sion of the railroads to the Pacific Coast, the greater extention of the interior railway systems, the development of the cattle ranches of the West after the extinction of the buffalo and the cooping up of the Indians on the reservations, and a new flood of immigration from European ports. Manufacture experienced an equal expansion at this time and more of the home industries were transferred from the farm to the factory and the shop.
The fifth period, which began in 1887, is now practically completed by the establishment of the Rural Credit or Land Bank system throughout the country. This period has been an era of agricultural reorganization. The easily available public lands were exhausted and intensive methods of cultivation came into vogue in the Eastern and Central sections with a rapid rise in land values. State and Federal schemes for irrigation and drainage were put through to increase the acreage of arable lands. Agricultural colleges were established to spread scientific cultural methods so that the food supply might keep pace with the demands of an increasing industrial population, research work in the realm of agriculture was vigorously prosecuted by numerous experiment stations under State and Federal control, and the period closes with the establishment of a separate system of finance designed to place the agricultural capitalist on a par with the commercial capitalist in the money markets of the world by modilizing and standardizing the basis of his credit.
