A NUFACTURES. West Virginia has a good basis for the development of the manufacturing industry. The value of the State's manufactured products increased 91.7 per cent. between 1890 and 1900, being estimated in the latter yea• at 871,177,681. There were 33.08.5 persons engaged in the industry. or 3.5 per cent, of the population. The iron and steel industry ranks first and rep resented the largest ib'olute gain of any indus try between 1890 and 1900. The iron and steel manufacture is con fined to Wheeling and its vicinity, where it has the advantage of natural gas as a fuel and is conveniently near the Pitt.s bun•g manufaeturing district. The State claims to have had the first rolling mill set up west of the Alleghanies. '1'he closely allied foundry and machine-shop industry has bad a rapid recent growth. In the manufacture of coke the State ranks second, and the Flat Top district, in the southern part of the State, is the second most important coking region in the United States. The availability of natural gas has led to a thriving glasv,-manufacturing industry. There was it significant development between 1890 and 1900 in the manufacture of pottery, terra-cotta, and fire-clay products in the region adjacent to East Liverpool, Ohio. Flour and grist milling
shares in the State's general industrial progress. The extensive oak and hemlock forests furnish bark for tanning and a thriving leather indus try has recently developed.
The following table shows, the industrial status according to census reports: by the development of the railroads. There are three trunk lines traversing the State from east to west—the Chesapeake and Ohio, the Baltimore and Ohio, and the Norfolk and Western. The Chesapeake and Ohio, built in 1872, and extended to Cincinnati in 1888, forms an outlet for the vast deposits of bituminous coal in the region drained by the New and the Great Kanawha rivers, while the building of the Norfolk and Western in 1884 made possible the exploitation of the coal fields in the extreme southern part of the State. in 1902 five railroads in all had extended their lines into the different coal re gions of the State. The rapid development of the railroads is disclosed by the fact that a mile age of 1847 in 1894 had increased to a mileage of more than 3500 in 1902. Additional lines aggregating 1000 miles in length are projected.