Our total exportation for the twelve months ended June 30, 1898,
amounted to the unprecedented sum of nearly $1,250,000,000
($1,231,329,950).[4] This is an amount almost a quarter of a billion
dollars greater than ever before, the only years when the export even
approximated this amount being 1897 and 1892, when the exportation was
slightly over a billion dollars in each case. Of this exportation the
sum of $855,000,000, or seventy one per cent. of the whole, was for the
PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE, the principal items being (1) "breadstuffs,"
including wheat and wheat flour, corn and cornmeal, oats and oatmeal,
rye and rye flour, $335,000,000; (2) cotton, $231,000,000; (3)
"provisions," including beef and tallow, bacon and hams, pork and lard,
oleomargarine, and butter and cheese, $166,000,000; (4) animals,
including cattle, horses, sheep, and hogs, $47,000,000; (5) raw tobacco,
$23,000,000; (6) oil-cake, $12,500,000, and (7) fruits and nuts,
$9,000,000. The exports of the products of our mines amounted to only
1.6 per cent. of the total export, or scarcely $20,000,000, the
principal items being (1) coal and coke, $12,500,000; (2) crude
petroleum, $4,000,000, and (3) copper ore. The exports of the products
of the forest amounted to only three per cent. of the total export, or
$38,000,000, the principal items being (1) sawed and hewn timber, logs,
lumber, shingles, and staves, $28,500,000, and (2) naval stores,
including resin, tar, turpentine, and pitch, $9,000,000. The exports of
the products of our fisheries amounted to only $4,500,000, or less than
one half of one per cent. of the total exports. The exports of the
products of our manufactures, according to the official returns,
amounted to $289,000,000, or twenty four per cent. of the total export.
But this sum included many items which represent raw natural products
converted merely into material for subsequent manufacture, as, for
example, pig- and bar-iron, planed boards, sole leather, ingot- and
bar-copper, cotton-seed oil, and pig- and bar-zinc. The principal items
in the true "manufactures" list are (1) machinery, including
metal-working machinery, steam-engines and locomotives, electrical
machinery, pumping machinery, sewing-machines, typewriting-machines and
printing-presses, and railway rails, hardware, and nails, $65,000,000;
(2) refined petroleum, $50,000,000; (3) manufactures of cotton,
$17,000,000; (4) vegetable oils and essences, $12,000,000; (5)
agricultural implements, $7,000,000; (6) cycles, $7,000,000; (7) paper
and stationery, $5,500,000; (8) furniture and other manufactures of
wood, $5,000,000; (9) tobacco and cigarettes, $5,000,000; (10)
fertilisers, $4,500,000; (11) boots and shoes, harness, and rubber
shoes, $3,500,000; (12) telegraph, telephone, and other instruments,
$3,000,000; (13) bags, cordage, and twine, $2,500,000; (14) books and
pamphlets, $2,500,000; (15) sugar, syrup, molasses, candy, and
confectionery, $2,000,000; (16) spirits, including brandy and whisky,
$2,000,000; and (17) clocks and watches, $2,000,000.