Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/60

CALIFORNIA. price of labor and the scarcity and consequently high price of fuel. Moreover, the superior advantages offered in mining and agriculture have tended to divert capital from manufacturing. Nevertheless, the value of manufactured products has reached a high figure, being exceeded in but few States. The exceptional resources of field and forest account chiefly for this; but the relation of the State to Hawaii has given rise to a large sugar-refining industry, while mining has created a demand for quantities of machinery and explosive materials.

The total value of manufactured products increased from $66,000,000 in 1870 to $213,000,000 in 1890 and $302,000,000 in 1900. In the latter year there were over 71,000 men, 17,000 women, and 2000 children under 10 years of age employed in manufacturing, constituting in all 6.1 per cent. of the population. Of the fourteen leading branches of manufacture, five were dependent upon agriculture or horticulture. As a wheat-growing State, California early became an important flour-producer, shipping considerable quantities to China and other foreign countries; but with the change of interest from wheat to fruit, the production of flour has slightly decreased, as will be seen from the table appended above. The canning and preserving of fruit has now become of equal importance, having almost doubled its value during the decade, and placing California first among the fruit-producing States. In the above, some vegetables are also included, such as tomatoes and peas. The manufacture of liquors, also dependent upon agriculture, is developing at an almost equally rapid rate. The high grade of grapes grown has given rise to the manufacture of wines, whose output now exceeds the total of all the other States, being estimated at $3,900,000. But the malt liquors are as yet of greater value, being estimated at over $5,000,000, the large supply of grain and hops giving a special advantage to this industry. Slaughtering is another thriving industry, especially the branch of it which is concerned with meat-packing, this having increased in value from $2,400,000 to $8,200,000. The production of factory butter, etc., although having practically begun during the decade, has already become important. The State ranks second in the production of beet-sugar, the product for 1900 being valued at $3,500,000. Besides this, San Francisco, being the nearest port