f their farms. The
increase in value of farm resources exceeded the total value of
agricultural investments fifty years before.

In the abundant year of 1899 our cereal crops exceeded $1,484,000,000 in
value, more than half this being in corn. The hay crop was worth over
$445,000,000, that of potatoes $98,387,000, that of tobacco $56,993,000.
Next to corn stood cotton, the crop for this year reaching a value of
$323,758,000. The total value of farm and range animals in 1900 was
$2,981,722,945.

[Illustration: Man interviewing a family on their doorstep.]
A Census-taker at work.

The census of 1850 reported 123,000 manufacturing establishments, with a
capital of $533,000,000. In 1900 there were 512,000 manufacturing
establishments, capitalized at $9,800,000,000, employing 5,321,000 wage
earners, and evolving $13,004,400,000 worth of product.

In ten years the number of manufacturing plants and the value of
products appeared to have increased some 30 per cent. The capital
invested had multiplied slightly more, about a third. The number of
hands employed had risen but a fifth, betokening the greater efficiency
of the individual laborer, and the substitution of machine work for that
of men's hands.

Of seventy-three selected industries in 209 principal cities, the most
money, $464,000,000, was invested in foundries and machine shops; the
next most, $363,000,000, in breweries. $289,000,000 are employed in iron
and steel manufacturing.

Our foreign commerce for the fiscal year 1899-1900 reached the
astounding total of $2,244,424,266, exceeding that of the preceding year
by $320,000,000. Our imports were $849,941,184, an amount surpassed only
in 1893. Our total exports were $1,394,483,082. The favorable balance of
trade had continued for some time, amounting for three years to $
1,689,849,387, much of which meant the lessening of United States
indebtedness abroad. The chief commodities for which we now looked to
foreign lands were first of all sugar, then hides, coffee, rubber, silk,
and fine cottons. In return we parted with cotton from the South and
bread-stuffs from the North, each exceeding $260,000,000 in value. Next
in volumes exported were provisions, meat, and dairy products, worth
$184,453,055. Iron and steel exports, including $55,000,000 and more in
machinery, were valued at about $122,000,000. The live-stock shipped
abroad was appraised at about $181,820,000. About 3-1/2 per cent. of our
imports came fr