[220] _Report of the Board and Commissioner of Immigration of Maine_, 1872, 6; F. L. Dingley, "European Emigration," _Special Consular Reports_, II, No. 2, 1890, 260. [221] _Annual Report of the Board of Immigration of Wisconsin_, 1880, 4. A writer in the _Milwaukee Sentinel_, Sept. 10, 1889, states, "Many of them (Germans and Scandinavians) bring abundant means to secure large farms and stock them well." Whatever may be gained in this way is, however, offset by the steady stream of remittances flowing from America to Northern Europe, especially during the last quarter of a century, and by the large sums spent by the thousands of erstwhile immigrants returning to their old homes for a winter or for a vacation.[222] Many a son, prospering in America, has contributed regularly to the support or added comfort of his parents or family in the fatherland; every holiday season swells the mail sacks with letters containing money-orders and drafts. During 1902 at least $1,000,000 was sent to Norway alone.[223] In the last two months of 1903, it is estimated that $3,000,000 went from the United States to the Scandinavian countries in these personal remittances.[224] Another sort of remittance which does not immediately take the form of cash, is the prepaid ticket for passage to an American port, sent to friends and relatives to assist them to emigrate. The United States consuls at Bergen and Gothenburg reported that about one-half of the emigrants from Norway and Sweden in 1891 made the journey on tickets sent from America.[225] In this connection, it should be noted that the money thus spent by immigrants is not in the nature of a permanent investment of hoarded earnings; it is not the remittance of "birds of passage" like some Italians, for example, who will shortly follow it. In comparison with the millions of dollars sent home by Italian immigrants in an average year, the Scandinavian remittances and spendings are almost insignificant.[226] [222] Brace, _The Norsefolk_, 146; _Harper's Weekly_, Sept. 1, 1888; _Gamla och Nya Hemlandet_, Jan. 14, 1903 (Malmö correspondent). [223] _Special Consular Reports_, XXX, 116 (1903, Christiania). [224] _Amerika_, Jan. 8, 1904. [225] _Letter of the Secretary of the Treasury, etc._, 1892, 45, 50, 65. [226] "In an average year the Italian bankers of New York City alone sent to Italy from $25,000,000 to $30,000,000. This is said to have an appreciative effect upon the money market." _Lippincott's Magazine_, LVIII, 234 (1896).