The export of raw cotton in the case of the United States does not mean any appreciable backwardness of home manufacture. The importations of manufactured cotton goods are decreasing annually, so far as cloths are concerned. In 1912 less than $8,000,000 in cotton cloth was imported from abroad. The heaviest importation of cotton goods was in laces and such other things as are specialties of foreign manufacture, in many cases hereditary trades, or trades dependent upon cheap, trained female labor, such as is not available in America. America uses nearly 6,000,000 bales of home-grown cotton every year in her own factories, and supplies not only the home market with manufactured goods, but manufactures more than $30,000,000 worth for foreign sale, in competition with the great spinning and manufacturing countries of Europe. The growing of cotton is not a raw-material industry in the strict sense of the word, for, owing to peculiarities of climate, certain features of the American labor supply, and the great amount of money this staple crop brings from abroad and distributes in non-manufacturing districts, it possesses a peculiar and great economic value to the country. Coal, tobacco, petroleum, and timber are the more important of the crude materials exported from the United States in addition to cotton; but the total value of all these is, as stated, about one sixth of the whole. The total value of the exports of domestic merchandise from the United States in 1912 was about $2,363,000,000. As stated, cotton stands at the head of the list. The iron and steel industry comes next; the farmers of the United States furnish the third largest amount of merchandise for export; and machinery of all kinds, oils, paper, fruit, and chemicals, are the leaders in American export. The most interesting changes that have taken place in American foreign trade in the last few years are those that indicate certain possibilities of the future; in fact, they are in a way prophetic of what is to happen in the economic life of the nation. In 1902 93,000 head of cattle were imported, and in 1912 the importations numbered 325,000. In 1902 about 327,000 head of cattle were exported, and in 1912 only about 46,000. This means that the American people have nearly reached the point where the home market absorbs all cattle grown in the country, and that in future other peoples, who in the past have been dependent upon the United States for their beef supply, must look elsewhere. The exportation of bread-stuffs has decreased materially, while importation has quadrupled, thus telling a story of shortage in food-supply, as did the change in the cattle movement. This same shortage is shown in like changes in the trade in meat products, dairy products, eggs, and nearly every other variety of staple food.