AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 39 



&quot; Into this immense natural garden, in a salubrious and 

 desirable portion of the temperate zone, the swelling stream 

 of population, from the older Atlantic States and from Eu 

 rope, had steadily flowed during the last decade, increas 

 ing its previous population from 5,403,595 to 8,957,690 ; an 

 accession of 3,554,095 inhabitants, gained by the peaceful 

 conquest of nature, fully equal to the population of Silesia,&quot; 

 which cost Frederick the Great the seven years war, and ex 

 ceeding that of Scotland, the subject of struggle for centuries. 



&quot; The rapid influx of population into this group of States 

 increased the quantity of the * improved land, thereby mean 

 ing farms more or less cultivated, within their limits, from 

 26,680,361 acres, in 1850, to 51,826,395, in 1860; but 

 leaving a residue, yet to be improved, of 230,308,293 acres. 

 The area of 25,146,054 acres, thus taken in ten years from 

 the prairie and the forest, is equal to seven-eighths of the 

 arable area of England, stated by its political economists to 

 be 28,000,000 of acres. 



&quot; The area embraced in the residue will permit a similar 

 operation to be repeated eight times successively, plainly de 

 monstrating the capacity of this group of States to expand 

 their present population of 8,957,690, to at least 30,000,000, 

 if not 40,000,000 of inhabitants, without inconvenience. 



&quot; The effects of this influx of population in increasing the 

 pecuniary wealth as well as the agricultural products of the 

 States in question, are signally manifest in the census. The 

 assessed value of their real and personal property ascended 

 from $1,116,000,000, in 1850, to $3,926,000,000, in 1860, 

 showing a clear increase of 82,810,000,000. We can best 

 measure this rapid and enormous accession of wealth, by 

 comparing it with an object which all nations value the 

 commercial marine. The commercial tonnage of the Uni 

 ted States, in 1840, was, 2,180,764 tons ; in 1850, 3,535,454 

 tons; in 1860, 5,358,808 tons. 



