the present condition of our prairie pastures, 30,000,000 more of all kinds of domestic animals might be supported.

We have seen that the annual value of the agricultural products of the State, so far as enumerated in our table, was, by a rough estimate, $46,924,176, and the value of live stock, $24,209,258, or together they were of the value of $71,133,974. This will give to each inhabitant an interest in the annual products of the State equal to $84; now, if we add to this the value of the animals slaughtered, the value of the farms, farming implements, &c., each inhabitant, if the property were equally divided, would be entitled to $210, and if we add to this the value of 23,421,848 acres of land out of cultivation, and not included in farms, it increases the amount of each inhabitant's share to $292.

Without taking into our estimate the value of stock or farms, the annual yield of the State is equal to $55 for each inhabitant. Leaving out of view the subject of live stock of every kind, the yield per acre of all the land in cultivation for 1850 was something over nine dollars per acre. To each inhabitant there was a yield of a fraction over eleven bushels of wheat, and a fraction over sixty-seven bushels of corn. These two articles constitute a large part of the support of the population. The rye is principally used in the distilleries of spirits, and the barley in the manufacture of beer, a favorite drink with the German population, who make a vast consumption of it. The oat crop is, for the most part, fed away to the domestic animals.

The average yield of butter from the milch cows was 421 pounds each, and the average weight of the fleeces of the sheep was 2 pounds.

We proceed now hurriedly to give a list of the wild animals. In the early days of the State there were many wild hores ranging through the forest and over the prairies. They were stout, hardy, and swift, but under size, they were much used by the Indians, from which they acquired the name of Indian ponies. They were thought to be indigenous, but the better opinion is that they were the descendants of the horses introduced by the early French settlers. The buffalo once inhabited the State, but has now entirely disappeared; also the deer, and great numbers of these still remain. Together they constituted a large part of the support of the early settlers. The brown bear is another native of the State, rapidly disappearing before the advance of civilization.

The following constitute a majority of the wild animals still to be found in the State. The grey wolf, the black wolf, and the prairie wolf; the panther, wild cat, fox, raccoon,

opossum, gopher, and squirrel. The muskrat, otter, and beaver are occasionally found about the rivers and lakes.

The birds are numerous, and of a variety of kinds, but are principally those known in the older States.

Wild turkeys, geese, ducks, swans, cranes, prairie chickens, quails, and partridges are very numerous; so much so, that the farmer has rarely need of a poultry yard.

The rivers and lakes abound in fine fish, the most common of which are the bass, pickerel, pike, trout, perch, and white fish.

There are few poisonous reptiles or troublesome insects; snakes are not so common as in mountainous States, or so poisonous as further south. There are many different kinds of the lizard, but they are generally harmless. There are innumerable frogs in the sloughs and swamps, and some are said to be of the genuine species held in such high esteem by the French gourmand for its rich, rare, and recherche flavor.

The silk-worm is found in some parts of the State-the honey-bee in every county. The most troublesome insect is the mosquito, which makes its appearance about the first of August, and remains till the 15th of October. But it is impossible in the limits of an article of this kind to enter further into such details.

Such are our resources, which every day will continue to increase. As our population becomes more dense, and the means of support more difficult of procurement, the system of cultivation will be improved, and with it the yield per acre. The sloughs and swamps will be dried up, the alluvial bottoms will be drained, the forests will disappear, the rough places made smooth, and every nook and corner of the State be brought into cultivation. The bowels of the earth will give their rich treasures, and the industry, ingenuity, and enterprise of our citizens will turn them into a thousand forms, augmenting at each turn their own and the wealth of the State.

NOTES ON POLITICAL ECONOMY.

The following notes were prepared in 1842 by the editor, whilst engaged in the study of political economy. They are, for the most part, based upon the able treatise of Vethake, then a text book in the college of which he was a member, and may be considered a convenient though imperfect analysis of it for the use of those who may wish to glance over the whole field of political economy in a nut shell. The work of Vethake should be in the hands of every American student.

1. The province of political economy is to determine the laws which regulate the production, distribution and con

sumption of wealth; to ascertain the course to be pursued or avoided by governments and individuals in the disposal of the wealth under their control, and promote in as great a degree as possible the happiness of mankind.

2. Wealth is utility existing to a limited extent and capable of appropriation. The mere possession of utility does not constitute wealth, or then air, water and light would be thus defined. However, the small number of things useful without possessing wealth are never by their nature the products of labor; hence to produce and consume wealth is synonomous with the production and consumption of utility. 3. Utility exists in such objects as can in any degree satisfy any of man's actual wants and desires. Thus, spirituous liquors possess utility. But it must not be inferred from this that the political economist would encourage their use, or adopt a low standard of morality. Far otherwise. The physical well-being of a people about which his science is conversant can be promoted in no more efficient manner than by diffusing as much as possible the benefits of religion, morals and education. The "utile" is not necessarily the honestum." There may be a good or bad use of an object, a good or bad utility. The man who possesses only a sixpence possesses wealth. By the wealth of a community or nation is meant all the wealth possessed by its members.

Labor.-Disagreeable exertion of body or mind with the prospect of compensation. Hence mere action does not constitute labor. Labor is not wealth, it is only the products of labor that are valued.

Exchangeable value.-What is given ordinarily for any product at a given time and place, or in the same market. Commodity.-What is offered in the niarket for anything else. Labor is a commodity. Price.-Exchangeable value estimated in money.

Money is that commodity which is most frequently exchanged for every other; gold and silver constitute the money of the world; other commodities have been employed. "Paper" is not money, but an obligation to pay value estimated in the precious metals. The existence of society requires some commodity that will answer as a medium of exchange. The precious metals have been found best for six reasons: First, their durability. Second, great value in small bulk. Third, comparative invariableness of their exchangeable value. Fourth, the capacity of being obtained in the same degree of fineness or alloyed with the same proportion of baser metals. Fifth, their divisibility. Sixth, capacity of being assayed and coined.

4. Wealth can be appropriated in two ways, to the gratification of present or future wants, and this latter by retaining it unemployed or applying it to the reproduction of wealth.

Every such appropriation of wealth is termed capital. The being employed as capital or not has no relation whatever to slowness or rapidity of consumption. The accumulation of wealth is its increase through the instrumentality of increased savings, and, therefore, immaterial products admit of accumulation in the proper sense of this term. The wages which the capitalist has saved to pay out are immaterial as well as material. The laborer receives for them as well protection from government, medical attendance, &c., as food and clothing. No other test of the increase of wealth can possibly exist, whether it be material or immaterial than that a greater quantity of it is produced and consumed in a given time than before. But since nothing more is intended by the accumulation of wealth than its increase, it will be manifestly proper to speak of the accumulation of immaterial products. This idea has but lately found its way into the science.

5. The elements of capital are: Wages of labor. Instruments and constructions with which labor is performed. Materials on which labor is exerted. Finished commodity kept on hand by the capitalist. Money appropriated to the circulation of the other constituent portions of capital. The wages of labor do not make a part of this money, this would be confounding real with money wages. Whatever is consumed as capital is productively consumed, otherwise unproductively. Capital is fixed or circulating. Fixed when it suffers only wear and tear in production. Circulating when wholly consumed. It has been customary to consider immaterial labor unproductive. But from our definitions (art. 4th) it will be seen that whatever species of labor is productive of utility, whether in matter or not, is productive; unproductive labor only exists when more is exerted than is necessary.

6. Exchangeable value exists from a capacity of being appropriated, the possession of utility and a limited supply. (Sce No. 2.) It is determined in every instance by the relation which the supply of an article or commodity has to the demand for it. By the supply of an article is meant the quantity which comes into the possession of the sellers, and is offered by them for sale during a given portion of time. By this is not meant the stock which they have on hand, which is generally less as the supply is augmented.

By demand is not meant desire to possess; it is rather estimated by the number of offers to purchase made in a given time, at any given rate.

If the demand for a commodity remain the same, and the supply be increased or the demand be diminished and supply remain the same, prices will fall. If supply be diminished and demand the same, or supply the same and demand increased, prices will rise. An expected variation in supply or demand will affect the present price. The degree of this variation will depend upon the nature of the commodity. These causes of "price" sometimes neutralize each other. But there are other circumstances which affect the prices of commodities; they will vary also on account of any change in the supply or demand of the money for which they are exchanged. But it is evident that all commodities will feel the effects of this "change" in the same degree, consequently their "exchangeable value," when compared with each other, will not be influenced by it. An increased demand for money will cause a fall of prices; an increased supply a rise of prices and vice versa. The exchangeable valve of money, like everything else, is determined by relation of supply and demand with respect to itself and in respect to the commodity for which it is exchanged. The exchangeable value of immaterial products is estimated in the same manner; it is resolved into the compensation or wages of labor. The prices or exchangeable values of all things material or immaterial, meaning labor by the latter term, are determined then in every instance by the relation subsisting between supply and demand.

7. Prices fluctuate with a fixed law; there is a mean or average price which is invariable, while the actual or market price oscillates about it, and has a constant tendency to become equal to it. Wages would be the same in all employments if the circumstances under which labor is exerted were in every respect the same. The causes of variation are, first, the agreeableness or disagreeableness of the occupation, including honor or disgrace, healthiness or unhealthiness, chances of success, &c. Second, the qualifications natural or acquired which they demand. In every employment, there is a natural or necessary rate of wages about which the others oscillate. The wages of labor will be at a certain fixed rate in each occupation, while the daily, weekly, or monthly wages of the laborer may admit of a certain degree of diversity, depending upon considerations above stated; all this goes on the supposition that individuals in seeking for employment are actuated by interested motives, and that full scope is given to the operation of supply and demand; where these do not influence, as in the case of Christian missionaries, public officers, and monopoly trade establishments,