Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 October 1876 — Our Unprecedented Growth. [ARTICLE]

Our Unprecedented Growth.

j. i * TTT 4, lfcl lL j% " ■ kK»f*Mdte'*ks jJtod cenirury oi uiioiunvn wiiH'p pcNid* *>, ore. Bed more Ih.n .m.»riWd,pos sesnlng, according to tha Paat estimates, 44,675,000. TbsSSa has' been nearly quintupled, exlendiug from 800,000 to »,000,844 eqaars miles. The devsfopmeut of agriculture, uuder the prossurs ms immigration and rikmoUßMlbOwbt mechanioal inven tied* haa bdoti withtwo hundred ttotea frotoJP»Doo,m to domestic commerce has tattao gigantic strides | the dovokMMMnt of mineral resources ha* uorlipin the work of a century, but of dftVyeara; and Internal improvemmjta pd ths common school ay atrip hoik kept pace wfthlmmigratioti. contributed vary little to thft population. The oarchaaeef Louleiaiia, Florida,CaMfOvuto and brought in fsotartfcae I#PJW> tor habitants, and the aoquiattton of sasa 3 The aggregate;area oevMtoi *y square■ milts ThS^bsaiu settlement raa 1,000 miles SlSng ths coast from the FenObseot to the Altmabs. with an average extent inland of from 100 je ISO Miles. A sow pioneer* had aside their homes in the Ohio TallS|| there were two or ibree patchee of settlement in Kentucky; there was a village in Indiana and another to Michigan; and there were beads of adventurous spirits as far .west as Illinois. The Leeisiaua purchase in .1808, supplemented by the Oregon Treaty 0f1846, added 1,171,931 square miles to. the nation’s domain; the Spanish cession Ip 1819 embraced 920,868 square foiler, the annexation Texas to 1835, the Treaty of Guadalupe -Hidalgo to 7848, and the Gadsden purchase to 1898, brought to 867*4(1 square miles; and, finally, Mr. Seward’s Alaska investment involved the aoqoisition of 600,000 square miles. The total area ia Row 9,008,644 square miles, one-half of whirit are public lands. Ia surfaoe extent three nations stfrpsss the United States—lb* British, Chinese and Russian Empires. The arable land under cultivation is less than ono-tantb of the total area, but we have, the advantage, that all our oountry, except Alaska, lies in the temperate sene, While muoh of the British aad Ruidau. possessions are to the Arotto* regions, and of no agrieultmyti vMue whatever. —Tht Builder, h .