ble property increased during the same period _a hundred and
twenty-six_ per cent, we have striking proof of the existence of a vast
and rapidly increasing productive power,--a power largely due to the
influence of those improvements which have been alluded to.

One obvious effect of war is to transfer a portion of labor from the
sphere of effective _production_ to that of extraordinary _consumption_.
To what extent the relations of production and consumption among us have
been changed during the present contest it is impossible to state. That
consumption has been largely increased by our military operations is
apparent to all. It is equally apparent that production also has been
augmented, though not, perhaps, to the same extent. The extraordinary
demand for various commodities for war purposes has brought all the
producing agencies of the country into a high state of activity and
efficiency, giving to the loyal States a larger aggregate production
than they had before the war. Of mining and manufactures this is
unquestionably true. As regards the products of the soil, the
Commissioner of Agriculture, in his Report for 1863, says,--"Although
the year just closed has been a year of war on the part of the Republic,
over a wider field and on a grander scale than any recorded in history,
yet, strange as it may appear, the great interests of agriculture have
not materially suffered in the loyal States.... Notwithstanding there
have been over a million of men employed in the army and navy, withdrawn
chiefly from the producing classes, and liberally fed, clothed, and paid
by the Government, yet the yield of most of the great staples of
agriculture for 1863 exceeds that of 1862.... This wonderful fact of
history--a young republic carrying on a gigantic war on its own
territory and coasts, and at the same time not only feeding itself and
foreign nations, but furnishing vast quantities of raw materials for
commerce and manufactures--proves that we are essentially an
agricultural people; that three years of war have not as yet seriously
disturbed, but rather increased, industrial pursuits; and that the
withdrawal of agricultural labor, and the loss of life by disease and
battle, have been more than compensated by _machinery_ and maturing
growth at home, and by the increased influx of immigration from abroad."

In illustration of the character of those agencies to which we owe the
remarkable and gratifying results thus portrayed b