Tons. Class of commodity. 1899. 1903. 1907. Products of agriculture 50,073,963 61,056,212 77,030,071 Products of animals 13,774,964 16,802,893 20,473,486 Products of mines 227,453,154 329,335,621 476,899,638 Products of forest 48,122,447 74,559,980 101,617,724 Manufactures 54,415,205 91,980,903 137,621,443 Merchandise 19,844,735 29,949,022 34,718,487 Miscellaneous 23,197,155 35,116,027 44,824,123 ----------- ----------- ----------- Total 441,881,623 638,800,658 893,184,972 {table continued} Percentage of total tonnage. Class of commodity. 1899. 1903. 1907. Products of agriculture 11.33 9.56 8.62 Products of animals 3.12 2.63 2.29 Products of mines 51.47 51.56 53.59 Products of forest 10.89 11.67 11.38 Manufactures 13.45 14.39 15.41 Merchandise 4.49 4.69 3.89 Miscellaneous 5.25 5.50 5.02 ------ ------ ------ Total 100.00 100.00 100.00 It should be observed that the foregoing statement represents tons received for shipment regardless of the distance carried and, in consequence, does not throw the light upon traffic movement that would be available if it were possible to know the ton-mileage of each class of commodities. Nevertheless, the data undoubtedly convey some information as to the character of the ton-mile unit during the different years and the nature of the changes in its quality which are in progress. This will be made more evident by the following table showing comparisons for the years 1899 and 1907: Tons. Increase. Class of commodity. 1899. 1907. Amount. Per cent. Products of agriculture 50,073,963 77,030,071 26,956,108 53.83 Products of animals 13,774,964 20,473,846 6,698,522 48.63 Products of mines 227,453,154 476,899,638 249,446,484 109.67 Products of forest 48,122,447 101,617,724 53,495,277 111.16 Manufactures 59,415,205 137,621,443 78,206,238 131.63 Merchandise 19,844,735 34,718,487 14,873,752 74.95 Miscellaneous 23,197,155 44,824,123 21,626,968 93.23 ----------- ----------- ----------- ------ Total 441,881,623 893,184,972 451,303,349 102.13