THE WISCONSIN FARMER.



MECHANICAL AND COMMERCIAL.



        Ruda a    the VUi$t d Utaft

  That invaluable journal and prince of bus-
iness monthlies, Hunfs  ferchamta Nagazube,
has an able article in the October No., entitled
"Russia and the United States-Future Bm-
pires," showing the advanced position and
prospects of these two mighty empires. We
copy the following remarkable passage:
  The United States have the greatest number
of miles of railroad of any nation of the earth.
They have expended in their construction
$1,000,000,000, and by means of them a popu-
lation, doubling every few years, is enabled
to make available the products of the most
fertile land in the world. The same agency,
started by American engineers, is now spread-
ing over Russia and producing results there
only inferior to those mighty creations of
wealth which we have seen from their opera-
tion here. Under the influence of those two
mighty agents, steam and rail, aided by ma-
chinery of all descriptions, the two young,
active, and growing Powers of the East and
the West have but started on their career.
The following figures show how they compare
with Europe:
                                Per  Gold
      8q mls. Pop.    Debt.    h'd. per an'm.
Russia 312,074 75,148,690 1,248,900,000  528,500,000
U. S ....3,250,000 31,446,080 1,900,000,000  65,000,000
Total 3,552,074 106,593,770 $2,748,900,000 $27 S3,000,000
Zurop &
Or. Br..1,G47,125 215,913,008 7,977,464,000 41 15,000,000
  Thus the two empires have an area of Tir-
gin and prolific soil more than double that of
the whole of Europe. Their population is
nearly one-half that of Europe, doubling
every twenty years, and will, in half a cen-
tury, exceed that of Europe. The power of
each country respectively grows in a ratio
much greater than the mere increase of the
population, as is manifest in the unhappy
struggle now going on in the Union. In
1800, five millions of exhausted people came
out of a struggle for their independence. In
sixty years they have overtaken Great Britain
in numnbers, and have displayed a military
power in two years at which the world may



well wonder. One million and four hundred
and ninety-five thousand men have been called
into the field, and $1,600,000,000 of capital
poured into the Federal Treasury to support
the war, without apparently :disturbing the
course of events or checking the supply of
food sent to make good the short harvests of
Western Europe. Russia is developing sim-
ilar powers, and it has become apparent that
in fifty years-perhaps in the lifetime of the
present sovereigns of France and England-
the two great nations will completely have
overshadowed the political power and com-
mercial importance of Europe and England.
The present importance of the latter consists
in working up the raw materials and food of
Russia and the United States into goods for
sale in the general markets. But Russia and
the United States will very soon rival her in
ability to manufacture. In that hour the em-
pire of commerce will pass to the new powers.

     Labor Saving Machinery 1br Women.

  Having patiently and hopefully bided her
time, woman is at last beginning to be reliev-
ed from that severity of drudging toil under
the doom of which she has rested hitherto.
  The Sewing Machine, though so long in
coming, is so wonderfully helpful as almost to
compensa' e the race for the slow and tedious
finger stitching of the centuries gone by.
Nor is the blessing it has conferred confined
to the immense saving of actual labor which
it has so effectually secured; it will also prove
an incalculable good in that it has, to an ex-
tent never before realized, led the inventive
genius of man into this wide and interesting
field.
  Women have had less intellectual culture
because the false sentiment of society has, in
the first place, denied their need of it, and
secondly, demanded such a use of their powers
as must, necessarily, leave but little or no
time for mental improvement. A more libe-
ral sentiment is growing in favors however,
and with its advancement there will come
those improvements in those material appli-
ances which look to a lightening of her labors.



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