Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/207

TEXAS. . Manufacturing was quite unimportant until after 1880. Between that year and 1890 the value of products increased 239.9 per cent., and in the following decade 69.5 per cent.; in 1900 the product was estimated at $119,414,982. In the latter year there were 48,152 persons employed as wage-earners, or 1.6 per cent. of the total population. The industry has the advantage of a very abundant supply of raw materials, the State ranking first in the production of cotton, and having large timber resources and a heavy production of grain. The recent increase in the output of coal also greatly subserves the industry. Texan manufactures dependent upon resources of cotton are peculiar in that they do not include textiles, a branch of the industry which has become prominent in some other Southern States. In the manufacture of cottonseed oil and cake, on the other hand, the State ranks first. The value of products for the latter industry increased 329.3 per cent. between 1890 and 1900. During the last census year there were 24,354,695 gallons of cottonseed oil obtained, or 26.1 per cent. of the total for the United States for that period. Cottonseed meal and cake are extensively used as food for cattle. In the allied industry of cotton-ginning the State also ranks first. The figures given in the table below do not include ginneries operated in connection with saw, grist, and cottonseed-oil mills, or for the use exclusively of plantations on which they are located. The Texas ginneries first introduced the custom of pressing the cotton after ginning into the so-called ‘round bales,’ and this process is becoming very general. The manufacture of flouring and grist mill products is a growing industry, drawing its supply from Oklahoma and the Indian Territory as well as from the large local production. The extensive railroad interests of the State have necessitated a large number of repair shops, employing 2354 wage-earners. The manufacture of saddlery and harness is a thriving industry centred largely in the city of Dallas. Printing and the manufacture of malt liquors and of clay products are other leading industries. Manufacturing is well distributed over that State and there are no prominent centres, the only cities in which the value of products exceeds $10,000,000 being Dallas and Houston. The following table shows the relative importance of the leading industries in the census years indicated:

. There are valuable forests in the eastern part of the State, but to the westward they become inferior and finally give way entirely. While the wooded area is estimated at 64,000 square miles, or 24 per cent. of the total area, the timber upon much of this is fit for little else than fire wood. From Texarkana southward to a point about 100 miles north of Beaumont are forests of short-leaf pine of only moderate quality. From this point southward to Jefferson County is a fine forest of long-leaf pine, having an average stand of merchantable timber ranging from 6000 to 35,000 feet per acre. The lumber industry, which had developed but little prior to 1880, has since made rapid strides. (See table above.) The crop consists almost entirely of yellow pine. The Beaumont and Orange districts are the largest centres of the industry.

. The railroads had developed but little prior to 1870, in which year there were 711 miles. In 1880 the