| INDUSTRIES | Year | Number of establishments |
Average number wage-earners |
Value of products, including custom work and repairing |
Rank among the States | |||
|
1900 | 82 | 13,062 | $16,194,850 | Third | |||
| 1890 | 46 | 8,585 | 9,046,025 | |||||
|
1900 | 354 | 14,481 | 23,643,245 | First | |||
| 1890 | 415 | 13,211 | 23,539,011 | |||||
|
1900 | 101 | 5,381 | 20,917,726 | First | |||
| 1890 | 94 | 3,970 | 18,716,683 | |||||
|
1900 | 4 | 2,629 | 27,184,524 | Third | |||
| 1890 | 9 | 3,096 | 25,786,841 | |||||
|
1900 | 179 | 9,268 | 26,715,628 | First | |||
| 1890 | 153 | 5,339 | 14,192,240 | |||||
of the total State output is accredited to New York City, but this output includes many industries of only local concern, such as the manufacture of gas and of bread and other food preparations, carpentering, plumbing, tinsmithing, and masonry work. In the different branches of the clothing and garment industry, New York City and other towns of the State produce more than a third of the output of the United States. The production of men's and women's factory-made clothing is largely confined to the metropolis. The work is generally performed in small workshops or tenement rooms. This system grows out of the necessity for specialization owing to the large number of patterns used, and is favored by the abundance of cheap labor available where there are such large numbers of foreigners unable to secure more profitable employment. This branch of industry is of comparatively recent development. Troy shares with New York in the extensive production of men's furnishing goods—shirts, neckwear, etc. Millinery and lace goods and silk and silk goods are New York City products, the last having suffered a large decline from 1890 to 1900 owing to the removal of establishments, in quest of cheaper rents and certain other advantages, to points outside the State. Yonkers is the centre of a large knitting industry, and Cohoes and Utica are noted for their carpet and rug manufactures. The manufacture of fur goods in New York City, and of boots and shoes at different points, is extensive. Tanning and the manufacture of leather are also very important.
While the iron and steel industry is of comparatively small and decreasing importance, the foundry and machine-shop industry is rapidly developing, and in 1900 gave the State second rank. The printing press and steam engine are the best known of these products. The industry is well represented at most of the large centres. New York is unrivaled in the manufacture of electrical apparatus and musical instruments. Especially prominent are the manufactures of refined sugar and molasses, roasted and ground coffee and spice, confectionery, patent medicine, tobacco, and liquors—most of which are produced almost wholly in New York City. Flour and grist milling, slaughtering and meat-packing, and the factory production of cheese, butter, and condensed milk, are more generally distributed over the State. In the first-named industry the State ranks second. On the opening of the Erie Canal, Rochester, being favored with water power from the falls of the Genesee River, became the leading ‘flour city’ of the United States, and New York held first place until the comparatively recent development of the industry at Minneapolis. Between 1890 and 1900 both the flouring and slaughtering industries declined. The factory production of cheese, butter, and condensed milk, on the contrary, increased during that period nearly 85 per cent., and the State continues to hold first rank in this line. The manufacture of chemicals, including paints and varnishes, has attained large proportions in New York City. The printing industry of New York is more than twice that of any other State, and the metropolis is the centre of the periodical press as well as of book publishing. New York has long ranked as one of the foremost States in the brewing industry. The preceding table is a summary for the leading industries.
Commerce and Transportation. In maritime commerce New York far outranks any other State in the Union. In the fiscal year ending June 30, 1901, 64 per cent. of the imports and 35.60 per cent. of the exports of the entire nation passed through the port of New York. Its traffic to and from other United States coast points is between two and three times the volume of its foreign trade. In addition it has a vast trade along the Hudson. Buffalo is the chief lake port of the State, and has an immense commerce with the West. With this commerce may be included that of Tonawanda. Oswego is the principal port on Lake Ontario. Other important shipping points are: Charlotte, Sodus Point, Fair Haven, and Cape Vincent on Lake Ontario, Ogdensburg on the Saint Lawrence River, Rouses Point, Plattsburg, and Whitehall on Lake Champlain, and Newburgh and Rondout on the Hudson River. The total traffic for the entire State can best be noted in connection with the means of inland transportation.
New York was the first State to enter actively on the work of canal construction. In addition to the Erie Canal, opened in 1825, the State has constructed the Champlain Canal, the Oswego Canal, and several other branch canals, and enlarged the Erie Canal to four times its original dimensions. The total expenditure on canal construction has been nearly $100,000,000. In recent years, owing to railroad competition and the neglect of the State to improve the canals, the traffic on them has declined, most of the branch canals have been abandoned, and only on the Erie and Champlain routes is there any considerable tonnage. Proposed plans for the enlargement of the Erie Canal constitute a most important question for the State.
The first railroad in the State was the Mohawk and Hudson, opened in 1831 from Albany to Schenectady, a distance of seventeen miles. By 1842 there were lines extending from Albany to Buffalo. Within another decade the Erie road across the southern part of the State and the Hudson River road from New York to Albany had been completed. Since then roads have been built over every section of the State, and the
