THE SELLING OF THE SURPLUS 



are meager as compared with what they may 

 become, if we are but wise. 



It was at the beginning of this period of the 

 New Earth, that the United States took the 

 first real steps toward the development of 

 foreign trade in the products of orchard, farm 

 and range. No doubt, much of the interest 

 then aroused was due to the prick and stimu- 

 lus of war ; for, deplore it as we may, war, and 

 especially such a war as that which swept over 

 this country from 1860 to 1865, is ever a pro- 

 moter of trade. Six years after the war of 

 the Rebellion closed, in 1870, the agricultural 

 exports of the United States had reached, in 

 round numbers, only tkree hundred and sixty 

 millions of dollars, and even this sum was 

 eighty per cent (79.9) of our total export trade, 

 showing the commanding position our agricul- 

 ture had already taken. In 1900, a generation 

 afterward, Great Britain alone bought of us 

 nearly fifty millions of dollars' worth more of 

 these agricultural products than our entire 

 sales in 1870 amounted to, while our total ex- 

 ports of these products in 1900 reached eight 

 hundred and forty-four million, six hundred 

 and sixteen thousand, five hundred and thirty 



303 



