Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 2, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 September 1858 — Agricultural. [ARTICLE]

Agricultural.

f_ Wool Growing. The zVetc York Tribune, of August 3rd, lias an article on wool growing, of interest to all Agriculturalists, and we think particularly so to the Farmers of Indiana. From this article we make the following extracts', for the information of our Farmer readers: Th'e growth and diffusion of Sheep hus'bandryt in the United States are just objccts of National solicitude. Though preeminently an Agricultural people, we-do not and probably riever did grow the Wool with which we :arq clothed. - Though producers of Meat in excess of our own consumption, we, are not adequately supplied with Mutton, which as ainopg the best of meats. Our farmers live mainly on Pork, which is the grossest, least cleanly, least healthy of meats, and i which must mainly be cured and preserved ! by salting, whereas Mutton is usually cheap-! er, more palatable, less conducive to disease, and may be had fresh through twothirds of the year. Sheep husbandry, but for the ravages of vagrant dogs, that ought to be deady might be profitably prosecuted in nearly every State in the Union, This is a pursuit requiring rather skill and watchfulness than the severest toil, which yields quick and generous returns, and which does not exhaust but rather tends to improve the soil. The relative cheapness with which WJol may be transported, the ease and safe- ■ ty with which it may be kept on hand, arc great recommendations. Of One Thousand bushels of Indian Corn grown in lowa and shipped Eastward for a market, at least six hundred Will,havd been consumed in freight and charges by the time the grain reaches this City, and an other hundred by the time the remainder is laid down in English Manchester or Birmingham, leaving but three hundred to be returned to lowa in Wares or Fabrics: while One Thousand pounds of Wool may be transported to the English' Manufacturing districts for a twentieth part

of its value. In other words: a Western farmer who grows Grain for market must sell it for less than half its average price throughout the civilized world; whereas if he grows Wool,.he can be sure of a cash market at his ovCn door only five or ten per .cent, lower than its price in the very highest markets. And, sho’uld the price be low one year and the produce desire to hold over, Wool may be kept securely for less than one per cent, per annum of its value, and will loose nothing by keeping, whereas grain is not only more bulky and more exposed to depredations from vermin, but deterriorates in quality, simply from being kept on hand. As our settlements shall extend farther and farther Westward, therefore, away from the sea-board and from cheap transportation,' the inducements to Sheep, husbandry must be constantly increasing. We have gathered into this exhibit, such facts as we thought calculated to elucidate the present conditions and prospects of the Wool market. They show that 1 .1. American Wool has been remarkably steady in price throughout the last eight years we think more so than any other American staple. While Wheat, Flour, Indian Corn, Butter, Cheese, and most other farm products, have fluctuated violently from time to time, the variations in the price of Wool have hardly exceeded twenty-five per cent. 2. Though a great Commercial Revulsion has just swept over the world, prostrating thousands Of dur • merchants and manufacturers, and reducing the prices of many Agricultural staples more than fifty per cent., American Wool is not this day twenty per cent cheaper than if was a year ago; and whereas.it was then falling it is now rising, or bidding fair to increase in value. At the ! worst, the chances are in favor of ’prices! being higher before they shall be lower. 3. The importation of foreign Wool, instead of increasing, has fallen, off since imported coarse Wool was made free of duty. Of course, this is not becauic it is free, but but because commercial embarrassments, the stoppage of mills, a slack demand, and the fall in prices, have discouraged importation. 4. The present prices of American Wool arc materially lower than were those at this time in 1854 and in 1855, when all Wool imported, except in tfic shape of certain manufactures, were subject to thirty per cent. duty. 5. It ist, but ten to fifteen per cent, lower than the average prices of the first seven years, which were notoriously yeans of average high pi ices for Agricultural staples. 6. Wool is this day nearer the (prices of one year ago than most other Agricultural products. In other words, though a tun of Silver or Gold would buy more Wool to-day than it would havcidone before “the Panic,” yet a thousand tuns of Wool will buy more Wheat, Rye, Iridian Corn, Beefy Pork, Cheese, Butter and Lard, taking equal values of each, than-they would have done one year ago, or (wfi think) at any time within the last seven years. Wool, then, has only shared—njay, has not shared—in the general depression of prices caused by the great rhvtilsidn: absurdly termed ‘‘the Panic/’ 1 Such are the material facts presented by n survey of the Wool ; ices of the last seven years. To us, they seem full of encouragement for the American Wool-grower, giving assurance that his prices in the future will—at leqst, as compared with those of other farm product™—be fully to those of. the past,