Less Foreign Demand Intensifies Home Competition. 59 



when imported, are subject to an average duty of 50%. 

 If this export trade were of small dimensions, or if the 

 products were those of a small section of the country, the 

 aspect would be different. But its large volume for sev- 

 eral successive years of products similar to those pro- 

 duced by perhaps half of all engaged in agriculture, 

 under conditions that would seemingly i^revent all 

 exchange, gives this movement a most peculiar signifi- 

 cance. 



We call attention to the magnitude of this trade. The 

 census of 1900 gives the total value of agricultural prod- 

 ucts of the United States for the preceding year, 1899, 

 as $4,717,069,973. This includes all that is con- 

 sumed of such products on the farms. The agricultural 

 community comprises from 35 to 40% of the total popu- 

 lation. Of live stock there are : neat cattle, 52,000,000 ; 

 horses and mules, 20,000,000 ; sheep and swine, over 100,- 

 000,000 ; and the number of the feathered tribes probably 

 several billions. To feed this vast multitude of men and 

 animals would, we think, provide a market for one half 

 the value of the total production ; or, setting it very low, 

 would take $1,700,000,000. 



The annual average value of agricultural exports for 

 the last few years has been over $850,000,000. A con- 

 siderable portion of this value, however, represents rail- 

 road carriage and other costs of shipment to seaport. 

 The farm value would doubtless be much less than $800,- 

 000,000. Perhaps more than one-fourth of the total value 

 not consumed on the farms has for a few vears been sent 

 abroad. 



The large proportions of this trade and its persistence 

 for a term of years are conclusive evidence that it is not 

 a surplus dumped in foreign lands and sold regardless of 



