from 350,398 in 1850 to 619,000 in 1910. The number of mules
increased steadily from 2259 in 1850 to 43,000 in 1910. The
raising of sheep and swine was of considerably less relative
importance in 1910 than in 1850, there being 1,882,357 sheep and 1,040,366
swine in 1850 and 1,112,000 sheep and 931,000 swine in 1910. The
dairy business is largest in the regions around Philadelphia and
Pittsburg, and in Erie and Bradford counties. Cattle other than
dairy cows as well as horses and sheep are most numerous in the
western counties, in Bradford county on the north border, and in
some of the counties of the south-east. Swine are most numerous
in the south-east and south-west counties. The state ranks high
in the production of potatoes, cabbages, lettuce and turnips, and
it produces large crops of sweet Indian corn, tomatoes, cucumbers,
musk-melons, asparagus and celery. The total value of all vegetables
produced in 1899 was $15,832,904, an amount exceeding that of
any other state except New York. A large portion of the vegetables
are grown in the vicinity of Philadelphia or in the vicinity of Pittsburg.
The culture of tobacco, which was introduced as early as
1689, was a small industry until the middle of the 19th century,
but it then developed rapidly except during a brief interruption
caused by the Mexican War. In 1909 the crop was 30,732,000 lb.
More than two-thirds of the state’s crop of 1899 was produced in
Lancaster county, which is one of the largest tobacco-producing
counties in the United States, and most of the other third was
produced in York, Tioga, Bradford and Clinton counties. Apples,
cherries and pears are the principal orchard fruits. Grapes, peaches,
plums and prunes, apricots, strawberries, raspberries and
loganberries, blackberries and dewberries, currants and gooseberries
are also grown. Orchard fruits are most abundant south-east
of Blue Mountain, and small fruits near the larger cities, but
about two-thirds of the grapes are grown in Erie county.
Floriculture is an important industry in Philadelphia and its vicinity.
The sale of nursery products, more than one-half of which were
grown in Chester and Montgomery counties, amounted in 1899
to $541,032, and although this was less than one-third that of New
York it was exceeded in only three other states.
Minerals.—Pennsylvania is by far the most important coal-producing state in the Union, and as much of the iron ore of the Lake Superior region is brought to its great bituminous coal-field for rendering into pig-iron, the value of the state’s mineral products constitutes a large fraction of the total value for the entire country; in 1907, when the value of the mineral products of the state was $657,783,345, or nearly one-third that of all the United States, and in 1908 when the total for the state was $473,083,212, or more than one-fourth that of the whole United States, more than four-fifths of it was represented by coal and pig-iron. With the exception of two small areas in Colorado and New Mexico, Pennsylvania contains the only anthracite-coal region in the country. This is in the east of the state, and although it has a total area of about 3300 sq. m., its workable measures are mostly in Lackawanna, Luzerne, Carbon, Schuylkill and Northumberland counties in an area of less than 500 sq. m. This coal was discovered as early as 1762 near the site of the present city of Wilkes-Barre and during the War of Independence it was used at Carlisle in the manufacture of war materials, but it was of little commercial importance until early in the next century. In 1815 the output was reported as only 50 tons, but it steadily rose to 74,347,102 tons (valued at $158,178,849) in 1908. Besides having practically all the anthracite, Pennsylvania has the thickest bituminous coal-measures, and most of the coal obtained from these is of the best quality. They form the northern extremity of the great Appalachian coal-field and underlie an area of 15,000 sq. m. or more in the west of the state. The Pittsburg district, comprising the counties of Allegheny, Washington, Fayette and Westmoreland, is exceptionally productive, and the coal in Allegheny and Washington counties is noted for its gas-producing qualities, while in Fayette and Westmoreland counties is obtained the famous Connellsville coking coal. The bituminous coal was first used at nearly the same time as the anthracite and it was first shipped from Pittsburg in 1803. In 1840 the state’s output was 464,826 tons. It increased to 1,000,000 tons in 1850, to 11,760,000 tons in 1875, to 79,842,326 tons in 1900, to 150,143,177 tons in 1907; and was 117,179,527 tons in 1908, when it was 35·2% of that of the entire country and was valued at $118,816,303. In 1880 the output of coal (anthracite and bituminous) in Pennsylvania was 66% of that of the entire country; in 1908 it was 48·2%; but in the latter year the Pennsylvania mines produced more coal than the combined production of all the countries of the world excepting Great Britain, Germany and Austria-Hungary, and it was nearly four times as much as the total mined in Austria, nearly five times as much as that mined in France, and seven times as much as the output of Russia in that year. Extending from the south-west corner of the state through Greene, Washington, Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Venango, Clarion, Forest, Elk, Warren, McKean and Tioga counties is the Pennsylvania section of the Appalachian oil-field which, with the small section in New York, furnished nearly all of the country’s supply of petroleum for some years following the discovery of its value for illuminating purposes. The mineral was made known to white men by the Indians, who sold it, under the name of Seneca oil, as a cure for various ills, and burned it at some of their ceremonies. The early settlers in west Pennsylvania also found that some unknown people had dug pits several feet in depth around the oil springs apparently for the purpose of collecting the oil. But it was not until the middle of the 19th century that its value as an illuminating oil became known, and not until 1859 was the first petroleum well drilled. This was the Drake well, on the flats of Oil Creek at Titusville; it was about 70 ft. in depth, and when 25 barrels were pumped from it in a day its production was considered enormous. By the close of 1861 wells had been drilled from which 2000 to 3000 barrels flowed in a day without pumping, and the state’s yearly output continued to increase until 1891, when it amounted to 31,424,206 barrels. Since then, however, wells have been going dry, and when, in 1895, the output fell to 19,144,390 barrels it was exceeded by that of Ohio. It went down quite steadily to 9,424,325 in 1908, and in that year Pennsylvania was out-ranked as an oil-producing state by Oklahoma, California, Illinois, Texas and Ohio. In drilling for some of the first oil wells gas escaped, and in a few instances this was used as a fuel for generating steam in the boilers of the drilling-engines. In some instances, too, wells which were drilled for oil produced only gas. A little later, about 1868, successful experiments were made with gas as a manufacturing fuel, and in 1872 the gas industry was fairly well established near Titusville by drilling a well and piping the gas for consumption both as fuel and light. The value of the state’s output increased from approximately $75,000 in 1882 to approximately $19,282,000 in 1888, and the total value of its output during these and the intervening years was more than 80% that of all the United States. The industry then became of greater importance in several other states and declined in Pennsylvania until in 1896 the value of Pennsylvania’s product amounted to only $5,528,610, or 42·5% of that of the United States. This temporary decline was, however, followed by a rather steady rise and in 1908 the output was valued at $19,104,944, which was still far in excess of that of any other state and nearly 35% of that of the entire country. The gas region has an area of about 15,000 sq. m. and embraces about all of the Pennsylvania section of the Alleghany plateau except a narrow belt along its east and south-east border. There are deposits of various kinds of iron ore in the eastern, south-eastern, middle and some of the western counties, and from the middle of the 18th century until near the close of the 19th Pennsylvania ranked high among the iron-ore-producing states. As late as 1880 it ranked first, with a product amounting to 1,951,496 long tons. But the state’s iron foundries moved rapidly westward after the first successful experiments in making pig-iron with bituminous coal, in 1845, and the discovery, a few years later, that rich ore could be obtained there at less cost from the Lake Superior region resulted in a decline of iron-mining within the state until, in 1902, the product amounted to only 822,932 long tons, 72·2% of which was magnetite ore from the Cornwall mines in Lebanon county which have been among the largest producers of this kind of ore since the erection of the Cornwall furnace in 1742. In 1908 the entire iron-ore product of the state, amounting to 443,161 long tons, was not 1·3% of that of the United States, but the production of the magnetite-ore alone (343,998 long tons) was more than one-fifth that of all the United States. In the manufacture of pig-iron Pennsylvania is easily first among the states, with a product value in 1908 of $111,385,000, nearly 43·8% of that of the entire country. Pennsylvania has extensive areas of limestone rock suitable for making cement, and in Northampton and Lehigh counties enormous quantities of it are used in this industry. Natural-rock cement was first made in the state soon after the discovery, in 1831, of deposits of cement rock near Williamsport, Lycoming county, and the industry was greatly promoted in 1850 when the vast deposits in the lower Lehigh Valley were discovered and large quantities of cement were required in the rebuilding of the Lehigh Canal. Competition produced in Lehigh county the first successful Portland cement plant in the United States in 1870. The output of the natural-rock cement continued greater than that of the Portland until 1896, but for the succeeding ten years the enormous development of the cement industry was almost entirely in the Portland branch, its production in the state increasing from 825,054 barrels in 1896 to 8,770,454 barrels in 1902, and to 18,254,806 barrels (valued at $13,899,807) in 1908, when it was more than 30% of that of the United States. The production of natural-rock cement was 608,000 barrels in 1896 and only 252,479 barrels (valued at $87,192) in 1908. Limestones and dolomites suitable for building purposes are obtained chiefly in Montgomery, Chester and Lancaster counties, and even these are generally rejected for ornamental work on account of their colour, which is usually bluish, grey or mottled. However until increased facilities of transport brought more desirable stones into competition they were used extensively in Philadelphia and with them the main building of Girard College and the United States Naval Asylum were erected and the long rows of red-brick residences were trimmed. There are limestone quarries in nearly two-thirds of the counties and great quantities of the stone are used for flux in the iron furnaces, for making quicklime, for railway ballast and for road making. The total value of the limestone output in 1908 amounted to $4,057,471, and the total value of all stone quarried was $6,371,152. In Dauphin county is a quarry of bluish-brown Triassic sandstone that has been used extensively
