UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



5963 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



Furniture made chiefly of hard woods is ex- 

 tensively manufactured in the states bordering 

 the Great Lakes, notably at Grand Rapids, 

 Mich., until about 1900 the world's greatest fur- 

 niture manufacturing city. New York and 

 Chicago now excel it. The manufacture of agri- 

 cultural implements and road vehicles is also 

 dependent on the hardwood forests, as well as 

 on iron. The center of the agricultural imple- 

 ment industry is at Chicago ; Cincinnati is im- 

 portant in the manufacture of horse vehi< 

 and Detroit is the most important city in the 

 world in the manufacture of automobiles. 



Foodstuffs and Beverages. The preparation 

 of foodstuffs for use, which was originally a 

 household task, has also been taken over in 

 large part by factories. Flour mills were found 

 In all of the colonies and in all of the states at 

 an early date, being run in part by water and 

 in part by wind power. After the opening of 

 the Erie Canal in 1825, Rochester, N. Y., be- 

 came the great flour-milling center. As popu- 

 lation spread westward other centers developed, 

 notably Minneapolis, which eventually became 

 the greatest milling city in the world. The in- 

 dustry is now very widely distributed. 



Meat packing began in the United States at 

 Cincinnati, about 1818. With the use since 

 1868, and especially since about 1880, of refrig- 

 eration to chill fresh meat, the packing industry 

 has moved toward the cattle pastures and corn 

 fields. It is now concentrated in comparatively 

 few establishments, the most important centers 

 of meat packing being Chicago, Saint Louis, 

 Kansas City and Fort Worth. 



Another industry of large proportion has been 

 the manufacture of liquors. Beer was made 

 in nearly all of the centers of population, Mil- 

 waukee and Saint Louis being especially promi- 

 in this industry. The distilling of whisky 

 other strong liquors, on the other hand, 

 was concentrated in relatively few cities in the 

 ;f of the corn belt, chiefly Peoria, 111., and 

 :: Haute, Ind., until September, 1917, when 

 Manufacture was stopped by law. In July. 

 1919, wartime prohibition became effective 

 iphout the nation, and the Eighteenth 

 Amendment to the Constitution, ratified by 

 forty-five states, came into full force and effect 

 i.iry 16, 1920, nuking the country pcrma- 



'hibition territory. 



canning of fruit. . fMi and 



; veloped into an innucn.se indus- 



Oyster canning is carried on especially at 



, Baltimore and at Wilmington, Del.; fruit and 



vegetables are canned m various districts in the 



Middle and North-Central states, as well as on 

 the Pacific slope. Along the Pacific shore there 

 are important salmon canneries on the coast of 

 Alaska. The refining of raw sugar is concen- 

 trated largely in the seaports, where the cargoes 

 of sugar are landed, especially at Brooklyn, 

 New Orleans and San Francisco. Several of 

 these also employ local supplies of cane and 

 beet sugar. 



Leather Industries, The oak and hemlock 

 forests of New England furnish tan bark, which 

 early led to the tanning of leather. This is 

 still carried on in Massachusetts, but in the 

 main the tanning industry has followed the re- 

 treating forests to the West and the South. 

 This migration has apparently been stopped, 

 in part at least, by the use of chemical tannage 

 at Philadelphia. Other important tanning cen- 

 ters in the Middle Atlantic states are Newark, 

 N. J., and Wilmington, Del. Leather tanning 

 has also developed extensively in the Central 

 West, especially at Milwaukee, which obtains 

 tan bark from the hemlock forests of Wisconsin 

 and hides from meat-packing establishments. 

 Both in Milwaukee and Chicago much of the 

 leather is used in making boots and shoes, and 

 next in consumption is the demand for book- 

 bindings. Massachusetts has by far the largest 

 output of shoes, especially at Lynn, Brockton, 

 and Haverhill. In the Middle states, New 

 York City and Rochester are of great impor- 

 tance ; in the West Saint Louis holds first rank. 



Textile Industries. Cotton and woolen mills 

 were first established on rivers furnishing water 

 power, and they are still largely found in such 

 locations. The North Atlantic section has by 

 far the largest output of cotton and woolen 

 goods ; Fall River, Mass., is perhaps the leading 

 cotton manufacturing city, while Lowell, in the 

 same state, holds first place in woolen goods, 

 and the Philadelphia district in carpets. Silk 

 manufactories center at Paterson, N. J., at the 

 falls of the Passaic River, adjacent to New 

 York City. \\h. N most of the raw silk is im- 

 ported; the silk industry has al.-<> .-prcad to 

 hboring cities, as far as Philadelphia. Out- 

 side of the North Atlantic district cotton mills 

 hive been established in many parts of the 

 South, especially nlonp the fall line, where t 

 is advant are both of raw material near at 1 

 and of water power. North Carolina and South 

 Carolina rank next to Massachusetts in the 

 manufacture of cotton goods. Woolen manu- 

 factures are more widely distributed, being 

 found in various north-central sections and also 

 in the West. Somewhat allied to the te\nl< 



