fortnight in winter. The mails were carried by men on horseback, their saddle-bags sufficing for all the letters sent. In remote places a mail was sent out when enough letters had collected to pay the cost of carriage. The old carrier is said to have jogged slowly onward, knitting stockings to pass the time. Newspapers did not then make part of the regular mail. In 1753, Benjamin Franklin was ap

offices in the country, and five mails a week between New York and Philadelphia. It took two days for a letter to go this distance. The mail routes were then eighteen hundred and seventy-five miles in length, and about twomillion letters were carried yearly. They are now over five hundred thousand miles long, and more than eight thousand million pieces of mail matter are carried yearly. There are more than seventy-seven thousand post-offices. The cost of carrying the mails is much over $100,000,000.

Rates of Postage.-In 1792 the rates of postage on a single letter-sheet were eight cents for a distance under forty miles, ten cents under ninety miles, and so on. It cost seventeen cents to send a letter from New York to Boston and twenty-five cents to send one to Richmond. Two sheets were charged double. In 1845 postage was reduced to five cents per half-ounce for distances under three hundred

miles; ten cents for greater distances. In 1851 it was reduced to three cents for distances under three thousand miles; six cents for greater distances. In 1863 the rate was made three cents for all distances. In 1883 it was reduced to two cents per half-ounce, and in 1885 to two cents per ounce. In addition to letters, millions of newspapers and books now pass through the mails, and small parcels are carried in vast numbers at low rates.

8. INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS AND DEVELOPMENT. Agriculture. The tillage of the ground was the industry to which the Americans most largely devoted themselves in colonial times. The forests

gradually receded before the axes of the pioneers, and wider tracts of land were brought under cultivation, until a vast area of former wilderness was converted into fertile farms. The grains and fruits of Europe were introduced and cultivated, and certain native plants proved of high utility. Chief among these was maize or Indiancorn, whose culture has extended until now it is one of the leading food-plants of the world. Its product in this country far surpasses that of any other grain, reaching in some years the enormous aggregate of over two billion bushels. The potato is another American food-plant whose cultivation has spread throughout the world, and which forms a great portion of the food of mankind.

Tobacco.-Tobacco, found first by Raleigh's colonists in 1585 on Roanoke Island, began to be regularly cultivated in Virginia in 1612. Its culture soon became the great industry of that colony. In 1619 over forty thousand pounds were shipped abroad; in 1640 over one million five hundred thousand pounds. At present over four hundred million pounds are annually produced in this country, worth more than twentyseven million dollars. Nearly one-half of this is grown in Kentucky, which has become the great tobacco-producing State.

THRESHING WITH THE FLAIL.

The commerce of America began with tobacco. The demand for it in Europe grew rapidly, new ground was constantly cleared for its cultivation, and the plantation system, with slave labor, was introduced. At one time it was planted even in the streets of Jamestown. It served as money, the salaries of clergymen and public officers were paid in it, and until the Revolution it was almost the only currency of Virginia.

Wheat, Rice, Indigo, and Sugar.-Wheat, introduced from Europe, was largely cultivated in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. In the last-named State thousands of Conestoga wagons were used to bring the crop to Philadelphia. To-day wheat is one of the most valuable agricultural products of the country and a leading article of export.

In 1693 rice was introduced into South Carolina by a vessel from Madagascar. It grew luxuriantly, and soon became the principal product of the State. The indigo plant

was introduced in 1741, and was so developed that before the Revolution Charleston exported over a million pounds a year.

Another staple of considerable importance was sugar. The cultivation of the sugar-cane was introduced into Louisiana about 1750, but did not become important until after 1800. The annual product of sugar in this country is now over five hundred thousand tons, of which seventy-five thousand are produced from the sugar-beet.

Cotton. Another staple of Southern agriculture, cotton, developed very slowly, from the difficulty of removing the seeds from the fibre. After the invention of the cotton-gin, in 1793, its development was rapid, and this country is now the most important cotton-producing country in the world. The yield of 487,000 pounds in 1793 had increased to 38,118,000 pounds in 1804. In some recent years it has been more than eleven million bales, averaging 487 pounds each.

Other Products.-The agricultural products of this country have become enormous in quantity and widely varied in character. An interesting feature is the great production of tropical fruits, the orange being raised in vast quantities in Florida and California, while lemons, raisins, and other tropical products are largely produced. The total value of farm products in the United States in 1889, as given in the census of 1890, was $2,460,107,454.

Animals. None of the farm animals of Europe were found in this country, neither the horse, the ox, the pig, nor the sheep. These were all introduced by the early settlers, but have very largely increased. The total value of these animals in the United States is now more than two billion dollars, nearly equalling all other farm products. The only animal suitable for domestication found here was the bison,

or buffalo, as it is commonly called. These were found in myriads, but no attempt was made to domesticate them, and they have been wantonly destroyed until only a few hundreds remain.

Similarly all the birds of the farm, except the turkey, were introduced from Europe. Thus while America gave several highly useful plants to the world, it has given but one domesticated animal, the turkey.

Agricultural Implements.-Farming in former centuries was a very laborious occupation. None of the labor-saving machines now in use were then known, and the severest hand labor was necessary. Grass was cut with the scythe, grain with the sickle, and threshing was done on the barn floor with the flail, or the grain was trodden out by the feet of animals. The

COLONIAL PLOUGH.

plough in use was a rude affair, with iron plates roughly fastened on the mould-board.

Results of Invention.-All this has been overcome by the inventive genius of our people. Reaping, mowing, and harvesting ma

chines now do

most of the

work of the

fields. The seed is planted, the grain cut and bound into

STEAM-PLOUGH.

sheaves, by ma

chines which seem to act almost with human intelligence. Machines thresh out the grain, swift-running railroad trains