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Our soil, climate and productions, the vast extent of our territory, 

 our facilities to every market, and the grov?ing interest whicli is being 

 felt in agriculture, would seem to bear me out in this view of the case. 

 While European nations are embroiled in war about the accession to 

 thrones, or the adjustment of " the balance of power," American far- 

 mers must feed their armies and their subjects at home. View it in 

 what light you may, you cannot fail to see the immense and growing 

 interests of our husbandmen. 



No one, unless gifted with the spirit of prophecy, can with the 

 slightest hope of certainty, estimate the extent of that interest in our 

 country one century hence, if it should continue to grow as it now 

 seems to promise. The editor of a highly respectable paper in New 

 York City, however, ventures an estimate which may fall far short of 

 the truth, so far as population is concerned. He says : 



"In a hundred years we shall have two hundred and thirty-two mil- 

 lions; and in a hundred and fifty years, or in the year 2,000, we shall 

 have over seven hundred millions. * * * q^. g^jj pj,Q. 

 duced last year, over a hundred and fifty millions of bushels of bread- 

 stuffs, to say nothing about the rice and fruit crops. And yet we have 

 a hundred and ninety millions of acres — more than five times the whole 

 territory of England and Wales — which the spade and plow never 

 touched." 



Two centuries ago, New York city did not contain more inhabitants 

 than the village of Niles at this time ; now there are but three cities in 

 the world containing a greater population, and they date their founda- 

 tion beyond the days of our Savior. ' 



Our own beautiful Peninsula furnishes us with abundant proofs to 

 show the rapid strides which population and the industrial pursuits are 

 making, all over our land. 



Twenty years ago, the teri-itory of Michigan contained a population 

 of about 85,000. To-day, the State of Michigan numbers over 400,- 

 000. Within the last ten years she has doubled her population, and 

 trebled the value and amount of her productions. The State census 

 of 1840, shows that Michigan raised, the preceding year, 2,157,108 

 bushels of wheat, and nearly the same amount of corn. The census 

 of 1850 shows the number of bushels of wheat raised in 1849, to be 

 4,893,141, and corn, 5,704,172 bushels — and it will be remembered by 



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