crops at normal prices and affords no possibility of irrigation. A
total of 40,000,000 ac. is absolute desert. It is estimated that
200,000,000 ac. of forest, “cut-over” land, and woodland including
that in farms, could be used for crops after clearing. This, if divided
into farms averaging 160 ac., would provide 1,250,000 farms, or an
addition of about 20% to the number of farms in the country.
Moreover, 60,000,000 ac. of swamp land can be drained, and 30,000,000
ac. of potentially irrigable land can be converted into farms if
available sources of water supply are fully utilized. In all there are
about 850,000,000 ac. of land at present in crops and potentially
available. A little over 1,000,000,000 ac. of non-arable land
consist of 360,000,000 ac. of absolute forest land, 615,000,000 ac. of
grazing land, 40,000,000 ac. desert land and 40,000,000 ac. in cities,
roads and railway rights of way. It is also estimated that 360,000,000
ac. of forests will not be sufficient to supply a population of
150,000,000, but that 450,000,000 ac. will be needed for that
number. To provide food, therefore, more intensive methods of farming
will be required. For corn the average yield per ac. in the five
years 1900-4 was 24.2 bus., and in 1915-9, 26.3 bushels. The
yields for wheat were 13.4 and 14.3 bus.; for oats 31 and 33.7 bus.;
and for barley 25.7 and 25.6 bus., respectively, for the two periods.
(See also the section Agriculture.)
Manufactures.—A census of manufactures was taken for 1914 and another for 1919. The results of the latter had not been fully published by Jan. 1922. The manufacturing industries as a whole did not increase so rapidly in the five-year period 190914 as in the previous five years, but showed great increase in the next five, ending in 1919 (preliminary figures). This is seen from Table 11.
Table 11. Manufactures.
| Establishments | Wage-earners | Value of products |
Value added by manufacture | |
| 1904 | 216,180 | 5,468,383 | $14,793,903,000 | $6,293,695,000 |
| 1909 | 268,491 | 6,615,046 | 20,672,052,000 | 8,529,261,000 |
| 1914 | 275,791 | 7,036,337 | 24,246,435,000 | 9,878,346,000 |
| 1919 | 288,376 | 9,103,200 | 62,910,202,000 | .. |
| Increase | Increase | Increase | Increase | |
| 1904-9 | 24.0% | 21.0% | 39.7% | 35.5% |
| 1909-14 | 2.8% | 6.4% | 17.3% | 15.8% |
| 1914-9 | 5.0% | 29.4% | 159.0% | .. |
Arranged by the 14 general groups of industries according to the classification of the Bureau of Census, Table 12 shows numbers of wage-earners and capital invested.
Table 12. Groups of Industries.
| Group | Wage-earners | Capital in millions of dollars | ||
| 1914 | 1909 | 1914 | 1909 | |
| Food and kindred products | 496,234 | 411,575 | 2,174 | 1,697 |
| Textiles and their products | 1,498,664 | 1,438,446 | 2,811 | 2,488 |
| Iron and steel and their products | 1,061,058 | 1,026,553 | 4,282 | 3,579 |
| Lumber and its remanufactures | 833,529 | 911,593 | 1,723 | 1,570 |
| Leather and its finished products | 307,060 | 309,766 | 743 | 659 |
| Paper and printing | 452,900 | 415,990 | 1,433 | 1,134 |
| Liquors and beverages | 88,152 | 77,827 | 1,016 | 874 |
| Chemicals and allied products | 299,569 | 267,261 | 3,034 | 2,167 |
| Stone, clay and glass products | 334,702 | 342,827 | 987 | 858 |
| Metals and metal products other than iron and steel | 262,154 | 249,607 | 1,014 | 867 |
| Tobacco manufactures | 178,872 | 166,810 | 304 | 246 |
| Vehicles for land transportation | 263,076 | 202,719 | 803 | 521 |
| Railway repair shops | 365,902 | 304,592 | 418 | 277 |
| Miscellaneous | 594,465 | 489,480 | 2,048 | 1,490 |
| All industries | 7,036,337 | 6,615,046 | 22,791 | 18,428 |
The industrial group having the largest number of wage-earners in 1914 was the textile, but the iron and steel was first in capital invested; although the chemicals and allied products group had only 4% of the wage-earners, it was credited with 13% of the total capital; leather and its finished products, which employed 4% of the wage-earners, had less than 4% of the capital.
Table 13 shows the distribution of manufactures in 1909 and 1914 by the three geographic divisions—North (New England, Middle Atlantic, and East and West North Central states), South (South Atlantic, and East and West South Central states), and West (Mountain and Pacific states).
Table 13. Geography of Industries.
| Section | No. of wage-earners |
Capital (millions of dollars) |
Value of product (millions of dollars) |
Per cent increase | |||
| 1914 | 1909 | 1914 | 1909 | 1914 | 1909 | ||
| North | 5,558,049 | 5,197,138 | 18,122 | 14,278 | 19,555 | 16,827 | 16.2 |
| South | 1,161,660 | 1,129,307 | 3,046 | 2,502 | 3,186 | 2,637 | 20.8 |
| West | 316,628 | 288,601 | 1,623 | 1,197 | 1,505 | 1,208 | 24.7 |
In 1914 the North manufactured 81.2% of the product according to value; the South, 12.8%; and the West, 5.9%. New York retained in 1914 first place among the states in manufactures, producing 15.7% of the total value of the product; Pennsylvania was second with 11.7%, followed by Ohio and Massachusetts. Manufacturing establishments as a rule are in large cities. In 1914 cities with a pop. of 100,000 and over, having 24% of the total pop., had 40% of the wage-earners who manufactured 43% of the value of the total production. Ten cities, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, St. Louis, Cleveland, Boston, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and Milwaukee, with a combined pop. of approximately 13,473,000, or nearly 14% of the total pop., manufactured 25% of the total product value. Districts outside cities having a pop. of 10,000 or over and having 61% of the total pop., had only 33% of the wage-earners, and manufactured only 30% of the total production. Some manufacturing industries tend toward local concentration: for example in 1914, measured by value of product, Michigan produced 62.9% of all the products of the automobile industry in the United States; Massachusetts 43% of the boot and shoe industry; Connecticut 43% of brass, bronze and copper products, and 62% of fire-arms and ammunition; California 25% of canning and preserving products; Illinois 40% of the agricultural implement industry; New York 43% of men's clothing, 73% of women's clothing, 96% of men's collars and cuffs, and 59% of leather gloves and mittens.
Preliminary figures for the census of 1919 showed for value of product an increase of nearly 160% over 1914. This remarkable gain is far in excess of that of any previous five-year or even that of any 10-year period. Table 14 shows the specific industries, which in 1919 manufactured a product valued at more than $500,000,000.
Complete data were not yet available in Jan. 1922 to show how far the increases shown in Table 14 were due to higher prices and how far due to greater volume of production. To illustrate this distinction the following figures are taken from the preliminary bulletins of the Bureau of Census, to show quantity production in 1914 and 1919 with respective values at each date. In the silk industry there was manufactured in 1914 242,000,000 yd. of broad silk, and in 1919, 307,000,000 yd.; the value more than trebled in the period, from $137,720,000 to $435,935,000. Pig-iron production increased in quantity from 23,269,000 tons to 30,543,000 tons, or 31%, and in value 151%; coke from 22,788,000 tons to 30,097,000 tons and in value more than doubled, from $304,234,000 to $770,101,000; window glass decreased in quantity from 401,000,000 sq. ft. to 369,000,000 sq. ft., but the value more than doubled, increasing from $17,496,000 to $41,106,000. Oil-cloth and linoleum also decreased in quantity from 127,038,000 sq. yd. to 125,448,000 sq. yd., but increased in value from $25,598,000 to $68,110,000. Fertilizers decreased in quantity from 8,432,000 tons to 8,291,000 tons, but gained in value from $153,000,000 to $280,000,000. In quantity, sole leather increased from 18,075,500 sides to 19,715,800 sides, and in value from $116,188,000 to $218,830,000. In food products lard increased in quantity from 1,119,189,000 lb. to 1,372,550,000 lb., and in value more than trebled, $120,414,000 to $415,817,000; condensed and evaporated milk increased from 884,647,000 lb. to 2,096,973,000 lb., and in value from $59,375,000 to $293,569,000; beet sugar decreased in quantity from 1,486,948,000 lb. to 1,426,890,000 lb., but increased in value from $58,590,000 to $138,100,000; cleaned rice increased in quantity from 674,872,000 lb. to 1,062,813,000 lb. and in value from $21,655,000 to $83,462,000; wheat flour increased from 116,403,770 bar. to 132,478,513 bar. and in value from $543,840,000 to $1,436,589,000. The growing demand for automobiles greatly expanded not only their manufacture but also the refining of petroleum, and the rubber industry. The number of passenger cars manufactured in 1919 was 1,657,000 as compared with 569,000 in 1914 for all motor vehicles. The petroleum refining industry showed a phenomenal development. The output of gasoline increased in five years from 1,195,000,000 gal. to 3,637,000,000 gallons. The increase in quantity was 204% and in value 540%. In 1919 the refineries used 358,000,000 bar. of crude petroleum of which 38,000,000 was of foreign origin and 320,000,000 domestic. The manufacture of rubber goods greatly expanded. Two-thirds of the value in 1919 was represented by tires. The maximum production of lumber was reached in 1908, 42,000,000,000 ft.; in 1918 it was 32,000,000,000 ft., the decline being due to the
