RESOURCES OF AMERICA, SILK, ETC. 405 



produce ; while almost every article of agriculture, or of manufac- 

 tures, which the subjects of Britain can produce, is shut out from 

 their ports by heavy duties, or by total prohibitions. This system 

 of Britain, while it enriches them, is directly calculated to exhaust 

 and impoverish our country continually ; they have, in fact, ex- 

 cluded almost every production of our industry and our soil which 

 we can furnish in exchange for their productions, except only our 

 cotton, our silver, and our gold. 



The colossal power of Britain is mainly derived from their agri- 

 culture, and their mines of coal an*d of iron. By aid of these last, 

 their engines and machinery are formed, which are employed in 

 their stupendous manufactures and in commerce ; and these, as has 

 been estimated, together with their mills moved by wind and- water, 

 accomplish labors equivalent to a hundred millions of men. 



In Britain, where labor is cheap, and lands are very dear, it has 

 been stated, on good authority, that the proportion of animal power, 

 or the power of oxen and horses, &c., which they apply in their ag- 

 riculture, is ten times as great as the human power which is thus 

 employed, and far greater than in any other country of the old 

 world. In America, lands being both fertile and exceedingly cheap, 

 cheaply, therefore, are we enabled to maintain the vast animal pow- 

 er ; the plough being truly the American instrument, by whose aid 

 we are enabled to cultivate those lands at a diminished cost, and far 

 less than by any other mode, or by any other nation on earth ; ours 

 being the vast, the unbounded prairies and pastures, and " the cattle 

 on a thousand hills." The proportion of animal power which is 

 thus employed, is, in America, transcendently great. 



Already, in many parts, our fields of grass are mown by aid of 

 horse power, and by this same power the produce thus mown is 

 raked, and gathered into barns ; by horse power fields of wheat are 

 also reaped; and low plantations of the mulberry may thus be shorn 

 of their foliage by machinery formed of numerous, parallel, and 

 prong-shaped knives, with guarded sides, and edges vertical. 



We have mountains of anthracite and mountains of iron ore lying 

 contiguous. The United States contain at least 80,000 square 

 miles of coal and of iron, or sixteen times the area or amount of all 

 Europe ; and one vast uninterrupted field, extending 900 miles in 

 length, from Pennsylvania inclusive, to Alabama, contains 50,000 

 square miles. 



Our advantages are indeed very great : to be duly appreciated, they 

 must be estimated singly and individually : how much greater and 

 more striking will they then appear, if considered collectively. Our 

 innumerable rivers and rapid streams, our immense forests and 

 mines, the exhaustless treasures of fuel and of flame, the combined 

 elements of water, earth, and of fire, offer resources of mighty 

 power, unknown and immeasurable, and willing aids in abridging 

 the labors of man. 



The same transcendent power of steam, which drags the huge 

 ship, or ponderous car, will, ere long, become the mighty instru- 

 ment, or universal power, by whose aid every agricultural operation 

 will be performed. 



Hail, progress of improvement ! all hail ! How swift its speed ! in 

 all things how great, how wonderful in this our day ! In vain do 

 those false men oppose, those false men, in fine, who, denouncing 



