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an area of 2,445,000 square miles, and extends through thirty degrees of longitude and twenty-three degrees of latitude. In this valley, which is still new in its early development, there are already many large and flourishing cities, each expecting, in the future, to be greater than others. First among these stand Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and New Orleans-four cities destined, at no distant day, to surpass, in wealth and population, the four cities of the Atlantic seaboard - Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Assuming, then, that the future great city is to be in the Mississippi Valley, we are to ascertain which of the four cities it is to be, or whether some new and more prosperous rival will present itself for the great mission. As the great city is to be in the future, we must view it as the growth of the well-developed resources of our country; and, all things being considered, it is but just to say that, inasmuch as it will be an organism of human power, it will grow up in or near the center of the productive power of the Continent. That Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and New Orleans have each many natural advantages, there can be no question. There is, however, this difference: the area of surrounding habitable country, capable of ministering to the wants and supplying the trade of a city, is broken, in the case of New Orleans, by the Gulf and the lake, and by regions of swamp; in the case of Chicago, it is diminished one-third by the lake; while Cincinnati and St. Louis both have around them unbroken and uninterrupted areas, capable of sustaining a large population. But if we ask to which of these cities belong the greatest advantages, must we not answer, it is the one nearest the center of the productive power of the Continent? Most certainly, for there will grow up the human power. And is not this center St. Louis? We have only to appeal to facts to establish the superior natural advantages of St. Louis over any other city on the Continent.

But, before we enter upon a discussion of the productive powers of the Continent, let us look for one moment at the elements of human want upon which civilization is founded; and this brings us back to a consideration of our auxiliary and essential requisites to our six fundamental facts. Under all circumstances, and in every condition of life, in country or clime, the first and greatest necessity of man is food; and, with a civilization and an industry universally founded upon the principle of "for value received," it is incontrovertibly true that, in that part of the country where the most food can be produced and supplied at the cheapest rates to the consumers, there will be an Lessential requisite to encourage and sustain a dense population. Then, without entering into a detailed investigation of the advantages afforded to Chicago, Cincinnati, and New Orleans, for obtaining an all-sufficient supply of cheap food, we shall at once assume that St. Louis is central to a better and greater food-producing area or country than either one or the other three cities; and that no man can disprove the assumption, is most certainly true.

St. Louis is, substantially, the geographical center of this great valley, which, as we have already seen, contains an area of 2,445,000 square miles, and will, in the mature development of the capacity of its soil, wield, at least, the products of 1,000,000 square miles. That we may infor, approximately, the

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capacity of the more central portions of this valley for food producing purposes, we call to the calculation an estimate, made by the Agricultural Bureau, of the cereal products of the Northwest for the next four decades :

Year.
1870..
1880.........

1900......

Bushels.

762,200,000

..1,219,520,000

..1,951,232,000

..3,121,970,000

We consume in this country an average of about five bushels of wheat to the inhabitant, but, if necessary, can get along with something less, as we have many substitutes, such as corn, rye, and buckwheat. A low estimate will show that our population will be in :

Accordingly, we can use for home consumption alone of wheat in:

Year.
1870
1880
1890

1900

Bushels. .210,000,009

..280,000,000

................................................................................................................385,000,000

...500,000,000

This calculation is made for Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota; and by taking into the account Nebraska, Kansas, the Indian Territory, and Arkansas, four additional States which naturally belong to the account of this argument, we at once swell the amount of food for the next three decades to a sufficiency to supply hundreds of millions of human beings, at as cheap rates as good soil and human skill and labor can produce it.

Nor do these States comprise half of the food-producing area of the Valley of the Mississippi. Other large and fertile States, more eastern, and southern, and western-Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Kansas, and Nebraska-do now, and will continue to, contribute largely to the sum total of the food produced in the Valley States. And when we consider that less than one-fifth of the entire products of the whole country in 1860 was exported to foreign countries, thus leaving four-fifths for exchange in domestic commerce between the States, and that such is the industrial and commercial tendency of our people to a constant proportional increase of our domestic over our foreign exchange, we see an inevitable tendency in our people to concentrate industrially and numerically in the interior of the Continent. And when we take into the account that not more than eighteen per cent. of the soil of the best States of this valley is under cultivation, we are still more amazed at the thought of what the future will produce, when the whole shall have been brought under a high state of improved culture. Then the food-producing capacity of this valley will be ample to supply more people than now occupy the entire globe, and with the superior advantages of domestic navigation that St. Louis has over any of the valley cities, and the still additional advantages which she will have in railway

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communications, and her proximity to rich soils, where can a people be
supplied with more and cheaper food than here? Not only are the superior
advantages afforded for the production of an abundance of cheap corn and
wheat for food, but also for the growth of rye, oats, barley, sugar, and all
kinds of vegetables and fruits essentially necessary for the wants of those
who inhabit the land. In addition to the food taken direct from the soil, St.
Louis is better situated than the other three cities for being amply supplied,
at the lowest possible rates, with the best quality of animal food. Not only
is there every advantage on all sides to be supplied with animal food from
the constantly increasing products of agricultural districts adjacent to the
city, but in twenty hours ride by railway we reach the great pastoral region
of our country, where, in a few years, cattle and sheep will swarm over the
wide prairies in infinite numbers, where they are kept in reserve to supply
the markets of the constantly increasing people. Already the domestic
animals — quadrupeds—are more numerous in civilized life than were the
wild quadrupeds among the aboriginal savages of this country. In the year
1860, taken together, horses, asses and mules, oxen, sheep and swine amounted
to more than one hundred millions, or more than three times the human
population of the Union. Considering the great pastoral region of our country
which will, before many years, be brought into use, the increase of quadru-
peds will, no doubt, be greater than that of man; at least, for the next fifty
years, the increase on the pastoral region will exercise a valuable influence
in aiding to establish good and sufficient markets in the large cities of the
Valley States, thus concentrating and strengthening the power of the interior
people, who will find ample food at all times. And, in every view of the
subject of food, there seems to be no question as to the advantage St. Louis
will possess for an abundance and for cheapness over the other three cities,
holding, as she does, the nearest relation to the producer, and with better
facilities for obtaining it.
Next to food, as a prime necessity, is the want of clothing. The principal
materials out of which to make clothing are wool, cotton, linen, and leather.
Each of these can be produced cheapest and best in and adjacent to the food-
producing regions, or, at any rate, the wool and the leather. In fact, in the
final advancement and multiplication of the human species upon the planet,
for the want of room cotton will have to be abandoned, and only those animals
and vegetables cultivated that can serve the double purpose of supplying food
and clothing, and material for the mechanic arts. This will compel cattle and
sheep, and wheat and corn, to be the principal food. The flesh of the sheep
and the cow will supply food, and the hides, leather and the wool, clothing.
The grain of the corn and the wheat will also form food, while the stalk will
enter into many uses in art. The hog will finally be compelled to give up the
conflict of life; his mission will be fulfilled, and man will require a more
refined food for his more refined organization. Fish will not be in the way of
man in his higher and more multitudinous walk upon the earth, and, conse-
quently, will continue to supply a valuable portion of his food. Cotton will,
ere long, be driven to an extreme southern coast, and, finally, gain a strong

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foothold in Central America and other more extreme southern countries, and, at last, yield to superior demands. But, to return: St. Louis, on account of the large area of rich, and, in most part, cheap lands, surrounding her in every direction, has equal, if not better advantages, for being supplied with ample materials for cheap and good clothing than any other city on the Continent; and, with superior advantages, as we shall show after awhile, for the manufacture of the materials into clothing, she will stand first in facilities to supply food and clothing to her ever-increasing people.

Next to food and clothing comes the necessity for shelter, or houses, which are essential to a high civilization. The materials out of which houses are mostly made, in American cities, are stone and brick, while the farmer builds of stone and wood. Of these building materials an inexaustible supply is to be found in almost any direction we may go out, for three hundred miles, from St. Louis. It may be said that, inasmuch as Chicago has the advantages of cheaper lumber, she has the advantage over St. Louis in building material; but this does not follow. The new and best buildings of Chicago are made of stone and brick, brought from distant places; while St. Louis stands on an immense foundation of good limestone, from which thousands of perch are quarried annually, and worked into first-class buildings. Besides, within fifty and one hundred miles from the city, in the southeastern part of the State, are inexhaustible beds of choice qualities of as fine building stone as the Continent affords; also, extensive forests of the most valuable timbers, suited for the mechanic arts and for building material. Brick, of first-class quality, are made in various parts of the city, and supply the demand for building purposes. Nor can any of these supplies be exhausted for ages to come. Stone and wood are found in abundance in all parts of the Valley States, wherewith to supply the farmer with cheap building materials.

Thus, we have seen that the three essential requisites, food, clothing, and shelter, necessary to man's wants and the purposes of civilization, can be supplied in abundance and cheapness to St. Louis, with greater advantages than to any other city belonging to the Valley States; and these must render her the greatest market and the best depot for such materials that the Continent affords.

Passing, then, from these essential requisites, let us take up another line of discussion, that bears more directly upon the future development of American commerce and American civilization. I refer to the productive power of the Continent, which is the basis of our physical and material life. In what does the productive power of the Continent consist? The answer must be, that it consists in the soils suited to agricultural purposes, the coal-fields, the mineral deposits, the valuable forests, the water-powers, the domestic navigation, and all o'erspread with a temperate and healthful climate. Although the largest coal and iron deposits of the Continent are already known, the geology of the entire extent is so imperfectly known that there still remain undisturbed in many of the Territories, and even in some of the States, valuable deposits of these two substances, which, ere long, will be unearthed and made subservient to the wants of our people.

Beginning with the soils of the country, it is well understood, by those acquainted with its surface, that the largest and richest body of soil, best suited for corn, wheat, oats, rye, and hay-growing, is spread over the Valley States. In fact, no country in the world has so large an area of rich land as belongs to the States of the Mississippi Valley. In capacity for producing the various products in the department of agriculture, it has already been referred to in the discussion of the subject of food, and will require no further consideration.

Next to the corn-fields above come the coal-fields below, and the iron deposits. These are the material upon which modern and more advanced civilization is founded, more than upon any other substances which the arts have brought into use. Says Prof. Taylor: "The two important mineral substances, coal and iron, have, when made available, afforded a permanent basis for commercial and manufacturing prosperity. Looking at the position of some of the geat depositories of coal and iron, ono perceives that upon them the most flourishing population is concentrated—the most powerful and magnificent nations of the earth are established. If these two apparently coarse and unattractive substances have not directly caused that high eminence to which some of these countries have attained, they at least have had a large share in contributing to it."

M. Aug. Vischers also says, that "coal is now the indispensable aliment of industry; it is a primary material, engendering force, giving a power superior to that which natural agents, such as water, air, &c., procure. It is to industry what oxygen is to the lungs, water to the plants, nourishment to the animal. It is to coal we owe steam and gas."

Whoever will look into the development of commerce and civilization.during the greater part of this century will find that coal and iron have given them their cast and development in Europe and America. Nor have either of these attained their highest use. On examination, we find that St. Louis is far better supplied than Chicago, Cincinnati, or New Orleans, with coal and iron; in fact, she stands in a central position to the greatest coal-fields known on the globe. Surrounded on the one side by the inexhaustible coal-beds of Illinois, and on the other by the larger ones of Missouri, Iowa, and Kansas, who can doubt her advantages in the use of the most important substance for the next two thousand years? On the one side we have Illinois, with her 30,000 square miles of coal, which is estimated by Prof. Rodgers to amount to 1,227,500,000,000 tons, which is much greater than the deposits in Philadelphia-they amounting, according to the same authority, to 316,400,000,000 tons. On the other side we have Missouri, with more than 26,887 square miles, amounting to more than 130,000,000,000 tons. Iowa has her 24,000 square miles of coal; Kansas, 12,000 square miles; Arkansas, 12,000 square miles; and the Indian Territory, 10,000 square miles. Nearly all the other States are likewise bountifully supplied, but these figures are sufficient to show the position of St. Louis to the greatest coal deposits in the world. We can only approximate to the value of these resources by contrast. It is the available use of these two substances that has made England - a little island of the sea, not so great as