THE IRRIGATION AGE. 87 



-whose exports exceed their imports, and a comparison of their exports 

 with that of the United States alone furnishes a striking evidence of 

 the phenomenal prosperity of our own conntry. No one of the 18 

 countries whose exports exceed imports shows a favorable balance of 

 trade approaching that enjoyed by the United States, and a compila- 

 tion of the excess of exports in the entire group of 18 countries having 

 such excess gives a grand total of only $414,845,000, in the latest at- 

 tainable year, as against an excess of $544,542,131 in favor of the 

 United States alone in the fiscal year 1900, 



A good deal of anxiety seems to have been wasted with reference 

 to the trade relations between the United States and Germany. It 

 will be remembered that a fear was expressed some months ago that 

 certain trade restrictions proposed in Germany might seriously inter- 

 rupt the commercial relations between that country and the United 

 States and especially decrease our exports to that country in agricul- 

 tural products. Figures just issued by the Treasury Bureau of Sta- 

 tistics show that our exports to Germany, in the ten months ending 

 with October, 1900, were $27,000,000 greater than those in the corres- 

 ponding months of last year, an increase of about 20 per cent, and 

 that our imports from Germany show an increase of $8,000,000, a gain 

 of over 10 per cent. Of the forty great articles which compose the 

 bulk of our exports to Germany more than two-thirds show an in- 

 crease in 1900 as compared with 1899. Those which show the princi- 

 pal decrease are hog products, corn, wheat, fertilizers and certain 

 lines of machinery. Those which show an increase are cotton, flour, 

 fruits, tobacco, timber, mineral oils, cotton seed oil, oilcake and meal, 

 tallow, parrafin, rosin, turpentine, coal, copper, builders' hardware, 

 scientific and electrical instruments, agricultural implements, sewing 

 machines, cars and furniture. 



Copper shows an increase of more than $3,000,000, mineral oils 

 $2. 000, 000, tobacco and agricultural implements nearly $1,000,000 each, 

 and unmanufactured cotton over $28,000,000, while in the list of arti-, 

 cles which show a decrease there are but two cases in which the fall- 

 ing off is as much as $1,000,000 corn showing a reduction of a little 

 more than $1,000,000 and wheat a little more than $2,000,000. 



American trade with China shows a more rapid growth than that 

 of any of the European countries. The official reports of the Chinese 

 Government for 1899, the details of which have just reached the 

 Treasury Bureau of Statistics, show that the imports into China from 

 the United States in that year amounted to 22,288,745 Haikwan taels 

 (Haikwan tael-72 cts.), against 17,163,312 taels in 1898, 12,440,302 in 

 1897, 11,929,853 in 1896, and 5,093,182 taels in 1895. Thus in the four 

 years from 1895 to 1899 the imports into China from Great Britain in- 



