Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/344

328 the Middle States increased the value of their property by $3,900,000,000. The South gained over 50 per cent, while the latter two sections gained 22 per cent only. In 1880 the total farm assets were valued at $2,314,000,000 In 1890 the valuation was $3,182,000,000, a gain of 37 per cent, while the increase in the rest of the country was 30 per cent, and that, too, in face of the very large inflow of immigrants and capital from Europe. The value of farm products in the South in 1880 was $666,000,000, while in 1890 she produced $773,000,000, a gain of 16 per cent during the ten years. At the same time the rest of the country gained only 9 per cent. Referring to the value of farm assets in 1880, the South, with one-fourth of that value, produced in 1890, 43 per cent of all the products raised. The South made, in 1890, 24 per cent on her investments in farming, while the rest of the country made only 13 per cent. "The South, in 1896, made one-third of the corn crop of the whole country, and has sold more corn than it bought; makes more than one-half of the wheat used." (Tradesman.) The cotton crop in 1880 was 5,000,000 bales; in 1895, 9,750,000 bales. The South produced in 1894 nearly three-fourths of the entire value of the crop.

In manufacturing, which has been the special industry of many sections of the North, the South has made her most rapid progress. In 1880 the South had $257,244,561 invested in manufactures. In 1890 it was $659,008,817, or a gain of 156 per cent. The gain in the entire country was 120¾ per cent. The value of manufactured products increased 100 per cent, while in the rest of the country it was only 69½ per cent. In 1890, in cotton manufacture, the South had $21,976,000 invested. By 1895 the capital invested was about $107,000,000. Twenty-five thousand miles of railroad have been built in the South in the last fifteen years, over $1,000,000,000 having been spent in new roads and in improving old ones since 1880.