Agricultural Exports of the United States. 501 



by the United States Bureau of Statistics. The figures show 

 that the total exports of domestic merchandise were valued 

 at £215,000,000. The exports of agricultural produce were 

 valued at £142, 3 90,000, or just two-thirds of the total. In 

 only two previous years, 1881 and 1892, each marked by 

 abundant harvests in the United States, coincident with 

 meagre crops elsewhere, was there a larger exportation of 

 agricultural products than in the year under consideration ; 

 while as compared with the preceding year there was an 

 increase of £23,665,000. 



Cotton, wheat, and maize were among the articles con- 

 tributing most to the augmentation of the agricultural 

 exports. The combined increase in value of the exports of 

 these three items amounted to over £15,683,000. In cotton, 

 the increase was exceptionally large, amounting to £8,507,000, 

 the total shipments being worth £48,102,286, in spite of the 

 fact that the average export value fell from 4d. per pound in 

 1896 to 3|d. in 1897. 



The wheat exports amounted to 79,562,000 bushels, valued 

 at £12,483,370, this representing an excess of 18,911,940 

 bushels in quantity and £4,210,000 in value over the previous 

 year. Exports of wheat were unusually small in 1896, but 

 during 1896-7 a stronger foreign demand, occasioned by short 

 crops abroad, called for increased exportation. For some 

 years the shipments of wheat flour have exceeded in value 

 those of wheat, but in 1896-7 the order was reversed, and the 

 flour exports amounted to 14^ million barrels, of the value of 

 £11,648,822, or £834,548 less than the value of the grain. 



The increase in the exports of maize constituted one of the 

 features of the foreign trade for the year ; the consignments 

 of this cereal exceeded by more than 76,000,000 bushels those 

 of the preceding year, and amounted to a total of 176,916,365 

 bushels, thus surpassing all previous records by a wide 

 margin. The value of the exports of maize for the year was 

 £11,268,000. 



The total value of the bread stuffs exported by the United 

 States during 1896-7 amounted to £41,220,000, an increase of 

 over £11,770,000 as compared with 1895-6. 



Cattle exports showed an increase of, approximately, 



