82 AGRICULTURAL IMPORTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 


next to Brazil in importance with a total of $7,792,000. 
After Brazil and Cuba, the United Kingdom was the most 
important contributor to the import trade in the products of 
agriculture. the average annual value of the agricultural 
produce purchased from the United Kingdom amounted to 
£ 6,893,000, or about 9 per cent. of the total, but the figures 
have fluctuated considerably; thus in 1894, the value was 
only £4,131,000, in 1895, 1896 and 1897 it ranged from 
47,216,000 to 410,371,000, and in 1898 it dropped to 
£5,304,000. A large part of the imports consisted of the 
produce of British dependencies re-exported by the mother 
country. Wool and hides were the leading articies, while 
feathers, cotton, tea, flax, sugar, and spirituous liquors were 
also items of considerable importance. 
_ Germany ranked fourth among the sources of supply, the 
agricultural imports from that country during 1894-8 having 
an average yearly value of 44,793,000, or about 6 per cent. of 
the total. Apart from beet sugar, which formed the principal 
item, the most important articles were hides, hops, rice and 
rice flour, wines, bristles, coffee, and spirituous liquors. 
Some of the leading products received from Germany were 
re-exports. 
Among the other countries contributing to these imports the 
following may be mentioned in the order of the average 
value of their supplies, viz:—China, Japan, France, Italy, 
Mexico, Dutch East Indies, and Hawaii, the average annual 
imports from these countries ranged in value from £2,515,000 
for the last-named country to £ 3,600,000 in the case of China. 
The imports from Canada were valued at an average of 
£,2,000,000 yearly. 
Over one-half of the agricultural produce imported into 
the United States during 1894-1898 came from countries 
lying wholly or in chief part within the tropics. These 
imports, consisting largely of products that cannot be 
supplied from United States soil, had an average annual 
value of £40,153,000. From countries outside of the tropics 
there were during the same period average yearly imports of 
agricultural products to the value of 436,670,000. An im- 
portant part of these latter imports, however, undoubtedly 
