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The points of interest made apparent in the foregoing tabular exhibit, and to which attention is especially asked, are as follows:

(1) The regular and great increase in the quantity of fermented liquors annually made subject to internal revenue taxation—i.e., from 62,205,375 gallons in 1863 to 1,071,183,827 gallons in 1893, and an increase in per capita consumption very far in excess of the rate of increase in population—i.e., from 1·86 gallons in 1863 to over sixteen gallons in 1893.

(2) The concurrent regular increase in revenue from this source—i.e., from $1,558,000 in 1863 to nearly $32,000,000 in 1893.

(3) The variations in the product of fermented liquors which the Government has been able annually to subject to taxation since 1863 have been inconsiderable and in remarkable contrast to those occurring in the case of distilled spirits. Business depression from 1874 to 1879 and for the year 1884 appears to have been influential in checking per capita consumption, though in a small degree, and to have exerted little or no influence in the subsequent years, that are subject to analysis, down to 1894, when financial and industrial depression was again operative in the country, results indicating that similar larger and contemporaneous decrements in consumption and revenue in the case of distilled spirits