upon 7,072 tons of sorghum sugar-cane, raised in Cape May County, $7,072, and $3,199.14 for bounty upon 319,944 pounds of sugar manufactured at the Rio Grande Sugar Company's works, Cape May County, during the present year. The total amount paid up to the close of the year 1882, for bounties, was $18,608.18. For further information on this subject, Part V. may be consulted. In Part VII. will be found the latest statistics of our iron mines, blast furnaces, paper mills, breweries and the dairy interest. The courtesy of the United States Census officials permits us also to present the revised statistics of our manufacturing, mining and mechanical industries, returned for the year 1880. A comparison between the totals of the censuses of 1880, 1870 and 1860, for both the United States and New Jersey, makes an interesting exhibit, favorable to our own State: Value of products United States.. New Jersey..... 106,226,593 79,606,719 40,521,048 37 36 108 $5,369,667,706 $4,232,325,442 $1,885,861,676 27.8 124.4 254,375,236 169,237,732 76,306,104 51.2 121.7 Hands employed— New Jerseyt... 2,738,950 Wages paid United States...... $947,919,674 New Jersey.... 46,083,045 It only has been in comparatively recent years, and largely the result of the liberal policy pursued for her industrial and educational development, that the fact that New Jersey has unequaled advantages in location, soil and climate seems to have been appreciated. In 1790 * Exclusive of the manufacture of gas. This fact has been taken into consideration in all comparisons with 1870. Per cent. of employes, men-1880, 68.9; 1870, 76.8; 1860, male, 77. Per cent. of employes, women-1880, 21.5; 1870, 14.9; 1860, female, 23. Per cent. of employes, children-1880, 9.6; 1870, 8.3. the population of the United States was 3,929,214; that of New Jersey, 184,139. A half century later the population of this State had but doubled, while that of the whole country had been quadrupled. From 1840 to 1860 the population of New Jersey increased 80 per cent., and during the twenty years following the rate of increase was 68 3, which was larger than in any other Eastern or Middle State, or than the average in the United State, (59.2 per cent.)* This State is now one of the most densely populated in the Union, being outranked in this respect only by Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The whole country has a total area (land surface) of 2,900,170 square miles, on which there are 8,955,812 dwellings, inhabited by 9,945,916 families, composed of 50,155,783 individuals; or an average to the square mile of 3.09 dwellings, 3.43 families and 17.29 persons. The area of the land surface of New Jersey is 7,455 square miles, on which there are 190,403 dwellings. Our population includes 1,131,116 persons, or 232,309 families. To every square mile there are 24.54 dwellings, 31.16 families, and 151.73 inhabitants. In Rhode Island there are 254 87 and in Massachusetts 221.78 persons to every square mile of territory. In 1789, Morse in his "Geography and Gazetteer of the United States," affirmed that "New Jersey has a greater proportion of barren land than any of the States;" and a few years later it was stated in "Winterbottom's View of the United States of America," that "as much as five-eighths of the southern counties and one-quarter of the whole State is almost a sandy, barren waste, unfit in any part for cultivation." There were "a number of towns in this State of nearly equal size and importance and none has more than two hundred houses." These historians could hardly have anticipated that in less than a century the average value of the farm lands of New Jersey, per acre, would be $65.15, or considerably above the average of any State in the Union. According to the report of the United States Department of Agriculture (1879), the value of cleared land per acre in this State was $82.42. Our 34,307 farms, valued at $190,895,833, contain 2,929,773 acres, of which 2,096,297, or all but 28.4 per cent., are im *The percentage of increase of the population of New Jersey by decades (from 1790 to 1880) has been: 1790 to 1800, 14.6; 1810, 16.2; 1820, 12.9; 1830, 15.6; 1840, 16.3; 1850, 31.1; 1860, 37.2; 1870, 34.8; 1880, 24.8. proved land.* This proportion of improved to unimproved land is only surpassed in the States of Illinois, Iowa, New York and Ohio. "The lands in Southern New Jersey, formerly most remote from markets," observes the State Geologist, "are now easily reached by railroads. The thriving towns and villages along these roads, and the fine farms, which have been cleared and put in cultivation since the railroads opened access to them, prove that the lands are desirable for agricultural use, as well as for supplying pleasant and healthy locations for those seeking country homes. The soil is light and easily cleared and cultivated, and responds quickly and generously to cultivation. The lands which are designated on the State map as oak lands, were under the old system of farming considered to be of but little value, but now by judicious use of fertilizers they are made to produced paying crops. The older settlements of Hammonton, Egg Harbor City and Vineland, and the numerous later settlements along the lines of the West Jersey, Camden and Atlantic and the New Jersey Southern Railroad are producing immense quantities of fruit, etc., for the market. These settlements are all new, the oldest one of them being only about twenty years old, and the grounds upon which they are located were in forest until that time. The settlers are now getting to have comfortable homes, fruit trees in bearing and gardens and fields well tilled and productive." * * Our State is a network of railroads, having more than 1,869 miles of track, or 1 to every 4.25 square miles of area. This proportion of mileage to area is alone exceeded in Massachusetts, where it is 1 to 4.15. The average for the whole country is only 1 to 27.67. During the decade ending December 31st, 1881, there were built in New Jersey 488 miles of track, or 1 to every 15 3-10 square miles of area; in Massachusetts, 1 to 24 4-10. We can also claim pre-eminence to the latter State in the fact that, while there a State debt has been incurred in the building of railroads, ours are the result of private enterprise, the total capital invested being $214,068,349. The cost of our railroads and equipments has been $168,618,315. While New Jersey in territorial extent is only the thirty-fifth among the thirty-eight States of the Union, it is the nineteenth in population and the eighth in the assessed value of real and personal property, * Improved land in 1870, 1,976,474; in 1860, 1,944,441; in 1850, 1,767,991. The percentage of unimproved to total land in farms was: 1880, 28.4; 1870, 33.9; 1860, 34.9; 1850, 35.7. ($572,518,361,)* although only the tenth in the amount of tax levied, ($8,958,065.) In the value of its agricultural productions, which amount to $30,000,000,† it is the twenty-fifth in relative rank. The value of the products of its manufacturing and mechanical industries exceeds $254,380,236, being outranked as a manufacturing State only by New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Illinois and Ohio. In many special industries our State occupies a still more favorable position, notably in the manufactures of silk and of stone and earthenware, where it takes the first rank, over one-third of the total products being produced here. The output of its mines of non-precious minerals is valued at $3,391,782, and in this respect it takes the seventh place, although fourth in the list of iron-producing States; while it is the largest producer of zinc ore. From the earliest settlements the promotion of education has been recognized as among the foremost duties of the State. As early as 1693 our first school law was enacted by the General Assembly of East New Jersey, assembled at Perth Amboy, the preamble setting forth that "the cultivation of learning and good manners tends greatly to the benefit of mankind, which has hitherto been much neglected in this province." The common schools, which have prospered and become a power in New Jersey, are a growth of the seed that was planted by legislative action nearly two centuries ago; and to-day we have a public school system second in efficiency to none in the United States, supported in part by interest from a State fund, accumulated from the proceeds of sales of the lands of the State under water, now amounting to $3,376,727.27, and yearly increasing, so that the time is not far distant when our schools will be literally free and school taxes will be unknown. *These are the figures returned by the United States Census agents. The county assessors' returns for 1880 only foot up $518,617,518. It is a well-known fact that in some counties the local assessment is much below the real valuation of property. Estimated value of all farm productions (sold, consumed, or on hand) for 1879, $29,650,756.-U. S. CENSUS. According to the report of the United States Commissioner of Agriculture (1881) the average cash value per acre of the principal crops of the farm, taken together, for the year 1881, was: for New Jersey, $19.26; for the whole country, $13.17. Total amount appropriated for all school purposes during 1882, $2,142,384.74. Total valuation of school property, $6,270,778.00. Total census of children between five and eighteen years of age, 343,897; total enrollment in public schools, 209,526. PART I. THE EARNINGS OF WAGE-WORKERS. CHAPTER 1.-INFORMATION DERIVED FROM LABORERS, BASED ON BLANK No. 3 FOR EMPLOYES: I. REMARKS BY EMPLOYES. II. COLLATED STATISTICS FROM SEPARATE ESTABLISHMENTS: SHOWING THE NUMBER OF EMPLOYES-MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN--THE WAGES EARNED, QUANTITY PRODUCED, AND THE NUMBER OF HOURS CONSTITUTING A DAY'S LABOR. CHAPTER 2.-RATE OF WAGES OF FARM LABORERS IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER 3.-COMPARATIVE RATES OF WAGES IN THE UNITED STATES AND OTHER COUNTRIES. CHAPTER 4.-WAGES AND PRICES. A |