[Illustration: Principal articles of domestic exports of the United
States. (For the year ended June 30, 1898.)]
The next most important item in our list of exports is PROVISIONS.
But, like "breadstuffs," "provisions" also is a composite term,
including two main divisions, "meat products" and "dairy products."
Practically there are three main divisions, "beef products," "hog
products," and "dairy products." We have in these great products of
our country an export trade of $165,500,000 per annum, and if we add
"animals," a similar item, we have $46,500,000 more, or a total of
$212,000,000 per annum. Our export of fresh beef is nearly 300,000,000
pounds a year. Almost the whole of this goes to Great Britain. Our
export of canned beef runs from 40,000,000 to 60,000,000 pounds a
year. About three fifths of this goes to Great Britain, the remainder
going principally to Germany and other parts of Europe and to British
Africa. We have about 50,000,000 cattle upon our farms and ranches,
and our production of beef is estimated to be the enormous amount of
5,400,000,000 pounds a year, which is between a third and a fourth of
the total quantity produced throughout the world. Of course the
greater portion of this is retained for our own home consumption, for
we eat more meat per inhabitant than any other people in the world
except the English. In addition to our beef we export about 400,000
cattle annually, more than seven eighths of which are taken by Great
Britain, our other principal customers being the West Indies and
Canada. The principal export, however, among our "provisions" is our
HOG PRODUCTS. We export annually of these products 100,000,000 pounds
of pork, 850,000,000 pounds of bacon and hams, and 700,000,000 pounds
of lard, with a value greater than $110,000,000. As with our beef
products, so with our hog products--by far the greatest share goes to
Great Britain. Great Britain, however, does not import largely of our
pork or of our lard. And though she purchases from us over four fifths
of our total export of bacon and hams, she does not pay for them so
much as she does for the bacon and hams of Ireland, Denmark, and
Canada. The reason for this is that as a rule our corn-fed bacon and
hams are too fat--a fault that could be easily remedied. After Great
Britain our next best customers for our hog products are Germany
(principally in lard), the Netherlands, Sweden, and the West Indies
(the latter principally in pork). We keep on our farms from 40,000,000
to 50,000,000 hogs, and our production reaches nearly to 4,600,000,000
pounds of pork, bacon, hams, lard, etc., per annum. A great drawback
to our swine-raising industry is the terrible swine plague which so
frequently devastates our swine herds. Were this plague stamped out by
thorough preventive measures our swine industry would soon become very
much larger and more profitable. The third principal item in our
provisions export trade is "dairy produce." Our export of butter now
amounts to 30,000,000 pounds a year. Our cheese export, once much
greater, is now about 50,000,000 pounds a year. As in our beef
products and in our hog products so again in our dairy products Great
Britain is our chief customer. But our butter export to Great Britain
is only one twelfth of her total importation of butter, and our cheese
export to Great Britain is only about one eighth of her total
importation of cheese. Our cheese has lost its hold on the English
market because of its relative deterioration of quality, and its
export is not more than a half or a third of what it once was. Much of
our butter also is not suited to the English taste. But both our
cheese and our butter are now improving in quality. Our great
competitor in the cheese export trade is Canada. Canada's export of
cheese to Great Britain is $15,000,000 annually, while ours is only a
fifth of that amount. Our great competitor in butter is Denmark.
Denmark's export of butter to Great Britain is $32,000,000 while ours
is not more than a fourteenth of that sum. Our competitors in the
markets of Britain for cattle are Canada and Argentina, but their
exports together, however, are less than a third of ours. Our
competitors in the British markets for the sale of meats are
principally the Australasian colonies and Argentina, but their
principal exportation so far is chilled mutton, which they send to
Britain to the amount of many million dollars annually (Argentina
alone $5,000,000 a year, New Zealand alone $10,000,000 a year), while
our exportation of mutton is practically nil. We do, however, export
$1,000,000 worth of sheep a year, but in this item we are frequently
far exceeded by Canada. CHICAGO is, of course, the great commercial
centre of the continent for "provisions" and "live stock," and NEW
YORK the great shipping port. Of the entire export trade of the whole
country New York does two fifths. BALTIMORE comes next with about one
ninth. Then (in order) come PHILADELPHIA, BOSTON, and NEW ORLEANS. The
chief centres of our great provision and live-stock trade, other than
Chicago, are CINCINNATI, KANSAS CITY, INDIANAPOLIS, BUFFALO, and
OMAHA.