price of labor and the scarcity and consequently high price of fuel. Moreover, the superior advantages offered in mining and agriculture have tended to divert capital from manufacturing. Nevertheless, the value of manufactured products has reached a high figure, being exceeded in but few States. The exceptional resources of field and forest account chiefly for this; but the relation of the State to Hawaii has given rise to a large sugar-refining industry, while mining has created a demand for quantities of machinery and explosive materials.
Comparative Summary of Fourteen Leading Industries
| INDUSTRIES | Year | Number of establishments |
Average number of wage-earners |
Value of products, including custom work and repairing |
| Total for selected industries for State | 1900 | 2,184 | 37,068 | $131,246,019 |
| 1890 | 1,540 | 27,536 | 102,373,233 | |
| Increase, 1890 to 1900 | ...... | 644 | 9,532 | 28,872,786 |
| Per cent. of increase | ...... | 41.8 | 34.6 | 28.2 |
| Per cent. of total of all industries in State | 1900 | 17.4 | 40.7 | 43.3 |
| 1890 | 19.4 | 37.9 | 48.0 | |
| Cars and general shop construction and | 1900 | 29 | 4,920 | 7,553,626 |
| repairs by steam railroad companies | 1890 | 10 | 2,858 | 4,923,071 |
| Lumber and timber products | 1900 | 313 | 5,806 | 13,764,647 |
| 1890 | 258 | 4,689 | 8,794,655 | |
| Lumber, planing-mill products, | 1900 | 136 | 2,022 | 4,807,690 |
| including sash, doors and blinds. | 1890 | 120 | 2,127 | 4,941,466 |
| Printing and publishing, newspapers | 1900 | 512 | 2,683 | 6,858,192 |
| and periodicals | 1890 | 376 | 2,799 | 6,500,445 |
| Foundry and machine-shop products | 1900 | 250 | 4,782 | 12,047,149 |
| 1890 | 154 | 3,192 | 7,767,780 | |
| Explosives | 1900 | 7 | 906 | 4,283,818 |
| 1890 | 4 | 285 | 2,523,770 | |
| Clothing, men's, factory product | 1900 | 96 | 2,410 | 3,869,891 |
| 1890 | 121 | 1,277 | 2,568,921 | |
| Fruits and vegetables, canning | 1900 | 136 | 7,486 | 13,081,829 |
| and preserving | 1890 | 61 | 5,670 | 6,211,440 |
| Flouring and grist mill products | 1900 | 124 | 857 | 13,100,944 |
| 1890 | 101 | 855 | 14,200,320 | |
| Liquors | 1900 | 294 | 1,496 | 9,261,600 |
| 1890 | 201 | 1,477 | 5,596,800 | |
| Cheese, butter, and condensed milk, | 1900 | 178 | 402 | 3,582,942 |
| factory product | 1890 | 19 | 49 | 172,579 |
| Slaughtering | 1900 | 58 | 925 | 15,717,712 |
| 1890 | 50 | 436 | 9,768,858 | |
| Sugar and molasses, refining | 1900 | 6 | 919 | 15,909,998 |
| 1890 | 3 | 723 | 22,673,850 | |
| Leather, tanned, curried, and finished | 1900 | 45 | 1,454 | 7,405,981 |
| 1890 | 62 | 1,099 | 5,729,278 | |
The total value of manufactured products
increased from $66,000,000 in 1870 to $213,000,000
in 1890 and $302,000,000 in 1900. In the latter
year there were over 71,000 men, 17,000 women,
and 2000 children under 10 years of age
employed in manufacturing, constituting in all 6.1
per cent. of the population. Of the fourteen
leading branches of manufacture, five were
dependent upon agriculture or horticulture. As a
wheat-growing State, California early became an
important flour-producer, shipping considerable
quantities to China and other foreign countries;
but with the change of interest from wheat to
fruit, the production of flour has slightly
decreased,
as will be seen from the table appendedabove.
The canning and preserving of fruit has now
become of equal importance, having almost
doubled its value during the decade, and placing
California first among the fruit-producing
States. In the above, some vegetables are also
included, such as tomatoes and peas. The
manufacture of liquors, also dependent upon agriculture,
is developing at an almost equally rapid
rate. The high grade of grapes grown has given
rise to the manufacture of wines, whose output
now exceeds the total of all the other States,
being estimated at $3,900,000. But the malt
liquors are as yet of greater value, being
estimated at over $5,000,000, the large supply of
grain and hops giving a special advantage to
this industry. Slaughtering is another thriving
industry, especially the branch of it which
is concerned with meat-packing, this having
increased in value from $2,400,000 to $8,200,000.
The production of factory butter, etc., although
having practically begun during the decade, has
already become important. The State ranks
second in the production of beet-sugar, the product
for 1900 being valued at $3,500,000.
Besides this, San Francisco, being the nearest port
