The manufacture of carriages and wagons has been carried on in the United States practically since the time of the early settlers. In the Census year 1900 there were 7,632 establishments, having a capital of $118,-187,838. The industry gave employment to 66,842 persons (officials, clerks, wage-earners) and the salaries and wages were $33,888,843. The cost of materials used was $56,676,073. The value of products, including custom work and repairing, was $121,537,276. The increase in product of the Census year 1900 over Census year 1890 was $18,856,835.

The trend of the industry is toward the Central States, where land is cheaper, where suitable lumber is abundant and prices are therefore favorable, and where also the developed railroad systems afford abundant means of transportation. The same rapid development of the industry is seen in certain of the Southern States, such as North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, where lumber is cheap and where manufactures are fast gaining industrial predominance. The increase in Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania is due partly to the growing use of the automobile, to the diminishing use of the bicycle, and materially to the more perfect segregation of the "factory product" and that formerly classed as "custom work and repairing."