MANUFACTURES. Prior to 1RS0 the manufac turing industry had been quite insignificant. Its growth has since been rapid. The total value of products increased 90.7 per cent. from 1880 to 1890. and S4 per cent. in the following decade, being estimated in 1900 at $58,748,731. The wage-earners engaged in manufactures in the lat ter year numbered 48.135 (3.6 per cent. of the total population), of whom 8,360 were children under 16 years of age. The State's abundant supply of raw materials, its excellent water power, facilities for transportation, and low cost of living, are greatly to the advantage of the manufacturing industry. The recent development is confined largely to manufactures of cotton. Absolute increase in value of cotton products be tween 1890 and 1900 exceeded that in any other State, and gave South Carolina first rank among the Southern States and second in the Union. In
1900 the amount of cotton used by the local mills was considerably over half the total yield of the State. The manufacture of cottonseed oil and cake also made a marked gain in the decade 1890-1900. The State's supply of phosphate rock and cottonseed meal has given rise to the manu facture of fertilizers, and Charleston is the sec ond largest manufacturing centre of this product in the country. Flour-milling scarcely meets the local demand.
The following table shows the figures for the leading industries: 2289 in 1890, and 2919 in 1900. The railroads are mostly owned or controlled by three large systems—the Southern, the Seaboard Air Line, and the Atlantic Coast Line. A considerable for eign trade, principally exports, passes through the port of Charleston, which ranks tenth among the Atlantic coast ports.