70 AMERICAN FARMS. 



The Amoskeag Cotton Company is reported to have 

 cleared in the past year (1888) $425,000. It paid a 

 dividend of 25 per cent., and put 4 per cent, by for 

 surplus. 



Many branches of commerce and manufacturing in 

 this old State are, no doubt suffering from a lop-sided 

 trade, owing to the restrictive character of the fiscal pol- 

 icy of the Union, but capital, even in this State, is gath- 

 ering more and more power. 



In the Empire State, agricultural property declines ; 

 but here we find that the average wealth of some classes 

 must be increasing at a very rapid rate. The per capita 

 valuation of property in this State was only $475 in i860 ; 

 but in 1888 it had risen to $1,499. ^^ ^^90 it will not 

 be less than $2,000. 



Going farther, to the State of Ohio, of which it has 

 been said one half of the whole assessed value of the 

 farm lands is covered by mortgages, the per capita valu- 

 ation of property rose from $510 in i860 to $1,032 

 in 1880. 



In the city of Cleveland, of this State, is the great 

 Rolling-Mill Company, owned by the three Chisholms, 

 of which Mr. Erastus Wiman remarked in his speech at 

 Dufferin Lake in Ontario in July of 1887 : " The products 

 of this firm last year reached the enormous sum of $12,- 

 000,000. These are some of the items which comprise 

 this aggregate : 



100,000 tons of steel rails $3,600,000 



150,000 tons of pig-iron 3,000,000 



50,000 tons merchants' steel boiler-plate 



and sheets 2,750,000 



40,000 tons wire 2,400,000 



