take about the same time, or about forty-three years altogether. A full lifetime would be required to plant the crop, and a second generation would be required to reap it. But great results require great agencies, and so great labor-saving machines, operated by armies of men, are brought into requisition, and with these the crop is both planted and reaped. A long procession of self-binding harvesters, following close one behind the other, makes quick work of it, and before the weather changes this great field is mowed, its crop garnered, and bread supplied for the hungry of all lands. The exports of wheat to foreign lands in 1898 were 148,231,261 bushels, worth $145,684,659, and the exports of wheat flour for the same year were 15,349,943 barrels, worth $69,263,718. The total yield of wheat in the United States for 1898 was 675,148,705 bushels. With the fertile earth, and its prolific inventors, the United States has become the richest country in the world. What its future is to be no man may say, but its destiny is not yet fulfilled, and it is pregnant with potential possibilities. CHAPTER XVII. VULCANIZED RUBBER. EARLY USE OF CAOUTCHOUC BY THE INDIANS--COLLECTION OF THE GUM--EARLY EXPERIMENTS FAILURES--GOODYEAR’S PERSISTENT EXPERIMENTS--NATHANIEL HAYWARD’S APPLICATION OF SULPHUR TO THE GUM--GOODYEAR’S PROCESS OF VULCANIZATION--INTRODUCTION OF HIS PROCESS INTO EUROPE--TRIALS AND IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT--RUBBER SHOE INDUSTRY--GREAT EXTENT AND VARIETY OF APPLICATIONS--STATISTICS.