The most important branch of the button industry was the manufacture of pearl buttons, either from mother of pearl or ocean pearl or from the shells of the Unios or fresh-water pearl.
In 1914 there were manufactured 26,181,405 gross of pearl buttons, with a value of $7,369, M, representing 432 per cent of the total quan tity and 45.4 per cent of the total value. Of this amount, 21,664,436 gross, valued at $4,879, 844, were made from fresh-water pearl and 4,516,969 gross, valued at $2,489,364, from mother of pearl or ocean pearl.
Next in importance was the manufacture of buttons from vegetable ivory the output of this kind amounting to 5,128,005 gross, valued at $2,885,503, or 8.5 and 17.8 per cent of the total in quantity and value, respectively.
The others of the more important classes in point of value were covered buttons, $1,600,178; celluloid, $724,354; shoe, $610,796; bone, $329, 934; horn, $299,487; and ivory, $283,484. In addition various other kinds and parts, having a total value of $2,130,254, were manufactured.
Of the 517 factories reporting in 1914, there were 224 located in New York, 81 in Iowa, 60 in New Jersey, 31 in Illinois, 21 in Pennsyl vania, 18 in Connecticut, 14 in Massachusetts, 12 in Indiana, 9 each in California, Missouri and Ohio, 5 in Arkansas, 4 in Kentucky, 3 each in Minnesota and Washington, 2 each in Michi gan, Rhode Island, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wisconsin, and 1 each in Colorado, Kan sas, New Hampshire and Oregon.
Statistics compiled in July 1916 by the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce showed that American export trade in but tons indicated an increase of 79 per cent and prospects of further advancement. This was owing to the fact that the normal European production of buttons, the largest in the world, was curtailed by the war. Under usual con ditions the United States manufactures enough to meet about nine-tenths of its own require ments and more than half the supply of Can ada, which has some factories of its own, and ranks next to the European nations in produc tion. The American export trade in buttons
amounting to $654,372 in 1914, more than half of which was with Canada, expanded to $1, 171,232 in 1915, with England, Canada, Aus tralia and Cuba the largest purchasers. The bibliography of the button industry is varied and interesting: Consult 'The Button Industry in Europe'— Consular Reports Vol. 58, pp. 481 91 (Washington D. C., 1898) ; 'The Emilio Collection of Military Buttons, American, British, French and Spanish, with some other countries' (Essex Institute, Salem, Mass., 1911) ; Rathbone, R. L. B., 'Buttons,' Art Journal, Vol. 71, pp. 7-14 (London 1909) ; Smith, H. W., (The Pearl-Button Industry of the Mississippi River,' Scientific American, Vol. 81, pp. 86-87 (New York 1899) ; Petrie, W. F., 'Buttons from Egypt,' Antiquary, Vol. 32, pp. 134-37 (London 1896); Skeel, R., Jr., 'Cov ered and Celluloid Button Factories in New York City,' New York Commission Report (Albany 1915) ; 'Art in Buttons'— German American Button Company (Rochester 1906 16).
or a North American shrub (Cephalanthus occidentalis) of the madder family, which grows in wet places, and bears extremely fragrant flowers whose small florets are folded or packed into balls, while long styles and capitate stigmas remind us of pins stuck in a cushion' a small quail-like bird of the genus Turnix, family Turnicidce, order Hemipodii, of which there are some 20 species in various parts of the Old World, some of which are termed bustard-quail, bush-quail, ortygan and hemipode. They frequent wooded places and afford good sport for the gunner. The females, as well as the males, are brightly colored. They are one of the smallest game birds known, inhabit woody places and feed generally on berries and insects.