ExHiBiTTON Addresses. 147 



sovereign who is to use tliem. And the eifort is everywhere to make 

 agriculture the work of the intelligent mind as well as the strong and 

 skillful hand. And this is agricultural progress here. In addition 

 to all this there is a growing determination in the minds of our peo- 

 ple to relj as much as possible upon their own resources and their 

 own markets, and there is also a growing opportunity. The Ameri- 

 can market, local and distant, is now the great market for our 

 products. And while the east draws her staples from the west, she 

 finds within her own borders manufecturing towns starting up on 

 every stream, and furnishing markets for the crops of the surround- 

 ing country. Devoted to this great internal traffic, our lines of rail- 

 way multiply almost beyond computation ; to be conducted ere long, 

 I trust, in the interest of a great producing and consuming people ; 

 carrying food to the hungrj^ and clothing to the naked, at rates which 

 will no longer aggravate the sufferings which they should relieve. 

 "Within the last thirty years, and perhaps less, this whole business of 

 transportation has changed and given a new stimulus to agriculture. 

 The great water courses are not the only occupied highways now. 

 Every State, every county, almost every farm has its railroad com- 

 munication. Every hill pasture, the crops of every valley are 

 brought within a few hours of market. The cattle which to-day 

 grazed upon the rich pastures of the west, before to-morrow's sun, 

 are far on their way to feed the teeming poj^ulation of J^ew York 

 and the eastern cities. The transit of a thousand miles to-day is 

 attended with less labor and annoyance, than the fanner of half a 

 century ago underwent in carrying his grain to market, over fifty 

 miles of rough and muddy road. Meanwhile the relations between 

 the farms and markets of different sections of the country have 

 become so adjusted, that no farmer can raise a crop in vain. 



The estimates of the actual increase of our agricultural products,- 

 in connection with the efforts to which I have alluded, are extremely 

 interesting. The summary of the agriculture of the United States 

 in 18-10 shows that we produced at that time 84,823,272 bushels of 

 wheat, 123,071,341 bushels of oats, 377,531,875 bushels of corn, 

 35,802,114 pounds of wool, and that the total value of the principal' 

 crops of that year was $336,000,000 considered at the time an enormous 

 sum. In 1862, however, only twenty-two years later, the yield of 

 twenty-one loyal states alone exceeded this estimate, the wool clip 

 having increased to nearly 80,000,000 pounds ( it is now 120,000,000 

 pounds), and the value of the crops of that year is estimated- to be 



