is the most con siderable interest, the value of the product of 1917 being estimated at $200.0150.000, an in crease of $158.973,000 over 1900. Dairy prod ucts have grown from $1,900,000 in 1900 to 000,000 in 1917, and, in the same period, poultry from $2,000,000 to $13,000,000, and orchard fruits from $2,663,000 to $7,000,000. Corn is the great Virginia crop. VVheat has moved up to. second place from fourth, changing places with tobacco. Crop products and their value for 1917 (the value of the 1900 prbduct in each case known is given in parentheses, for com parison) as estimated by the Commissioner of Agriculture are : Corn, 66,700,000 bushels, value $100,000,000 ($16,300,000) ; wheat, 19,300,000 bushels, value $38,600,000 ($6,200,000); potatoes, 17,300,000 bushels, value $33,000,000 ($2,500, 000) ; tobacco, value $32,000,000 ($7,670,000) ; peanuts, value $7,000,000 ($2,261,000); oats, 5,000,000 bushels, value $3,000,000 ($1,104,000) ; rye, 1,000,000 bushels, value $2,500,000; buck wheat, 500,000 bushels, value $625,000; all trucks, value $15,000,000 ($5,000,000) ; miscel laneous, value $11,000,000 ($470,000).
The product of fish and oysters reached the value of approximately $18,000,000 in 1917. Attention to oyster planting yielded an enormous increase of food. The value of fish and oysters in 1900 was $7,000,000.
Atanufactures.—In 1916, 2,793 manufactur ing plants in 53 industries reported to the Virginia bureau of labor and industrial statis tics. Capital, $183,063,795.43; wages, $62,504, 658.75; persons employed, 132,934; value of product, $379,529,528.04. This summary in cludes the production of coal and coke but not the capital invested nor the wages paid. The industries with products valued at more than $3,000,000 annually were: Iron and machinery, F ,905,517.39; tobacco stemmers and rehandlers, ,672,814.80; cigars, cigarettes and cheroots, 17,808,239.53; cotton tnills, $16,322,036.07; tan neries, $16,208,548.86; peanut factories and coffee roasters, $14,873,579.59; flour mills, $14, 064,076.30; coal and coke, $11,539,641.57; paper and pulp mills, $10,881,349.98; tobacco factories, $10,056,714.14; woodenware, baskets, boxes and shooks, $9,359,171.92; boots and shoes, $6,152, 066.30; overalls and shirts, $4,676,61)5.11; sash, doors and blinds, $4,602,140.61; printing. en graving and binding, $4,235,746.19; knitting mills, $4,138,526.18; trunk and bag factories, $3,237,508.69, and artificial ice, $3,101,367.60. Stable labor conditions, much raw material, in cluding the best of steam coal, abundant water power and almost unsurpassed transportation facilities by rail and water are favorable.
Tobacco Industry.— Tobacco. became the most important industry in Virginia in the first decade of the colony; at the beginning of the fourth (1642) it had become the sole legal tender currency. It has always ranIced near the top
of Virginia staples. In 1916 it was second; in 1917 the fourth, corn, wheat and potatoes hav ing first, second and third places. The value of the product in 1917 was $32,500,000 ($18,863,000 in 1916). Danville, Lynchburg and Ric.hmond are the largest tobacco markets in Virginia.and among the largest in the United States.
Forest Products.— Accorcling to the best available information the total amount of mer chantable timber in the State is aPproximately 30,000,000,000 board feet, of which about 11,000, 000,000 are oak, principally white, red, black and chestnut oak About 9,000,000,000 board feet are yellow pine, mostly short leaf and loblolly, and the remainder chestnut, yellow poplar, maple, beech, sweet gum, hicicory, bass wood, hemlock, white pine, cypress, black. gum, black locust and black walnut, approximately in the order named In the coastal plain the tim bered areas and cleared areas are about equal in extent. The dominating species. is loblolly pine (Pinta taeda), with oaks, sweet gum, cypress, yellow poplar and hickory. There are considerable areas of white cedar and iuniper in the Dismal Swamp section. In the Piedmont plateau probably rather more than half of the area is wooded, the typical timber being a mix ture of yellow pine and hardwoods, the hard woods predominating except on lands that were formerly cultivated. The yellow pine is chiefly short leaf (Pima echiasta), with considerable amounts of loblolly pint on the eastern edge of the region. The hardwoods are the various oaks, hickory, yellow poplar, chestnut and some maples. There are still considerable areas of practically virgin timber in the more inacces sible parts of the mountains.
were, in 1916, 26 steam railways with operating revennes ex ceeding $100,000 a year, and 20 with operating revenues under that total, with an aggregate mileage in Virginia of 4,777.61. The long.est of these siithin the State are the Norfolk and Western, 1,176.78 miles; Southern, 884.78; Chesapealce and Ohio, 783.50; the Virginia Rail.. way Company, 333.51. Other important rail ways are the Seaboard Air Line, Atlantic Coast Line, the Virginia and Southwestern, the Nor. folk Southern; the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio; the New York, Philadelphia and Nor folk; the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac, and the Louisville and Nashville Railway. Communication witb every section of the State and with every leading port and city is ample. and is expanding as increased facili ties are required. Mileage of electric railways in the State in 1916 was 486.9. In tidewater Virginia the waterways are a vast means of transportation.