many fold the effectiveness of the effort of each individual. All parts of the country participated in the material progress. The South, issuing quickly from the almost abject state of prostration in which it was left by the ravages of a disastrous war, became more prosperous and flourishing than ever; the Northern States east of the Mississippi constantly increased their agricultural production, and at the same time became one of the greatest manufacturing and mining districts in the world; on the prairie lands west of the Mississippi a new cereal kingdom was founded; the western plains were converted into great live stock ranches; the forests, orchards and grain fields of the Pacific States proved to be an even greater source of wealth than were their mines of gold and silver. In the forty years following 1860 the number of people in the United States, exclusive of outlying possessions, rose from 31,000,000 to 76,000,000, the wealth of the nation grew from $16,000,000,000 to $89,000,000,000. These figures convey some idea of the progress of the country as a whole. Such an advance was possible only by the most rapid expansion of all the numerous lines of industry to which the resources and energies of the nation were devoted. The growth of agriculture proceeded on a magnificent scale. Within two decades after the war the United States assumed the leading place among all nations of the world in the production of grain and live stock, maintaining at the same time its supremacy as a producer and exporter of cotton and tobacco. Countless thousands of acres of virgin soil west of the Mississippi River were given away under the provisions of the famous Homestead Act of 1862 and by 1880 the continent was practically settled from one coast to the other. The area of farm lands increased from 407,000,000 acres in 1859 to 841,000,000 acres in 1899, and the value of farm property rose from $8,000,000,000 to $21,000,000,000. The application of machinery to the cultivation of the soil and the substitution of horse and steam power for manual labor multiplied the productivity of each unit of land and labor. In 1899 the country produced from its fields 4,500,000,000 bushels of cereals, 9,500,000 bales of cotton, 79,000,000 tons of hay and 868,000,000 pounds of tobacco. The value of the live stock that year was $3,000,000,000, and the production of dairy products, poultry and eggs amounted to $750,000,000. The output of the mines increased in value from $219,000,000 in 1869 to $1,107,000,000 in 1899. Over 240,000,000 tons of coal, 27,000,000 tons of iron ore, 270,000 tons of copper, and 63,000,000 barrels of petroleum were taken from the earth during the latter year.