The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1911-01-19

are making to the comforts
n 1 and requirements of homes in
the United States are quite as in
teresting as the subject of last weeks
discussion, regarding the articles
which producers in the United States
had contributed to the comforts Of
homes in other parts of the world.
Our tea, our coffee, our corks,o our
bananas, our camphor, our licorice,
our pepper, nutmegs and other spices,
our silk, some of our cotton, con-
siderable part of our wool and,
strange as it may appear, some part
of the onions, potatoes, and cheese
consumed in the United States are
brought from other countries and in
many cases from the opposite side
of the globe and out of the way parts
of the world.
Few people would suppose, for
example, that this great agricultural
country imports onions, or potatoes,
or clover seed, or honey; yet the
value of onions imported in 1907 and
1908 was nearly a million dollars
in each year, and they came from
Egypt, Australia, Japan, the Canary
Islands, Uruguay Cuba, the British
leo, and Spain. Of potatoes more
than 3 IL million dollars worth were
imported in 1909, the largest con-
tributing country being Scotland with
over 1 million dollars worth, Ireland
and Great Britain, each three quar-
tiers of a million dollars worth, and
the remainder largely from European
countries and, in smaller quantities,
from the British West Indies, Aus
tralia, and even China and Japan.
Pepper, of course, is not produced
in the United States and it is not sur
prising, therefore, that 2 million dol
lars worth is imported annually,
much of it from the Dutch East In
dies, although largely accredited to
the Straits Settlements, the southern
most point of eastern Asia, to which
the merchandise is transshipped from
the Indian Islands, known century
ago as the "Spice Islands," while
smaller quantities come direct from
Netherlands, the country which has
for so many years administered the
government of those islands and con-
trolled largely their lines of produc-
ton. Nutmegs. of which the impOr-
tations amount to a quarter million
dollars a year, are also drawn chiefly
from the "Spice Islands," or the
Dutch East Indies
One would scarcely expect that
such an agricultural country as the
United States would find it neces-
sary to import clover seed, but the
quantity imported runs as high as
20 million pounds a year, chiefly
from Germany and in small quantities
from France, Italy, and Scotland.
Sausage castings, which we would
scarcely expect to see imported into
a country Strengthening food animals
in such large numbers, are imported
to the value of to3 million dollars
a year, by far the largest contributor
being England, from which the i'm
portations in 1909 were over l II
million dollars, the remainder being
from widely scattered countries, from
Germany, Turkey in Europe, China,
Australia, and Turkey in Asia Nat
ural gas is another article which we
would scarcely expect to see import
ed, yet the impOrtatiOns run as high
as $4,000 per annum, being piped
across the river from Canada at or
near Niagara Falls.
Of the more commonly used arti
Gle of which other parts of the world
are the chief source, sugar is the
largest in value, its importatiOns
ranging from 100 million dollars a
year from foreign countries and 70
To- ~ f1~nO