Nursery products, flowers and other ornamental plants arc in considerable quantities, the annual value being approximately $650,000. The small fruits — strawberries, raspberries, etc.— average about 470,000 quarts with a value of $44,000. The apple crop is valued at about $150,000 annually; while other orchard fruits are placed at $50,000. In a good season the grape crop brings about $10,000. According to present official returns Rhode Island farms have 10,000 horses worth $1,455,000; 23,000 dairy cows worth $1,663,000; 11,000 other cattle worth $295,000; 7,000 sheep worth $36,000. 15,000 swine worth $202,000; dairy products sold in 1915 were valued at $2,600,000.
Manufactures.— The leading industries are the manufacture of cotton and woolen goods. fine tools, machinery, silverware and jewelry. Rhode Island is the parent Stare of cotton spinning in America. English laws forbade anyone making a model or drawing of English cotton machinery and sending it out of the country. Samuel Slater, an apprentice to cot tonspinning under Strutt, partner of Arkwright, the great Inventor of spinning machinery, mas tered the improvements on which he was em ployed, and came to the United States. Moses Brown invited him to Rhode Island. Slater went, and with the aid of Moses Brown's wealth, he succeeded in producing by the close of 1790, at Pawtucket. R. I. cotton-yarn equal to the best made in Englanct Cotton-spinning became a great Rhode Island industry, and continued to be the leading industry until the attention of manufacturers was turned largely to woolens and worsteds. The dyeing and fin ishing of textiles, the silk and silk goods in dustry and the manufacture of rubber boots and shoes and of electrical apparatus are also among the important and growing industries of the State. In the manufacture of the cheaper quality of jewelry Rhode Island stands first in the United States. In solid silverware the State has no superior. The iron industries are flour ishing and include locomotives, engines, screws — the gimlet-pointed screw being a Rhode Island invention — and all varieties of metal tools. According to the Federal census returns of manufacturing establishments in the State in 1914, the capital invested in manufacturing industries amounted to $308,444,563 in 2,190 establishments; there were 1,883 proprietors or firm members, 8,801 clerks or so-called salaried employees, and 113,425 wage-earners. The
raw materials were valued at $162,425,219, and the output at $279,545,873. The dyeing and finishing of textiles with an average of 7,928 wage-earners and an output valued at $16,300, 783 in 1914 ranks fourth compared with other i industries in the State. Rhode Island ranks fifth among the States in the production of cot ton goods, third in woolen and worsted goods, sixth in silk and silk goods and fifteenth in hosiery and knit goods. The cotton mills of the State had in 1914, 2,574,942 spindles, con suming 122,403,247 pounds of cotton valued at $17,813,655.
Banks.— The Providence National founded in 1791, is the oldest Rhode banks. The Providence Insitution for Savings dates from 1819. In the year ending 30June 1917 there were 17 national banks in the State, three State banks, 15 savings banks, 13 trust companies and 13 branches. The savings banks had 161,470 depositors with $92,769,759 to their credit, being $574.53 to each depositor.
Fisheries.— Oysters, lobsters, scup, men haden and squinteague are the most important products of the fisheries, which employ about 1,500 persons and approach in value about $1, 600,000 annually. About $1,500,000 is invested in the industry. In former years the flats along the bayside produced the clam in abundance which, when baked in the proper way, or the Rhode Island way, is the most delicious of sea foods. The °Rhode Island Clam Bakex' is a State institution known the world over. While clams are not as plenty now as formerly, the supply is sufficient for many years yet to come. The fisheries of Narragansett Bay were men aced for a number of years by the lack of a proper method of sewage disposal, but the city of Providence at a very great expense has pro vided a system of clarifying the sewage and this evil has been entirely removed. The total annual product of the lobster fisheries, accord ing to the latest available data, was 1,425,000 pounds, valued at $152,000. This branch of the fisheries has been the especial study of the Commission on Inland Fisheries which, after many experiments, has devised a method of rearing young lobsters until they become able to take care of themselves, thus making it pos sible to increase greatly the number of lob sters inhabiting the waters of the State.