ures
only to about 210,000,000 bushels a year, with a value (including
cornmeal) of about $76,000,000. As is well known, CHICAGO is the great
commercial centre of the continent for breadstuffs. NEW YORK is the
great port of export for the Atlantic seaboard, SAN FRANCISCO for the
Pacific seaboard. DULUTH is the great receiving point for the wheat of
the Red River valley and the northern Mississippi. BUFFALO is the
great point where the wheat brought down from Chicago, Duluth, etc.,
in barges, "whale-backs," and immense propellers, is trans-shipped to
the small boats of the Erie Canal for carriage to New York.
MINNEAPOLIS is the great milling point of the continent, its mills
being the largest and most capacious in the world.
FOOTNOTES:
[5] For the year ending June 30, 1899, the amount was $274,000,000.
[6] A portion of the exportation of breadstuffs made to Hongkong is no
doubt intended for consumption in China and Japan.
OUR EXPORT OF PROVISIONS AND ANIMALS
[Illustration: Principal articles of domestic exports of the United
States. (For the year ended June 30, 1898.)]
The next most important item in our list of exports is PROVISIONS.
But, like "breadstuffs," "provisions" also is a composite term,
including two main divisions, "meat products" and "dairy products."
Practically there are three main divisions, "beef products," "hog
products," and "dairy products." We have in these great products of
our country an export trade of $165,500,000 per annum, and if we add
"animals," a similar item, we have $46,500,000 more, or a total of
$212,000,000 per annum. Our export of fresh beef is nearly 300,000,000
pounds a year. Almost the whole of this goes to Great Britain. Our
export of canned beef runs from 40,000,000 to 60,000,000 pounds a
year. About three fifths of this goes to Great Britain, the remainder
going principally to Germany and other parts of Europe and to British
Africa. We have about 50,000,000 cattle upon our farms and ranches,
and our production of beef is estimated to be the enormous amount of
5,400,000,000 pounds a year, which is between a third and a fourth of
the total quantity produced throughout the world. Of course the
greater portion of this is retained for our own home consumption, for
we eat more meat per inhabitant than any other people in the world
except the English. In addition to our beef we export about 400,000
cattle annually, more than seven eighths of which are taken by Great
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