732 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



ment on July 1, 1898, was 579,368,274 acres, of 

 which 316,716,303 acres had been surveyed. 



The Patent Office. The number of applications 

 for patents during the calendar year 1897 was 

 45,661 ; for design patents, 2,150 : for reissues. 94 ; 

 for registration of trade-marks, 1,946 ; for registra- 

 tion of labels, 66 : for prints. 26 ; number of caveats 

 filed, 2,176; total, 52,119. The number of patents 

 granted, including designs and reissues, was 23,794 ; 

 of trade-marks registered, 1,671 ; of labels, 14 ; of 

 prints. 16; total, 25.495. There were 4,891 patents 

 withheld for non-payment of fees. The number of 

 patents that expired" was 12,926. The total number 

 of applications since 1837 was 1,040,035, and the 

 number of caveats filed was 107,415, while the total 

 number of original patents granted was 602,268, in- 

 cluding designs. The receipts of the Patent Office 

 up to the end of 1897 were $34,309,331 ; expenses, 

 $29 293 672 



Commerce. The total values of the imports and 

 exports of merchandise for a decade past have been 

 for each successive financial year as follows : 



The total volume of trade was $1,826,341,467, 

 previously exceeded only in 1892, when it amounted 

 to $1,857,680,610. The excess of merchandise ex- 

 ports over imports attained the sum of $594,242.- 

 259, having grown from $75.568,200 in 1895 to 

 $102,882,264 in -1896, then to $286,263,144 in 1897, 

 and in 1898 to the above extraordinary figure. 

 Including specie, there was a net balance in favor 

 of the United States of $513,437,634 in 1898. In 

 1889, and again in 1893, there was a small excess of 

 imports, reducing the average excess of exports for 

 the last ten years to $150,382,899. The excess of 

 1897 exceeded all previous records, the nearest to it 

 being $264,661,666 in 1879. The amount of the ex- 

 ports in 1898 not only exceeded by 16 per cent, those 

 of 1897, the highest figure before achieved, but sur- 

 passed those of any other country, being 7 per cent, 

 greater than the exports of Great Britain, whose 

 export trade had never before been excelled by that 

 of another nation. More remarkable than its amount 

 was the character of the increase in exports. It was 

 not due, in the main, to enhanced shipments of the 

 great American staples; the increase was shared by 

 a great variety of products. Breadstuffs reached a 

 total of $324.706,060, against $191,090,341 in 1897; 

 provisions, $189,222,981, against $162,203,832; cot- 

 ton, $225,789,143, against $223,586,125, and mineral 

 oil, $55,171,001, against $61,733,685. These together 

 give a total of $794,898,185, showing an increase of 

 $156,284.202, of which $133,615,719 was in bread- 

 stuffs. Three fourths of the increase was due to 

 the expansion of the trade in other commodities 

 besides these, and three fourths of that to increased 

 exports of manufactured goods. While the exports 

 of this class have grown year by year, the imports 

 have diminished, until, in 1898, the United States 

 shipped abroad a greater value than the imports 

 amounted to. American manufactured goods are 

 ousting European manufacturers from the Ameri- 

 can market, are competing successfully in neutral 

 markets, and are invading the European markets. 

 Exports of agricultural implements have grown in 

 ten years from $2.600,000 to about $6.000,000. loco- 

 motive engines from $500,000 to $4,000,000, bar 



iron from 1.500,000 pounds to 10.000,000 pounds, 

 builders' hardware from $1,442,635 to $4,152,836. 

 The total value of exports of iron and steel has 

 increased from $17,763,000 to more than $65,000,- 

 000, of leather and manufactures thereof from less 

 than $10,000,000 to more than $20,000,000, of soap 

 from 19,000,000 to 27,000,000 pounds, of glass and 

 glassware from $881,000 in value to $1.208,187, of 

 rubber manufactures from $866,867 to $1,807,145. 

 Cotton manufactures and chemicals have each in- 

 creased 50 per cent. Manufactures of brass have 

 increased in value from $308,104 to $1,400,000, and 

 manufactures of copper, including ingots and bars. 

 from $3,812,798 to $31,621,125. The total exporta- 

 tion of manufactures, which amounted to $130,300.- 

 087 in 1888, in 1898 exceeded $290,000,000. 



The values of the different classes of imports for 

 the fiscal year 1898 are given as follow: Animals. 

 $4,674,125; art works. $2,263,427; books, maps, and 

 engravings, $2,883,992 ; bristles, $1,249,119 ; bread- 

 stuffs, $3,152,067; chemicals, drugs, dyes, and medi- 

 cines, $41,471,291; clocks and watches. $966,422: 

 coal, bituminous, $3,401,301; coffee, $65,067,631; 

 cotton, and manufactures of, $37.873,708 ; earthen- 

 ware and china, $6.687,360; fibers, vegetable, and 

 manufactures of, $35,345.980; fish, $6,076,690; 

 fruits and nuts, $14,566,950; furs, and manufac- 

 tures of, $7,881,172 ; glass and glassware, $3,782,- 

 617; hats and bonnets, materials for, $2.244.349 ; 

 hides and skins, $37,068,932 : hops, $648,155 ; India 

 rubber and gutta-percha, and manufactures of, $26,- 

 011,635; iron and steel, and manufactures of, $12,- 

 626,431 ; jewelry and precious stones, and manu- 

 factures of gold and silver, $10,388,880 ; lead, and 

 manufactures of, $2,600,779; leather, and manu- 

 factures of, $11,414,125 ; liquors, spirituous and 

 malt, $3,336,324; molasses, $564.016; musical in- 

 struments, $920,094; paints and colors, $1,065,088 ; 

 paper, and manufactures of, $2,838,738; paper 

 stock, $2,870,323; salt, $524,661; seeds, $1,231,766; 

 silk, manufactures of, $23,523,665 ; silk, unmanu- 

 factured, $32,110,066; spices, $2,404,629; sugar, 

 $60,472,749; tea, $10.054,283: tin, in bars, blocks, 

 pigs, or grain, $8,776,151 : tobacco, and manufactures 

 of, $9,092.114; toys, $2,214,482; wines, $5,969,180; 

 wood, and manufactures of, $13,861,923; wool, and 

 manufactures of, $31,607,463 ; all other articles, $62,- 

 264,801 ; total merchandise, $616,049,654. 



The values of the different classes of exports. 

 the produce and manufacture of the United Stato. 

 for the year ending June 30, 1898, are as follow : 

 Agricultural implements, $7,609,732; animals, $46.- 

 243,406; books, maps, and engravings, $2,434.:!'J."i ; 

 breadstuffs. corn, $74.196,850; breadstuffs. wheat. 

 $145,684,659; breadstuffs, wheat flour. $69,263,718 ; 

 carriages, horse and railroad cars, $3,424,4 1 !i : 

 chemicals, drugs, dyes, and medicines, $9,441, 7i>:>: 

 clocks and watches. $1.727,469; coal, anthracite. 

 $5,906,171; coal, bituminous, $5,777,578; copper 

 ore. $824.165; copper manufactures, $32,180,872; 

 cotton, unmanufactured, $230,442,215; cotton, 

 manufactures of, $17,024,092; cycles, and parts of. 

 $6,846,529; fibers, vegetable, and textile gra 

 $2,557,465; fish. $4.674,659; fruits, apples, given 

 or ripe, $1,684,717; fruits and nuts, all other, $7,- 

 328,593; furs and fur skins, $2,986,970: hops. 

 $2,642,779; instruments for scientific pur) 

 $2.770.803 : iron and steel, manufactures of. $70,- 

 406,885; leather, and manufactures of, $21,113,640; 

 musical instruments, $1,383,867; naval stores, $9,- 

 155,144; oil cake, oil-cake meal, $12.581.534 ; oils, 

 animal, $6,502,332; oils, mineral, crude, $4,348,262 ; 

 oils, mineral, refined or manufactured, $51,782,816; 

 oils, vegetable, $12.019,069; paper, and manufac- 

 tures of, $5,494,564; paraffin and paraffin \va\. 

 $6,030,292; provisions, beef products, $31,906,884; 

 hog products, $110,801,151 ; oleomargarine, $8,290,- 



