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nia was about two thousand, five hundred million dollars. As the entire value of farms in the United States, by the census of 1870, was $9,200,000,000, the gain of the upper Valley, during this decade covering the years of an immense and wasteful war, was more than one fourth of that vast amount. This advance was made in a disturbed period and at long distances from the great markets, while about half a million of the more effective farmers were withdrawn from their labors for nearly half the time, and one half of these were killed, disabled by wounds, or broken in health. This sufficiently indicates the astonishing capacity of the Valley for agricul tural progress. Railways and farm machinery supplied its losses and carried it triumphantly over every obstacle. The values lost in the South were more than replaced in the North.

The gain of the whole country in the value of farming implements and machinery during this decade was one hundred ten million dollars, seventy millions of which was in the Valley, although the losses in this respect, in the southern Valley, were so great during the war that in 1870, the values of 1860 had not been replaced by twenty-five million dollars. There was, therefore, an absolute gain in the value of farm appliances in the upper Valley of nearly one hundred million dollars-much more than one fourth of the entire value of those articles in the United States in 1860, which then amounted to the value of three hundred and thirty-six million dollars. This investment, much of which was in labor-saving machinery, explains the great material progress in agricultural values during a period of changes so great and trying to the country. In many cases it enabled one man to accomplish the work of ten and produce a corresponding increase of income, although, necessarily, a part of the additional income must be spent in the purchase of these instruments of labor. But by their means the supplies and waste of war, the increasing amount required by the growth

of manufactures and large proportionate decrease in the numbers of the agricultural population, were obtained with ease, and the war was closed in the midst of an almost unprecedented general prosperity. For this it had to thank, first, the generous promptness of its glorious Valley, and, second, the inventive genius and skill of its artisans and mechanics, and, not least, the capitalists who invested so freely in the vast lines of railway that made the results of the other two so completely available.

This combination of favorable circumstances, at a most critical period in the history of the Valley and the political situation, was but one of a series of seeming accidents which we must regard as the expression of a law controlling and guiding human events and social development. All history illustrates this law which binds the whole race together in a regular sequence, or progressive growth. The treasures stored in England and the character of its inhabitants were made to tell, at the proper moment, with the greatest effect, on the development of the civilization of the whole world. The course of history is like that of a river which grows constantly broader and deeper and more powerful with its advance. Every considerable change in locality finds it increased in volume and force; the past is repeated, but with a change and in larger proportions. The immense power added by the Valley to the course of events must have far more effect on the history and development of mankind than any previous cause whatever. Its entrance into history with its population, unequaled in intelligence and energy, marked the commencement of a period of changes of great and beneficent magnitude. It has only begun to tell on the general course of events; but the tendency of its influence is clearly marked and most satisfactory. The character of its people, under favor of events which can not be regarded as fortuitous, but rather the operation of a law, or system of laws, which secures the progress of mankind, as a whole, in a high and noble direction, assures the employment of its

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immeasurable material resources in the interest of human welfare.

This was the true commencement of the period of profits as distinguished from the period of investments. Pioneer labor-breaking ground, building, covering the face of the country with all the important features of a truly and highly civilized land-had been heretofore the main features of Valley life. More than could be earned by the people with all this abundance of production had to be spent in improvements. These improvements paid partly in immediate and partly in prospective values. They promoted the morality, good order, intelligence and general welfare of the communities as well as increased the present value of property. But a part of their value could not be turned into dollars and cents at once; the remainder was necessary work saved to future generations, which would devote themselves, more fully than these pioneers, to the work of reaping what had been sowed. The pioneers had labored and others entered into their labors to continue them and to reap both a higher kind and a larger per cent of profit.

Every generation accumulates something which the following inherits to add to it and transmit increased to its heirs. It is thus that a grand progress-an accumulating value in possessions, arts, ideas, institutions and character has been secured to mankind. There has been a steady onward march of the eras, centuries and generations. Each has added to what it received, and the general capital of the race has incessantly accumulated. Every race, every land, every active life, failure as well as success, has added something to the general fund; some more, some less, according to their quality and gifts, but all something. It is hard to say who have done the most among nations; but the Anglo-American is not behind the foremost, and it is not easy to see why the Valley has not been permitted to give the most among all lands. England makes all lands her tributaries; but the Valley contains almost all classes of resources in itself.

CHAPTER X.

THE GIFTS OF THE SOIL-AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIONS.

The value of the farm products of the Valley in 1870 was over one thousand, five hundred million dollars; those of the rest of the country were stated at nine hundred million. But the prices obtained in the regions outside of the Valley were, in general, one third larger than the average prices of the same kinds in it because they were surrounded by markets, while the products of the Valley had to go far to seek them. It is also to be considered that the States of the southern Valley did not, in 1870, produce one half as much as in 1860, and also that the estimates of the census of 1870 were made on a year that was below the average of production. If the average value of production in all parts of the country and the average production of each year from 1866 to 1876 be applied, the annual value of farm productions in the Valley would not vary much from two thousand million dollars.

In 1860, the number of bushels of the principal grains raised in the United States was twelve hundred thirty millions, eight hundred fifty millions of which were grown in the Valley. In 1869, the whole amount was thirteen hundred eighty millions-the Valley then supplying ten hundred and thirty millions, notwithstanding an immense falling off in the southern part of it. The progress made in the first half of the decade, commencing with 1870, has been much more striking. The crop of 1875 was about three fourths larger in the Valley than that of 1870; and more than twice that of 1869, amounting to seventeen hundred and twenty million bushels the product of the whole country being stated at twenty-one hundred and ninety million bushels. In this

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year the production of corn was ten per cent larger than in the previous year, the whole country supplying thirteen hundred and twenty million bushels of that grain, of which eleven hundred and forty were from the Valley.

Yet, not one tenth of the productive lands of the Valley were cultivated in the last year named, and the period of beginnings is so recent in most of the area that a simple and exhaustive process of cultivation is generally pursued. A restorative process, that constantly returned to the soil the most important elements taken from it and keeping it at the highest point of productive capacity would, perhaps, afford on an average, results four times larger over the same surface. Therefore, the utmost that has yet been obtained in the most favorable years is but a faint suggestion of its wonderful possibilities.

In fact, production is so easy and abundant that individual eagerness is constantly pushing results beyond the profitable point. The enormous yield of corn, in 1875, of five hundred million bushels beyond the average, so reduced prices that, if the same sum be considered to have been paid for the amount of the previous crop, this excess was worth but one cent a bushel. An excess is, in this way, shown to be a heavy loss to the producers, for the cost bestowed on it before it is ready for market is large. Yet, if the producers lost, the consumers gained and either hoarded the surplus, which distributes the wealth of the Valley over the whole country, or furnished the results of their own labors to the farmers at a cheaper rate, which returns to them something of their loss. Probably the first is done, for the time being, but the last is sure to occur ultimately in some degree. The general result is, that the world's toilers live with more ease, and the Valley spreads its blessings far and wide.

Western agriculture has always been on the verge of overproduction and is likely to be so for a long time in some directions. Its surplus must go from one to four thousand