324    THE .WISCONSIN  FARMER.



lar. It will thus be seen that the currency
has appreciated about 14 per cent, since Feb-
ruary, and it will therefore buy 14 per cent.
more of all commodities, wool included. If
nothing should occur between now and the
time the wool clip is brought into market to
change the value of the legal tender note, we
think the best clips will range from 60 to 65
cents a pound. At this price it will pay the
grower a very handsome profit, and there is
no question as to there being plenty of buy-
ers for every pound in the country.
  It should be recollected that the apprecia-
tion of the currency has produced a decline
in the price of all kinds of merchandise as
well as wool, so that the wool grower will be
enabled to purchase, with sixty cents a pound
for his wool, as much of other commodities as
he could have purchased in Febrmary at sev-
enty cents a pound. For years past the quan-
tity of wool manufactured in the LT.ited States
has averaged full 125 million pounds." Of
this quantity not more than one-half has been
grown here. While we have been exporting
grain and provisions to an immense amount,



we nave importeu. WOOL iromi AuSLraiam, nUC
Cape of Good Hope, South America, China,
Russia, India, and in short from every other
quarter of the globe, and are doing so to-day,
though it is an indisputable fact that no coun-
try on earth is better adapted to Sheep Hus-
bandry than the   Northwest.    Should the
agriculturists neglect to grow a sufficient
quantity of wheat and corn to supply our
home demand, it would be regarded as most
surprising evidence of a lack of enterprise,
and yet our natural facilities of soil and cli-
mate are no better for producing corn and
wheat than they are for the growing of sheep.
In Australia and the Cape of Good Hope,
where sheep husbandry is carried on exten-
lively and at a large profit, the climate is not
as favorable, the soil is barren, and there is
no market for mutton, while in the West the

* Appleton's Oyolopdia makes a grand mistake In its
calculation for 18W. It als " the imports were 4,450,658
pounds."  The compiler overlooked the ict that this
amount was dollar. instead of pounds, and represented
only wool at and under 20c per pound.



soil is rich, the climate dry and cool, and our
large cities furnish a ready market for mut-
ton at higher prices than in London and Paris.
  For years past the people of the West have
seen the wool buyer running through the coun-
try eager to contract for wool "on the sheep's
back." How much more cager will they be in
the future when the consumption of wool is
increased fifty per cent. as it is likely to be ?
Although the population of our country is
small as compared with older ones, yet it
should be remembered that we consume more
than five times as many goods in proportion
to our numbers as any of the countries of the
old world. This is owing to the fact that the
wages of labor are higher and the cost of liv-
ing cheaper. It is confidently believed that
the 80 millions of people in the United States
before the breaking out of the rebellion con-
sumed more goods than 160 millions of the
population of any other part of the world. In
support of this assertion it may be mentioned
that in Russia a strong able-bodied man re-
ceives 6 cupicks (equal to four cents of our
money) for a day's labor pounding stone upon
the public road. In Prussia laborers receive
5 silver groschen (equal to 124 cents of our
money) for a day's labor. In Ireland labor-
ing men receive about £15 sterling ($76 of
our money) for one year's services. In Po-
land a night watchman receives equal to about
25 cents of our money for guarding the streets
from 6 o'clock in the evening to 6 in the morn-
ing. In Germany the women of the middling
or well-to-do classes rarely ever have more
than two silk dresses in a lifetime, and the
laboring classes none. Bilks are worn only
by the nobility and wealthy classes. A team-
ster in that country with a pair of horses and
wagon receives for a day's work of himself
and team one thaler a day (or about 72 cents
of our money) and pays his own expenses.
  A gentleman who travelled in Germany a
few years since relates that on one occasion
he had lis attention called to two hearty stout
girls, who, he was told, had the care of eighty
cows, and their pay was ten thalers a year,



-