The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-11
MORE IMPORTS
 FROM TROPICS Total of S6OO,OOO,OO In Value Has Been Reached
SUGAR IS GREATEST ITEM
Tropical Imports Have Practically Trebled in Twenty Years, and Nearly All the Biggest
 Items Are for Food.

Washington, November 10-(Special) J. The growing dependence of the United States upon the tropics for material for use in its factories and on the tables of It's people is illustrated by some figures just prepared by the bureau of statistics of the department of commerce and labor. The imports of tropical and subtropical products amounted to 21S million dollars in 1885, 303 millions in 1895, and 50S mil lions in 1905: and will exceed 600 million dollars in the calendar year 1907. Part of this large and growing importation from the tropical and subtropical coun- tries is for use in the workshops of the United States, while another portion forms an important part of the food sup ply of the people of the country. India rubber, hbers, raw silk, raw cotton, and part of the raw wool brought into the United States for use in the factories originates in the tropical or subtropical sections of the world; while the coffee, cacao, tea, spices, rice, and large part of the sugar and fruits and nuts also orig mate in the tropics.
 Practically all of the articles of trop- ical production imported show an in- crease in 1907 over the figures of the preceding years, most of them in both quantity and value, though in some cases the increased value Is due to an ad- vance in price rather than an increase in quantity.
 Foodstuffs form approximately one half of this large total of material drawn from the tropics for use of the people of the United States. The United States is a larger user of cane sugar than any other country of the world, and this article is of course, entirely of tropical or subtropical production. It's people also consume larger quantity of cof- fee than those of any other country, and this article Is exclusively of trop- cal origin. Of cocao the importations are rapidly growing and now exceed in value the importations of tea.
 A large increase in the importation and use of cacao has developed only in recent years The quantity of cacao inn ported decade ago. in the fiscal year 1897, was but 31 million pounds. while in the fiscal year 1907 it was 92 mil lion pounds; the value having grown from about million dollars in 1897 to over 13 millions In 1907. In 1897 the value of cacao imported was but about one fourth that of tea in 1907 it fell but a few thousand dollars below that of tea, and in the nine months ending with September, 1907 exceeds the value of tea imports by more than 1 million dol lars. The total value of cacao in the crude state imported in the nine months ending with September was 11A million dollars, against GA millions in the same months of 1906
 The coffee imports in the nine months ending with September. 1907, amount to practically 50 million dollars in value. against a little more than 46 millions in the same months of 1906; and the quantity imported in the nine .,ft tIA fa 732 million pounds. against 592 millions in the same months of the preceding year. Of tea, the importations in the nine months ending with September, 1907, amounted in value to 101a mill lion dollars, against 9h millions in the corresponding months of 1908, the quantity imported in the nine months of 1907 being 63 million pounds, against 60 millions in the same months of the preceding year.
 Cane sugar brought into the United States amounted to 112 million dol lars in the nine months ending with September 1907. against 9S@ millions in the same months of last year; the quantity brought in being 4733 million pounds. against 4133 millions in the corresponding period of last year. These figures include the sugar from Porto Rico, Hawaii and the Philippine Islands; that from Porto Rico and Ha- waii being no longer included in the official returns of imports from for eign countries by reason of the fact that both those islands are now GUS toms districts of the United States, but their product may be properly consid- cred in discussion of the tropical products brought to the mainland of the United States. The sugar brought from the Hawaiian Islands in the nine months ending with September, 1907. amounted to 752 million pounds, valued at 25A million dollars; and that from Porto Rico, 399 million pounds, valued at 141s million dollars, while from the Philippine Islands, whose products are still included in the figures of imports from foreign countries, the quantity of sugar brought in was Az million pounds, valued at 6s thousand dollars.