sheep industry of the United States the ad- 
 miration of the world, and an inestimable benefit, not 
 only to our farmers, but to the whole country. 
 
 The continuation of our present policy of protection 
 to the industry appears advisable. It is in its nature 
 temporary protection. By this, as before explained, I 
 mean that when once the industry is firmly established 
 along the right lines, a tariff will become unnecessary. 
 How long this will take, however, depends very much 
 on the future action of the government in other direc- 
 tions, and the improvement in the social condition of 
 the South. 
 
 This brings me to the end of my investigation. 
 When I began I had only a general knowledge of eco- 
 nomic theory. The advisability of protecting wool I 
 believed depended upon circumstances. We have taken 
 the facts connected with the industry, and discussed 
 them in connection with our foreign trade. The result 
 may be stated somewhat as follows : 
 
 A. — A temporary duty on wool, provided our Gov- 
 ernment assists the farmers to introduce the proper 
 kinds of breeds, and the proper method of raising sheep 
 on a large scale is adopted, will enable us to make a 
 large increase in our production of wool, and ultimately 
 so decrease the cost of raising sheep that a duty will be 
 no longer be necessary. 
 
 B. — By temporarily paying higher for our wool, we 
 
150 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 cannot indeed hope for an immediate fall in the price 
 of wheat or corn ; but a duty on raw wool, giving the 
 farmer one more agricultural industry, making agricul- 
 ture so much more stable and less likely to be injuri- 
 ously affected by temporary fluctuations in the prices of 
 one or two commodities, will tend to reduce not only the 
 prices of these necessaries, but also of many other agri- 
 cultural commodities. 
 
 C. — The tariff on wool, putting one more obstacle in 
 the way of our adopting the fashions in dress from coun- 
 tries where the climate and other physical conditions 
 are different from our own, and increasing our desire for 
 mutton, will tend to place our people in a position to 
 adapt themselves with Jess friction than at present to 
 our own physical and climatic conditions. 
 
 D. — By increasing the advantage which the intelli- 
 gent farmer has over his less intelligent competitor, the 
 duty will tend to increase the amount and diminish the 
 cost of all agricultural production. 
 
 In the first chapter four ways were indicated in which 
 we might possibly be benefited by a tariff on wool. An 
 investigation of the facts concerning the industry has 
 shown us that such a tariff can be advocated because it 
 acts not only in one, but in all of these four ways. The 
 compensation we receive for paying higher for our wool 
 comes, and will continue to come, from many and not 
 from one source. Indeed, this statement is likewise true 
 of nearly every economic change such as is implied in 
 the act of imposing or repealing a duty. The result is 
 always complicated. We cannot take one effect and 
 conclude from its examination that the change is ad- 
 visable or the reverse. Its wisdom depends rather on the 
 preponderance of the good. That every consequence of a 
 tariff on raw wool is beneficial no one would care to con- 
 tend. What I have tried to show is that its general ten- 
 dency is to increase the productive power of the nation, 
 and consequently to improve the condition of the people. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 ON THE LAND LAWS OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 One of the best features of the land laws of the 
 Australian colonies, is the almost universal recognition 
 of the principle that the purchaser must improve the 
 land, before he obtains from the Crown a grant in fee 
 simple. The Crown lands are usually divided into 
 town (which also include village and suburban dis- 
 tricts), agricultural, and pastoral lands. Land of the 
 second class, except in New Zealand and Tasmania, 
 is held under conditional lease, until certain prescribed 
 improvements have been made. These improvements 
 include fencing and clearing, and the destruction of 
 rabbits, wallabies, kangaroos, and dingos. It is with 
 the pastoral lands, however, that we are especially 
 interested; as the laws which deal with this class ex- 
 clusively affect the sheep industry. As their name 
 implies, the pastoral lands are all those suitable for 
 grazing purposes. The governments have recognized 
 that to allow large tracts to be acquired by the squatters, 
 would lead to the foundation of great landed estates. 
 Two classes of measures have been adopted to avoid this 
 real or supposed evil. The colony of Victoria has at- 
 tempted to limit the amount of pastoral land which can 
 be held by one person, to a tract sufficient to graze from 
 four to five thousand sheep. On the other hand, all the 
 other colonies of the Australian continent have limited 
 the minimum, but not the maximum amount of a hold- 
 ing. Experience seems to prove that neither regulation 
 is very effective. 
 
 (150 
 
152 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 The second class of measures, and by far the most im- 
 portant, has had a great influence in the development of 
 the colonies. In all the countries of the continent, pas- 
 toral land, as long as it remains such, can be leased, but 
 not aleniated from the Crown. The length and condi- 
 tions of the lease vary in every colony. In New South 
 Wales we have an example of a system apparently the 
 least favorable to pastoral interests. The lands of that 
 colony, which are rich and mountainous on the coast, 
 become steadily poorer as we pass toward the interior. 
 Much of the central and western portion is little better 
 than a desert. It is a desert, however, which irrigation 
 is capable of turning into a garden. The land divisions 
 are known as the Eastern, Central and Western. The 
 former contains scarcely any pastoral land ; the latter is 
 composed of little else. Leases in the former run for 
 only five years, with a possible extension for five years 
 more, if in the meantime the land has not been declared 
 agricultural, and the improvements made by the lessee 
 are satisfactory to the Land Board. In the Western 
 Division leases run for twenty-one years, with a possible 
 extension of seven years more, at the discretion of the 
 local Land Board. The lessee, however, must have made 
 an application for such extension two years and ninety 
 days before the expiration of his original lease. Ten 
 years, with a possibility of five years extension, is the du- 
 ration of a lease in the Central Division. In Victoria, 
 pastoral lands, or pastoral allotments as they are called, 
 can be leased for any number of years. This is coupled 
 with the important proviso, that all leases must expire 
 before December 29, 1898. A similar plan is followed in 
 West Australia, where all leases expire simultaneously 
 on December 31, 1907. The pastoral leases of the other 
 two colonies of the continent, like New South Wales, 
 have fixed terms — thirty-five years for the first lease in 
 South Australia, and fifteen years in Queensland. In 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 1 53 
 
 these colonies additional leases may be taken out for ten 
 and twenty-one years respectively. In Tasmania and 
 New Zealand the terms of a lease are not fixed by law. 
 As will be seen, in all the colonies of Australia, except 
 some leases in New Zealand, when any tract of land 
 subject to a pastoral lease is terminated, the government 
 is required to give notice to the lessee. It is also 
 usual to issue what is known as an occupation license, 
 which permits the lessee to occupy his old leasehold 
 until the land is actually selected by permanent settlers. 
 The power to declare land open to selection, thereby 
 arbitrarily terminating a lease, is vested in the execu- 
 tive portion of the Government, either in the Land 
 Board or the Governor-in-Council. The term " Gover- 
 nor-in-Council" denotes the Governor by and with the 
 advice and consent of his Executive Council. This 
 council is composed of ministers, who are, with the ex- 
 ception of West Australia, responsible to the legisla- 
 ture. The power to terminate pastoral leases has been 
 much abused by impecunious colonial governments. 
 Often land has been declared open to selection for the 
 simple purpose of forcing the squatter to buy his run. 
 A general feeling prevails among the sheep men that 
 greater security of tenure is needed. As long as the 
 pastoral interests could move back into the interior and 
 find as good land as they had left, the hardship of the 
 sudden termination of the lease was not very great; but 
 now, when much of the good land has been taken up 
 by speculators, and the squatter has often to spend 
 thousands of pounds in sinking artesian wells and 
 building tanks, greater security of tenure is required. 
 Recent legislation has been in this direction. The 
 length of the lease has been- increased, and in New Zea- 
 land, since the act of 1888, pastoral runs can be had for 
 certain definite periods not exceeding twenty-one years. 
 Some of the colonies impose, besides the rent, condi- 
 
154 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 tions for the improvement of the run. As before inti- 
 mated, New Zealand and Tasmania are exceptions to 
 this rule. In New South Wales and in the Kimberly, 
 and Eucla land divisions of West Australia, though 
 no improvements are required from the 1 esses of pastoral 
 lands, offers, in the shape of renewals of leases or reduc- 
 tions of rent, are held out to those lessees who increase 
 the carrying capacity of their land. In West Australia 
 there is also a penalty for not stocking within seven 
 years. This penalty does not extend to the Southwest 
 Division, which is an agricultural district. Queensland 
 does not attach any conditions to the lease. In Victoria 
 all vermin must be destroyed within the first three 
 years, and all buildings kept in good repair. In South 
 Australia the land must be stocked within three years, 
 unless a certain amount of money has been expended in 
 machinery or buildings. 
 
 There seems to be a general impression in the United 
 States that compensation is made in Australia for im- 
 provements. This is true only in three Provinces, 
 namely : in Victoria, Queensland and West Australia. 
 If the pastoral lease is terminated in any way, either by 
 lapse of time, or because the land has been declared 
 open to selection, compensation is given for all im- 
 provements made by the squatter with the approval 
 of the government authorities. In Victoria the amount 
 of this compensation is limited to two shillings (48 
 cents) an acre. The payment is not made by the gov- 
 ernment, but by the incoming tenant. In the other 
 colonies of Australia, on the termination of the pas- 
 toral lease from whatever cause, all improvements 
 revert absolutely and without compensation to the 
 Crown. The rent of pastoral leases varies greatly. In 
 South Australia the runs are sold at auction at an upset 
 price of two shillings and sixpence, or sixty cents per 
 square mile, for the first lease, and five shillings, or one 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 155 
 
 dollar and twenty cents, for the second lease. The rent 
 bid is only that for the first fourteen years, the rate of 
 the remainder of the term being fixed by government 
 valuation. The rest of the colonies grant their pastoral 
 leases on fixed terms to the first applicant. The appli- 
 cant, however, must be of the required age, which is 
 seventeen years in New Zealand, and eighteen in the 
 rest of the colonies. Married women, except those who 
 are judicially separated from their husbands, or have 
 their property protected, cannot become lessees. In 
 New South Wales the terms are prescribed by the 
 Minister, after valuation by the local Land Board. In 
 Victoria the rent is based as before stated on the carry- 
 ing capacity of the land, and is at the rate of one shill- 
 ing (24 cents) per sheep. Queensland and West Aus- 
 tralia disregard the carrying capacity, and regulate the 
 rent by the size of the run. In the former colony the 
 land commissioners determine the rent, which is subject 
 to change by them every five years. For the first period 
 the rent cannot be more than ninety shillings ($21.60), 
 or less than ten shillings ($2.40) the square mile. In 
 West Australia the rent varies in each land district. 
 In the Southwest Division, the most thickly settled 
 in the Colony, the rate is $4.87 for three thousand 
 acres. The Eastern Division on the other hand is for 
 the most part a trackless waste. The rent there is only 
 one shilling and six pence (36 cents) for one thousand 
 acres for the first seven years ; five shillings ($1.20) for 
 the next, and seven shillings and sixpence ($1.80) for 
 the remainder of the term. The whole population of 
 this colony is only 42,137, or about three to every hun- 
 dred square miles of territory. Eight- tenths of the land 
 is practically uninhabited, much is unexplored, and the 
 greater part is a sandy desert, broken only by salt lakes 
 and dismal marshes. The climate of the northern sec- 
 tion is excessively hot, and even in the capital, Perth, 
 
156 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 the thermometer, as in other parts of Australia, not 
 infrequently rises several degrees above one hundred 
 Fahrenheit. 
 
 As before stated, the sheep are not all kept in enclosed 
 paddocks. On account of the sparseness of the grass, 
 and the cheapness of Chinese and 'aboriginal labor, 
 many flocks are herded. The sheep themselves are the 
 poorest in Australia, being sometimes subject to scab, 
 while the average weight of fleece is less than four 
 pounds of unwashed wool. The greater part of the clip 
 is graded as combing. Mr. Burt, acting Colonial Secre- 
 tary, estimates the annual cost of keeping sheep at thirty- 
 six cents per head. This does not include interest on 
 investment. In Tasmania the rent as well as the sale 
 of all government lands is arranged by private contract 
 between the Commissioners and the would be squatter 
 or settler. 
 
 New Zealand used to be divided into separate colon- 
 ies. Since their union the land laws of the once dis- 
 tinct colonies, and of the still smaller districts into 
 which the islands have always been divided, have re- 
 tained many of their distinctive features, some selling 
 leases at auction, some leasing to the first applicant. 
 In accordance with the policy of the colony, all the land 
 districts sell and lease government land on the easiest 
 possible terms. Besides pastoral lands proper, some 
 colonies have specially proclaimed areas which rent on 
 distinct terms. Thus we have the Mallee lands of Vic- 
 toria. These are infested with rabbits and lie at a dis- 
 tance from any railway. They are let in blocks of ten 
 and three-fourths to five hundred and eighty-three 
 square miles in extent. The upset price at the auction 
 is four cents per head on the carrying capacity. All 
 vermin must be destroyed within three years. Similar 
 to the Mallee lands of Victoria, are the scrub lands of 
 New South Wales. These are covered by the short 
 
OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 157 
 
 Australian scrub bush, and are almost unfit for grazing 
 purposes. On the recommendation of the local Land 
 Board, land may be declared "scrub." These tracts are 
 then rented in the same manner as other pastoral runs, 
 but at reduced rates. The scrub, a noxious under- 
 growth, seems to be gaining ground in parts of New 
 South Wales. Squatters who had rented what they 
 thought fair pasture lands soon found themselves unable 
 to carry the number of sheep they had expected. The 
 scrub clauses of the act of 1889 were inserted to enable 
 squatters so situated to reduce their rent by having part 
 of their land declared scrub. 
 
 In West Australia much of the land was covered by a 
 poisonous plant. This plant, while at one time a serious 
 evil, can now be easily removed. Lands covered with the 
 growth are declared "poisonous" by the government. 
 If the lessee of such land, having paid a pound rental 
 for each one thousand acreSj shall prove to the satisfac- 
 tion of the Governor-in-Council, that for two years sheep 
 have been safely pastured thereon, he is entitled to a 
 grant in fee simple. 
 
 The colonists are beginning to recognize that for the 
 development of much of the interior something more 
 than individual effort is required. The coast is, as a rule, 
 cool and well watered, but at a comparatively short dis- 
 tance inland the water supply totally fails, and artesian 
 wells must be resorted to. When irrigation on a large 
 scale, is required the operations must be carried on by 
 the government itself or by large companies. Austra- 
 lians have commenced to adopt the latter plan. Already 
 in South Australia large concessions have been made to 
 the Chaffrey Brothers, who in return are to render habit- 
 able a large section of country. A similar concession 
 will probably soon be made to the Lake Bony Land 
 Company. 
 
 This review of the land laws of Australia, though 
 
158 OUR SHEEP AND THE TARIFF. 
 
 cursory, is enough to show that their general tendency, 
 especially in Australia proper, is to improve the land, 
 to increase its carrying capacity, and to rid the soil of 
 troublesome animals and plants.