west. This vast region, embracing 751,736 square miles, or 481,106,908 acres, transcends the united area of the British Islands, France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, which is 749,372 square miles, with a population of nearly or quite 150,000,000. By the Mississippi River this grand division is separated into two subordinate ones, the eastern embracing an area of 239,558 square miles, or 153,317,120 acres, and the western 512,178 square miles, or 327,789,788 acres.

The eastern division is richly endowed with agricultural and mineral resources; its general surface is undulating, nowhere rising into mountains. It is generally heavily timbered, but intersected by large bodies of prairie. Its manufacturing capacities are in process of development and promise great results. Its water power has been but very partially called into requisition, while its immense forests and coal deposits, the latter covering a workable area of more than 70,000 square miles, afford the elements of artificial motive power beyond computation. The annual aggregate of cereal and root crops is now between six hundred and seven hundred millions of bushels, and other agricultural productions in proportion.

The products of coal, iron, copper, lead, salt, and other minerals, are annually increasing, and have already attained commanding aggregates. The population of the eastern portion at the present time is over 9,000,000, and the probability is that the coming decennial census will show at least 10,000,000. There yet remain in the States above enumerated east of the Mississippi 13,888,121 acres of public land undisposed of.

The western portion of this great cereal region embraces two tiers of States-the first, Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota, bordering upon the Mississippi, has made great advances in civilization; the other States, Kansas and Nebraska, with the Territory of Dakota, are rapidly advaneing in prosperity, extending northward to the British frontiers, have been more recently settled, but are receiving large and increasing immiration.

The first three of these States compare in general characteristics to the eastern section, but the others, lying in the declivity of the Rocky Mountains, present characteristics allying them in some points to the unique areas lying further west. The cereal productiveness along the Mississippi is not less marked than in the States of the same group to the eastward. But west of the Missouri River the agricultural character seems better suited to grazing than to crop-raising. The mineral resources of this western section, so far as developed, are very promising, while the manufacturing facilities are unsurpassed. The population is not less than 4,000,000, making about 13,000,000 for the whole grand division. There still remain of undisposed public lands 212,208,307 acres, making an entire area liable to private appropriation of 226,096,429

acres.

The climate of both these divisions is salubrious, but presents great varieties of temperature, moisture, &c., suited to different kinds of agricultural production.

The commercial facilities are favorable to the development of an enormous trade, which is beginning to exhibit some of its proportions. OHIO, which formed part of the old "Northwestern Territory," was originally granted by royal charter to several of the ante-revolutionary colonial governments, and was by them, at different times after the disruption of colonial relations with Great Britain, ceded to the general government for the common benefit of the nation. By the celebrated ordinance of 1787 this splendid domain, exceeding in extent the French

empire, was organized under territorial government based upon the noblest principles. In 1802 the present State was erected in the eastern part of the Territory, embracing an area 200 by 195 miles, equal to 39,964 square miles, or 25,576,960 acres.

Within the limits of Ohio our public-land system was inaugurated under the ordinance of 1785, passed by the old Continental Congress. The earlier operations of the system in this State were singularly complicated by reservations in the claims of the States ceding the territory. Virginia reserved 4,204,800 acres between the Scioto and Little Miami rivers, nearly one-sixth of the area of the State, to satisfy the claims of the officers and soldiers of her Continental line. Connecticut retained 3,800,000 acres bordering upon Lake Erie, and surrendered her claims under her colonial charter to the zone between the 41st and 42d parallels westward. Of this reservation she retained only the title to the soil, the right of eminent domain being resigned to the general government. Some 500,000 acres of the western part of this reservation were granted, in 1792, to certain of her citizens, whose property had been burned by the raids of the British troops under Arnold and others during the revolutionary war. These latter donations are commonly known as fire lands.”

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The United States military lands constitute a separate tract west of the first seven ranges of townships surveyed under the ordinance of March 20, 1785, to the Scioto River. These lands, embracing 2,500,000 acres, were appropriated by act of June 1, 1796, to satisfy certain claims of officers and soldiers of the revolutionary war. Land warrants granted by the United States for services in the revolutionary war were locatable in that district up to the 3d of July, 1832, when, by statute of that date, the vacant lands in the United States military district were laid open to sale, and the scrip principle in satisfying warrants was adopted.

The Ohio Company's purchase, lying along the Ohio River in the southeast corner of the State, originally embraced 1,500,000 acres, of which, however, less than 1,000,000 were paid for and patented. Symmes's purchase, including 311,682 acres, extends from the Ohio River northward between the Miami and Little Miami Rivers, with a breadth averaging twenty-seven miles. The two tracts last mentioned were subject to the school reservation of the 16th section in every township, and of section 29 for the support of the gospel. Several smaller tracts reserved for special purposes present anomalies in the earlier land operations which subsequent legislation has happily removed. The substitution of miltary bounty land warrants for the old methods of meeting the claims of our officers and soldiers has very greatly simplified this branch of the public service.

The public land operations in Ohio may be regarded as practically closed, only a very few isolated tracts remaining at the disposal of the general government.

Of the 25,576,960 acres in the whole State, the census of 1860 showed that 20,472,141 acres were included in farms representing a cash value of $678,132,991; of this area 12,625,394 acres are unimproved lands. The census of 1850 presented the aggregate of 9,851,493 acres of improved and 8,146,000 acres of unimproved land; total, 17,997,493 acres, with a cash value of $358,758,603. The comparison of these aggregates gives scope to very interesting reflections. The unincluded area of the State during ten years had shrunk from 7,579,467 acres to 5,104,819, or about one-third. The proportion of the entire area covered by agricultural improvements had increased from one-third to one-half, while the unimproved lands embraced in farms had decreased nearly 300,000 acres.

The entire average included in farms had increased 2,474,648, or 14 per cent., and the cash value of farms $319,374,388, or nearly ninety per cent. The number of farms had increased from 143,807 to 179,889, or twenty-five per cent., while the population in the same time had increased only eighteen per cent. This gratifying increase in the proportion of persons interested in the soil would doubtless be still further enhanced by comparing the aggregates of urban proprietors for 1850 and 1860, which, from the rapid growth of towns in the State, must have very greatly increased. The average acreage of farms had declined from one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and fourteen acres. The value of agricultural implements increased from $12,750,585, in 1850, to $17,538,832, in 1860, or nearly thirty-eight per cent. The value of live stock went up from $44,121,741 to $80,384,819, or eighty-two per cent.

These aggregates, according to the most reliable information, have very greatly increased during the current decade. The amount of improved lands in farms has specially been enhanced, at the expense, however, of the class of unimproved lands; for it is not supposable that an amount of wild, uninclosed land is found in the State, sufficient, after deducting the highways, towns, and watercourses, to swell the aggregate of inclosed but unimproved lands. The value of farm lands, according to tables compiled in 1867 in the Department of Agriculture, had increased from thirty to thirty-five per cent. in seven years. It is not at all out of the way to estimate the increase, in 1869, at fifty per cent. upon the returns of 1860. This would place the present value of farms at about $1,000,000,000. The value of farm implements and machinery cannot be much less than $25,000,000, while the value of live stock may reach $140,000,000. The census reports of 1860 showed a considerable reduction in the average acreage of farms, thus enlarging the number of agricultural proprietors-a salutary tendency which there is reason to believe is at least equally operative during the current decade, the area now under cultivation, of all kinds, or devoted to grazing, being probably not less than 15,000,000 acres.

The soil of Ohio is of a high average fertility, generally free from rock, and easily worked. There is but a small proportion of the surface unavailable for production of some sort. The crops of 1860, 1866, and 1867, respectively, the first taken from the last United States census report, and the others from the statistical report of the Secretary of State for 1868, present the following aggregates: Wheat, 15,119,047, 5,824,747, and 13,350,726 bushels; maize 73,543,190, 80,336,320, and 63,875,064 bushels; rye, 683,686, 622,333, and 1,025,291 bushels; oats, 15,049,234, 21,856,564, and 18,534,222 bushels, barley, 1,663,868, 1,353,955, and 1,604,179 bushels; buckwheat, 2,370,660, 1,292,415, and 590,245 bushels; potatoes, 11,687,467, 6,725,577, and 5,744,530 bushels. The following aggregates are found in the reports for 1860 and 1867, respectively: Hay, 1,564,502, and 2,280,242 tons; tobacco, 25,092,581, and 10,790,575 pounds; flax, 882,423, and 10,523,876 pounds of fiber; butter, 48,543,162, and 34,883,445 pounds; cheese, 21,618,803 pounds; sugar, (maple and sorghum,) 3,345,508, and 2,753,314 pounds; molasses, 1,594,618 gallons; wool, 10,608,927, and 24,848,624 pounds. The orchard products in 1860 were valued at $1,920,309; in 1867 they aggregated 9,723,892 bushels of apples, 1,359,604 of peaches, and 83,853 of pears, representing a value at least double that returned in 1860. In presenting these comparative statements it is but just to state that the crops of 1866 and 1867, the latest available in the preparation of this article, were in many respects below the average, and that the crops of 1868 and 1869 would exhibit a large increase upon the above figures. It has

been ascertained that the tobacco crop of 1868 amounted to 22,183,693 pounds, and that the sugar and molasses product of the same year embraced 5,712,587 pounds and 6,051,213 gallons respectively.

It is known that increased attention is now paid to the production of the more delicate fibers and fruits. The increments in the flax, wool, and orchard products are especially remarkable. The improvement in the quality of this production has more than kept pace with its enlargement in quantity. In mining enterprise an equal enlargement is observable. The production of mineral coal expanded from 34,290,359 bushels, or 1,368,814 tons, in 1865, to 42,130,021 bushels, or 1,685,201 tons, in 1866, and to 46,703,820 bushels, or 1,868,153 tons, in 1867. Of pig iron 167,591 tons were made in 1867, being an increase of 85,801, or more than one hundred per cent., over the product of the previous year. The salt product of 1867 was over 2,000,000 bushels. The increase in these branches of production indicates a diversification of industry and the development of higher civilization. The extension of manufacturing enterprise is absorbing a portion of the capital and labor that otherwise would be devoted to agriculture. The census of 1860 presented 11,123 establishments, with a capital of $57,295,303, employing 65,749 male and 9,853 female operatives, paying them $22,302,989 per annum, and producing articles valued at $121,691,148 per annum. It is to be regretted that the admirable statistical reports of the Secretary of State had not been extended to embrace the manufacturing as well as the agricultural and mining interests of the State. There is ample reason to believe that the progress of Ohio in that higher element of industrial activity has been much greater than its advance in the production of raw material.

The forest trees of the State embrace all the varieties of oak, maple, hickory, poplar, sycamore, pawpaw, dogwood, beech, &c. The fuel-producing capacities of the State are further enhanced by the existence of at least 12,000 square miles of workable coal area, about double that of England, whose steam power, according to the London Times, equals double the muscular force of the entire human race. This coal area occupies the eastern and southeastern portion of the State, among the western foot-hills proper of the Alleghany Mountain systém. To the northwest of the coal measures is found a very narrow belt of the underlying coal conglomerate, forming the rim of the coal basin. To this succeed the Chemung and Portage groups, and other formations in the downward series of the devonian and silurian systems.

The climate of the south part of the State is mild, the winters seldom admitting of snow fall to the extent of a protracted sleighing season. Toward the north, and especially on the declivity of Lake Erie, the cold increases to an equality with the same parallels in the eastern States. This climate, not sufficiently warm to enervate, presents to a fertile soil all the stimulus necessary to splendid production. In salubrity Ohio will compare with any part of the Union. There are no mountain ranges in the State, but the hills on the crest line, near the center, rise to an elevation of at least one thousand feet above sea level. The southern slope of the State is longer than the northern, as is evidenced by the greater length of the streams emptying into the Ohio River. The landscape presents a great variety of tranquil beauty. The great agricultural sections of Ohio are the Miami and Scioto Valleys, in which nearly two-thirds of the corn crops of the State are produced.

Meteorogical observations have been kept up with considerable regularity in about twenty different localities in the State for a number of years. From these it appears that the north winds of Lake Erie reduce

the mean temperature of the middle of the State almost to an equality with the northern boundary. Kelly's Island is the sixteenth of a degree Fahrenheit warmer in winter than Urbana, one and a half degree southward in latitude, while the summer temperature is but the twenty-fourth of a degree Fahrenheit colder. Cincinnati, one degree further south, presents an annual mean temperature nearly five degrees warmer than either. The rain-fall, according to reliable observations in at least twelve localities, during 1867, was forty-three inches, being about three inches greater than the average of a number of years.

In all the physical elements of comfort Ohio is amply endowed. The results of three-quarters of a century of progress in material resources may be seen in the statistics of real estate and internal improvements. The total value of taxable property returned to the auditor of state for the year 1868 was $1,143,461,386, yet it is estimated that the personal and real estate of Ohio, at its present full value, cannot be less than $2,500,000,000. Of the moneyed institutions the returns of 1868 show one hundred and thirty-five national and one hundred and eighteen other banks, with a capital of $27,313,720; eighty-two Ohio joint-stock and mutual fire insurance companies, with a paid-up capital of $4,604,853; sixty-six fire insurance companies of other American and foreign states doing business in this State upon an aggregate capital of $39,835,756; besides a large number of native and foreign life insurance companies. The natural internal communications embrace over eight hundred miles of river and lake navigation, including the slack-water improvements of the Muskingum River. The artificial highways embrace three hundred and sixty-one turnpikes and plank roads, with an aggregate length of 3,251 miles, besides sixty-seven thousand miles of common roads, and nearly one thousand miles of canal, including two complete lines from the Ohio River to Lake Erie. The railroad system embraces thirtyfive different railroads, with a total length, including main lines and branches, of 3,255 miles, with a capital stock of $103,346,607, besides a funded debt for construction and equipment of $79,996,542, representing a capital actively invested within the State of $183,343,149 89. The gross annual earnings are $28,788,827 28; the expenditures $28,862,875 27; passengers carried, 9,436,416; and the tons of freight transported during 1868, 11,813,535, which, at an average value of one hundred dollars per ton, would amount to over $1,000,000,000. The internal commerce of the State may be safely estimated at twice that amount.

The growth of towns and cities in Ohio is remarkable, even amid the other wondrous developments of her prosperity. Some forty-eight of the more prominent towns exhibit rates of increase since 1860 varying from twenty to two hundred per cent. Of this number, Cincinnati, in 1868, had 285,000 inhabitants; Cleveland, 85,000; Dayton and Columbus, 32,000; Toledo, 30,000; Zanesville, Springfield, Hamilton, Chillicothe, Steubenville, Sandusky, Portsmouth, and Akron, from 10,000 to 15,000.

This mass of material prosperity is directed by moral and intellectual forces of immense efficiency, which are partly revealed by the educational and religious establishments. The report of the school commissioner for 1868 shows an aggregate of 1,019,192 enumerated youth, of all colors, for whose education provision was made by law at the expense of the State treasury, being an increase of 23,942 or 2.40 per cent. over the aggregate of the previous year. The amount expended for teachers' salaries during the year was $3,387,901, an increase of $192,673. The total number of school-houses was 11,406, valued at $10,330,097. The total number of volumes in libraries was