No foreign wool is “needed to mix" with ours in the manufacture of woolen goods. The claim has been made that Australian wools are needed for this purpose, but it is denied by the able Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, and one of the most intelligent, honest and able of the great wool manufacturers, Charles Fletcher, of the Providence Worsted Mills, in a letter, February 18, 1890, said:

"The talk of mixing Australian wool to make goods required for this market, is all nonsense, as Australian wools are only used here when they are cheaper than domestic wools."

The American Consul at Sydney, New South Wales, G. W. Griffin, in his report to the Department of State, March 23, 1891, says:

"The samples of American wools, and especially those grown in the State of Ohio, sent to the Melbourne International Exposition, were admitted by experts to be far superior to any thing of the kind ever grown in these colonies." Consul Reports No. 128, May, 1891, p. 112.

Much other testimony might be added, and to the same effect.

It is claimed that American wool growers will not find it profitable to raise so-called carpet wools. This again is a fallacy. This country needs 25,000,000 sheep of the best mutton variety-The Downs, Shropshires, Lincolns, etc., producing an average of seven pounds of wool per head, or in all 175,000,000 pounds of unwashed.

More than one-tenth of this consists of "hiplocks" and "breech" wool, 17,500,000 pounds, so coarse and hairy as to be fit only for carpets, and it is in this wool that Ohio is directly interested in preserving to the wool growers of this country the whole of the so-called carpet wool production.

If imports are permitted, they will be used for the manufacture of clothing goods, and the better portions to mix with Merino and the long wool for the same purpose. It is better to mix American third class wool rather than foreign.

Capt. A. E. Shepard, formerly President of the Texas Wool Growers' Association, has testified before the Committee of Ways and Means in Congress, that Texas alone can produce all the third class wool, and under proper conditions will do so.

The able statistician of the Department of Agriculture, Prof. J. R. Dodge, in his monthly report for June, 1890, said:

"So-called carpet wools, worth from 8 to 28 cents per pound, used for the coarsest carpets and for the finest fabrics, have been imported at a discrimination [low duty] utterly trivial and ineffectual. But for this American manufacturers would consume very little except American wool."

The wool indust.y is important because its mission is for universal good. It has received the sanction of the wisest and best of all ages, and the gracious favor of the host of heaven.

It feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, adds fertility to the soil, and prepares the way for bounteous harvest. The lamb is the emblem of innocence and purity. Abel, the first keeper of sheep, made an acceptable offering to the Lord from the firstlings of his flocks. Cain cared nothing for protection to the wool industry.

Job was a farmer, flock master with fourteen thousand sheep.

When Noah, after the waters of the flood had subsided, had offered his sacrifice, God gave his first permission for the use of meat as food. "Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you.”

Solomon, with the splendors of his magnificent establishment, provided his household daily with a hundred mutton sheep for food.

When the Savior was born, his coming was first announced to the Shepherds in Judea as they watched their flock by night, and ten thousand angels-a heavenly hostproclaimed to the listening "Peace on earth and good will to men."

At the conclusion of Mr. Lawrence's paper, the Chair announced that the discussion upon this subject would be opened by Mr. H. Warren Phelps, of Westerville, Franklin county, Ohio.

Mr. Phelps then read the following paper:

Let any observing man visit the farms of Ohio, and note the kind of live stock which he keeps, and compare the condition of the surroundings.

This he must do in order to get a true estimate of the importance of any kind of live stock to the farmer.

It is true that stati tics of amount produced and sold, as made up and published in pounds and dollars, in our agricultural reports give us some idea of the value of any product to the producer, yet there are other values which are not considered in those reports.

There are values left on the farms by all kinds of live stock, which are never estimated in those reports, and the values left by sheep are far greater than that of any other animal. The digestive organs of the sheep are more perfect for the complete change of food into the complete fertilizer, hence I shall claim that the sheep industry is not fully appreciated by our farmers.

STATISTICS.

I shall not attempt to go very far back to gather any statistics in regard to the productions and sales made of sheep. I find in the market report in The National Stockman and Farmer of date June 9th, 1887, that the receipts of sheep in that market were 16,115 bead against 22,615 head the week previous, and 21,488 Lead the same week in 1886, while on June 11th, 1891, the receipts were 14,285 head against 7,414 head for the previous week and 13,976 head the same week in 1890. This shows a great falling off in market receipts in four years, but the price paid was eighty cents per hundred higher, and while common and inferior sheep sold fairly well in 1887, when there was a large supply they were draggy and hard to sell in 1891 when the supply was actually short. This is evidence that the consumers are discriminating against inferior mutton. The people are b ginning to learn that there is a vast difference in the quality of mutton.

Again; we think that the falling off in receipts of sheep in the market in 1891 was caused by the low price of cattle and hogs and their products of 1890; the farmer seeing more profit in holding his sheep to feed, and using the mature ewes in breeding; using the best sires of the South-Down and other Down breeds. The rise in price of sheep and lambs during the last year, and especially during the last few months, has placed large sums of money in the hands of farmers, and the industry has given much more satisfaction than any other one industry. The great importance of the sheep industry is now readily seen by many who refused to keep sheep when prices were lower. With a small flock of superior bred Southdowns-for I have bought the best bred sires that I could find, paying $60 for one and $45 for another, from the best flocks of New York-I have realized a better profit than from either cattle or hog raising.

For fif en years I followed buying and shipping ca'tle, sheep and hogs, and while riding over the counties of Franklin, Union, Delaware, Morrow and a part of Licking, I observed that the farme s who made sheep raising their main business, were in better circumstances than were their neighbors who were engaged in raising cattle and hogs. Their farms were in better condition, they had better and neater buildings, and their wives looked fresher and healthier; they were not worked to death in order to prepare meals for hired men who raised the corn with which to feed cattle and hogs. We will tally one here in the saving of doctors' bills in the family.

The wool which is produced from a sheep pays well for its keep, even at 25 cents per pound, when we have sheep which will shear from six to twelve pounds; and any other

kind of a sheep had better be sent to the butcher. We do not live in the kind of an age of low averages now. My own flock of Southdowns shear six to ten pounds the last week in April. A few Merinos sheared fifteen pounds of wool last April, which I sold at fifteen cents per pound, averaging $2.25 per head. That was much better than selling hogs at three and one-half and cattle at four cents.

There is no time in the year that a sheep will not pay for its cost of keeping. If it dies soon after shearing, the carcass fed to chickens will produce a plenty of fresh hen's eggs, or if fed to hogs, we get cost if the sheep dies later, the growth of wool pays out

the cost.

We consider that, in careful hands, sheep raising pays a better profit than any other kind of live stock on the farm. But we would not advise any one to go into the sheep industry who does not feel like being industrious, and who does not like to get up early in the morning.

The lamb trade of late years has been a very profitable one. That is, the raising of the mutton varieties. Cross on the large Merino ewes the best Southdown rams, or other Downs, and raise lambs as early as possible. If the owner is inclined to be lazy, he had better let them be born in May, so that they may not need care, and the profit from the sale of those early lambs will surprise the new beginner.

I claim that the rearing of early lambs for market is only in its infancy in Ohio. As the cities increase in population the wealthy citizens vie with each other to have the first lamb chops of the season. We should encourage the importation of the best mutton sheep so that we may have such flocks from which to select our breeding sires.

President Levering: The subject of sheep husbandry has been pretty thoroughly discussed in all its phases. We have some papers upon a kindred subject, and it might be well to hear those now and then discuss all at the same time. The next subject is "Reform Needed in Our Methods of Handling and Marketing Wool." Mr. F. C. Stanley, of Edison, Ohio, is on the program for the first paper upon that subject. I understand he is not here, but that Mr. Cowden has been substituted. Mr. Cowden is a wool-grower, well informed upon this subject, and we will now hear from him and afterwards, Mr. Bethel.

Secretary Bonham: I wanted to say that Mr. Stanley found it impossible to prepare a paper at the time indicated, and I then invited Mr. Cowden to take his place, but I understand Mr. Stanley has since that time prepared his paper and is ready. Therefore we have two papers, one from Mr. Stanley and one from Mr. Cowden, and also a third paper by Mr. Bethel. I would suggest, Mr. President, that Mr. Cowden come first, then Mr. Bethel and then Mr. Stanley, changing the order of the program to that extent.

Mr. W. N. Cowden then said: Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: Quite recently your Secretary, Mr. Bonham, informed me that I was expected to either furnish a paper or a substitute. I thought at the time I might promise to obtain a substitute, but failing in that, at the last moment I have prepared a hasty paper upon this subject. Other duties have prevented me from giving the time and attention to it which I would have desired.

Mr. Cowden then read to the Institute the following paper on

REFORMS NEEDED IN OUR METHODS OF HANDLING AND MARKETING WOOL.

That there are reforms needed in the method of handling and marketing wool, goes without saying. If you go into a woolen mauufactory when fleeces are being opened, you will see sheep shears, whetstones, manure, dust, dirt, straw, dead wool, sections of sheep pelts, and other article too tedious to mention. Charity for the wool grower, requires me to say that the sheep shears and whetstones got there by mistake, and I wish I had charity enough to say as much of the other substances.

That it would enhance the value of every fleece of Ohio wool if carefully and honestly handled, also goes without saying. I will confine my paper to the first part of the subject, the handling, as I have no wool growers' ware house to recommend, except as we may know an eastern commission firm whom we can trust with the selling of our wooi.

In the proper handling of wool, we can not confine ourselves to the sheep barn on shearing day, but we go back of that date and say that to have good wool to handle, we must have a good breed, uniform and healthy, the sheep must have nutritious food all the year, that a uniform, strong fiber may be grown. This is especially true in the fall months, when the system of the sheep, in some way warned of the approaching winter, begins to put on a heavy coat of wool for its protection and this increased growth makes a heavy demand on its vitality. At the approach of spring, and before turning on grass, all sheep should be carefully tagged around the breech, to prevent the wool from being soiled and then thrown away on shearing day. If sheep are to be washed, a foolish, useless and unnecessary practice that has come down to us from antiquity, take the first warm day in May in this latitude and wash in running water, box, or swim the sheep up stream as often as necessary to thoroughly cleanse the wool. Turn sheep on a shadeless, well sodded field and shear in from five to twelve days according to weather. If warm the first named time is long enough, if showery, or cloudy, or cool, it will require the latter named time. Sheep should run after washing until the sheathe of oil that envelops the fibers, broken by washing is reformed again. Then the wool will have a lively, bright appearance. Shear on a clean barn floor cutting the fibers close to the skin and cutting each fiber but once. Fibers cut more than once go into a lower grade, or else fall under the cords and is used for shoddy or carpet wool. Tie each fleece with the clean fibers by itself. If wool of different grades are mixed in a given fleece all the loose wool goes to the lowest grade represented in the fleece. The buyer will tell us to do as they do in Australia, put all the leg, belly and breech wool in a barrel or box by itself. I know a wool grower who did this one year. The buyer paid him 36 cents per pound the same he paid his neighbors, and gave him 15 cents per pound for the wool untied. He received great praise at the buyer's barn for his nicely handled wool, but his neighbors received less praise and more money. He learned that year that the loose wool was worth more than twice as much inside the fleece, than outside of it, and it is not necessary to say he never repeated the new way of handling wool.

Wool should be loosely tied with small twine, by hand, or in box, with the inside as it grows outside. It should be loose, so that the buyer can thrust his hand into the fleece and know what it contains. It should have just enough twine to hold it together perfectly until it gets to the manufactory. It is a punishable offense to put unwashed tags or dead wool into a washed fleece, and I should think that little of this practice prevails in Ohio. If such practice exists it could easily be ch inged by a prosecution of the offenders.

If wool is to go to the manufacturer unwashed, it should be shorn early in April and handled the same as washed wool. It is right and legitimate to put in unwashed fleeces all the wool, grease and sweat locks that grow or accumulate on the sheep, but none of the inside of the sheep belongs to an unwashed fleece.

Unwashed wool is always sold on its merits, the reduction being one-fifth, one-fourth, one-third or one-half according to condition and merit. Why should not all wool be sold on its merits? An affirmative answer to this question indicates one of the ways by which a reform in the manner of handling wool may be brought about. The final test of the value of a fleece of wool is the number of scoured pounds of wool it contains and it is just as easy to estimate the scoured pounds in an unwashed fleece as in a washed one, and seven-eighths of all the wool used in the United States is unwashed.

Wool as now bought is about as follows: Some one gets a commission to buy wool for an eastern firm at one-half or one cent per pound, and the amount of his earnings each day depends on the number of pounds bought. He starts bright and early on the fastest horse procurable, and buys all the wool he can get at the figures he is allowed to pay. The good wool bought under value " evens up" the bad wool bought over value and so the eastern firm is satisfied and the buyer pockets his commission and gets another order and so on from year to year. Of course he takes all the reduction and all the weight he can get, as this helps to swell his commission. If he is shrewd and observing in the course of time he can tell wool from cotton and he may after while know something of grades and even breeds, but if he never learns these non-essentials, no matter so his whole purchase averages up all right.

The Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture told your speaker lately that he delivered his wheat to an elevator. It was nice and clean and the buyer kept it by itself. When the buyer was asked why he kept it separate, he said "to grade up unclean wheat." In like manner every man who carefully handles wool, helps to "grade up" his neighbors' unclean and carelessly handled clip and so the buyer thus daily offers a premium for carelessness, if not a money temptation for dishonesty.

Our only remedy now is to not offer our wool for sale until these buyers have run their course, and then a careful buyer (and there are such in all neighborhoods) comes along who buys with some regard to condition and merit.

The wool grower, who carefully and honestly handles his wool soon gets a reputatation that is worth several cents per pound to him on his entire clip, and when a year comes when the local buyer will not pay him for his care, he can easily consign to a responsible commission house, where merit rules and wins every time. I knew a wool grower who wrote his name and address on slips and placed them in each fleece as tied. When these fleeces were finally opened at the place of manufacture, a request came for all his wool as soon as sheared, to be consigned direct to the manufactory.

I have thus indicated what is in my though', one of the means of reform in the handling and marketing of wool. I do not design in this paper to even by indirection, countenance the careless or dishonest handling of wool, because the buyer is reckless and undiscriminating. I believe every man should be honest for honesty's sake and honesty always wins at the end of the race if not sooner.

Of course if the buyer and seller were alike honest, the reform would be accomplished at once. But we are yet too far from the millennium to expect reform from that source, and in the meantime the present premium on dishonesty should be taken away and some system devised by which wool can be marketed on its merits.

I have indicated three steps toward such a system, viz.: Selling unwashed, selling on merit and to buyers competent to decide merit.

President Levering: The next exercise is the paper by Mr. Edward Bethel, of Muskingum county.

Mr. Edward Bethel then read the following paper on the same subject:

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE AGRICULTURAL CONVENTION: If all our Ohio wool growers could be brought up to realize the importance and profit of properly preparing and packing the annual products of their flocks for the market, the return