Two lines of steamships are operated regularly between TACOMA and other Sound ports and San Francisco, and several lines to Alaska. A fleet of colliers also plies constantly between TACOMA and San Francisco, carrying coal from this port. In 1902, 375,183 tons of coal were shipped as cargo from this port, exclusive of fuel for steamships. In 1903, the shipments of coal increased to 488,723 tons. TACOMA handles the largest share of the staple products of the State of Washington, lumber, wheat, flour and coal. The shipments of lumber and coal have already been stated. TACOMA’S facilities for the handling of wheat are unequalled at any other port in the world. The new wheat warehouses erected in 1900 and 1901 on the city waterway, are the longest in the world, being 2,360 feet in length and 148 feet in width. They doubled the warehouse capacity for grain at this port and afford admirable facilities for receiving the wheat from the cars, cleaning and sacking it and loading it on ocean carriers. There are also two enormous grain elevators and three large flour mills on the waterfront. TACOMA’S facilities for exporting wheat and flour are so extensive that in October, 1902, no less than twenty-five wheat carriers were loaded and dispatched and the exports of the month included upwards of 2,000,000 bushels of wheat and 200,000 barrels of flour. TACOMA is now the leading wheat and flour shipping port on the Pacific Coast, and the customs district of Puget Sound, of which TACOMA is the leading port, now ranks fourth in the United States in both wheat and flour exports, and fourth also in the combined exports of wheat and wheat flour reduced to wheat measure, each barrel of flour being equivalent to four and one-half bushels of wheat. [Illustration: Group of Wholesale Houses. 1—On Lower Pacific Avenue. 2—F. S. Harmon & Company, Wholesale Furniture. 3—Hunt & Mottet, Hardware. 4—Wm. Gardner & Company, Plumbing, Heating and Mill Supplies. 5—West Coast Grocery Company. ] _THE PUGET SOUND CUSTOMS DISTRICT, OF WHICH TACOMA IS THE LEADING PORT, HANDLING 90 PER CENT. OF THE WHEAT AND 60 PER CENT. OF THE FLOUR EXPORTS OF THE DISTRICT, ROSE FROM TENTH TO FOURTH PLACE IN WHEAT EXPORTS AND FROM SEVENTH TO FOURTH PLACE IN FLOUR EXPORTS IN THREE YEARS FROM 1900 TO 1903._ The following table, compiled from the records of the TACOMA harbormaster, shows the total value of TACOMA’S ocean commerce, foreign and coastwise, for the last five years: Coastwise and Foreign— Receipts. Shipments. Total. 1899 $8,607,196 $12,195,915 $20,803,111 1900 9,058,325 14,858,507 23,916,822 1901 11,495,859 22,904,877 34,400,736 1902 12,544,865 27,886,800 40,431,665 1903 13,335,398 21,861,972 35,497,370 WHOLESALE AND JOBBING TRADE.