New Britain herald., 1918-08-22
ICELAND BECOMING
 A GOOD CUSTOMER
Trade for Past Fiscal Year Has
 Grown to S2,WO,OOO

has evidently developed with a closer acquaintance The 0000 people of
 Iceland were importing, prior to the war, about $3,50O GOO worth of mer- chandise, chiefly from the mother couhtrY-Denmark-- Great Brit- ain, and of the $4,O00,000 worth of . merchandise which they exported tha bulk also went to Denmark and Creat Britain. With the opening of the war IL became apparent that neither Den- mark nor Great Britain would haNa the klnd Of materials which the Ice~ landers needed, namely, foodstuffs and nanufactures; and as a consequence they turned to the nearest country 1 likely to have supplies of those ma terlals, the United States, and so in- creased their demands upon us that. according to compilation by the Na- tiOnal City bank of New York. our exports to the island have grown from $35, in 1913 to $2510 900 in 1918, $1,4O4,0O0 in 1917, and approximate ly $2,000, 900 in 1918, all these figureq being for fiscal years
 Imports from Iceland, according ta the banks figures, do not show as rapid growth as the exports thereto chiefly by reason of the fact that most | of the merchandise which Iceland has | to export is wool, meats, hides. fish and fish products, and for all of these
 the demand in Europe, always large. | Is at present abnormalIy great As a l consequence, most of the $40O0,O00 worth of merchandise exported from the island still goes to the mother country, Denmark or to Great Britt ] ain, while more than half of the l $3,50O,0OO worth of imports are now 1 drawn from the United States An examination of the list of ar ticIes exported from the United States as shown by the detailed list pre- l pared by the bank indicates that the average Icelander has very much tho same habits as his neighbors further south. The articles exported from tha united States to the island in the fiscal year just ended include automo obilesx plate glass, enameled bathtubs, phono- graphs silVerWare, tewelry, faces, cor sets, perfumeries. furs, art works and motion picture films. The "auto habit is evidently developing with the Ice lander as elsewhere, for the value Of automO ObileS and parts thereof export ed from the United States to the island has grown from $1,000 in 1913 to ap- prOXimately $6,000 in 1917, and if we include the requirements of the auto- . mobile, rubber tires gasoline etc, the
 total for 1917 would exceed $1O,00 as~ against $1,000 in 1913.
 It is, however, in the more sub stantial of the requirements of daily
 life that the bulk of the growth in our exports to the Icelanders has oc-
 cured. Their taste for our oatmeal
 has developed with surprising raptdity, the total quantity of oatmeal exported to the island having grown from 297-
 900 pounds in 1915, the first year in
 which Shipments of this article to the island shown in the official pub- licattons of the government to 2,964- 325 pounds in 1917, the quantity for
 1917, having been just ten times as much as in 1915 CornmeaI alIo showed a somewhat similar advance. the value of the cornmeal sent to tho island having grown from $14,447 in 1915 to $42,3 379 in 1917, and of flour a growth from $427 in 1914 to $294,0oO in 1917.
 American fruits are also evidently in great demand among the Iceland CTS, the shipments to the island in- cluding apples, apricots, oranges, peaches. pears, prunes and raisins, the quantity of prunes having grown from 3,250 pounds in 1916 to 43, 500 pounds in 1917, and of raisins from 100 pounds in 1915 to 104,60O in 1917. ouI IIGdI dIlu dduy pfOOuCJS also found a market in the island despite the fact that it's 9O,00O people have about 30, 1000 head of cattle, 50,O0O horses and approximately 600,000 sheep and our 1917 exports to the island included all classes of beef and pork talloW, lard, and lard compound, and oleOmargarine, aggregating 366.- 900 pounds, and over 600,000 pounds of condensed milk.
 The modification of the climate Sy the proximity of the gulf stream ap- parently justif1es a large use of cotto for clothing, as is indicated by the fact that our exports of cotton goods to Iceland in 1917 were over $25, 900 in value, and of WOOlen goods but about
 $2,500, the cottons including abour 150,000 yards of various classes of cloths chiefly for domestic use. Shoes sent to the island in 1917 included 1000 pairs for children, 10,300 pairs for women and 24,300 for men, while other shipments included 518, 900 gal Ions of Illuminating oil, 86,500 of Iu- bricating oil and 23,3O0 gallons of gasoline.
 Imports into the United States from Iceland have grown from $100,0 in 1913 to approximately $660, 900 in 1918, and include wool hides, f1sh, wha1ebone and fish oils. Most of the trade between the United States and the island Is carried in Danish and British ships.