to Joazeiras, and both have some miles in running order, but great energy will 637 be required to push these roads through the distance of more than three hundred miles. Such, however, is the necessity of these iron ways, through a most fertile tract of country, (where, as on the Pernambuco road, one may count in 70 miles 300 sugar plantations within easy distance,) that their completion is only a question of time.

The San Paulo Railway, all of whose stock has been taken, and the money obtained in London, will lead from Santos, a hundred miles or more south of Rio, to the city of San Paulo, the capital of the flourishing province of the same name. Its ultimate terminus will be further inland. Santos is the port of the great coffee region of Southern Brazil, and there is no doubt, from the prosperity of the province of San Paulo, and the great demand for her production, that the railway will be a profitable one. of the Empire for Americans to establish themselves for the cultivation of InSan Paulo would be an excellent portion dian corn, etc.

Of other railways in South America, there is a short one in operation in the province of Buenos Ayres, and another of a few miles is projected from the city of the same name to a navigable point for large vessels on the La Plata. In Chili, through the far-seeing policy of WM. WHEELWRIGHT, Esq., an American, originally from Newburyport, the first railroad of any length in South America was opened. This is the important Copiapo Railroad, which is situated in one of the richest mining districts in the world. now many miles are opened.) is to connect Valparaiso and Santiago, the capital The second railroad, (of which of Chili. This road will do much to develop and enlighten the best of the Spanish republics. In Peru there is but one little railway, leading from Callao to Lima, a distance of seven miles. We believe that these comprise, with the Panama Railroad, the iron-ways of South America, although we have a faint impression that one has been projected in English Guiana. Railroads on the Pacific coast will always be difficult of construction. but in the Argentine Confederation and the Empire of Brazil, the natural difficulties are no greater than in our own land.

STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE, &c.

GRAPE CULTURE ON KELLEY'S ISLAND, OHIO.

Among the group of islands which are clustered in the southwestern waters of Lake Erie, there are four-Kelley's, South Bass, Middle Bass, and North Bass. They together contain between 4,500 and 5,000 acres of land, which is being rapidly brought into a state of high and productive cultivation.

They were first visited for the wood and timber which they furnished; of the latter, cedar posts formed quite an article of export at one time, but this timber has become nearly exhausted. They still furnish considerable quantities of wood of a very superior quality. We have seen on the wharf at North Bass, a nicer article of wood than we ever saw in any other market.

KELLEY'S ISLAND.

This island contains about 2,800 acres, and has a population of 476, as is shown by the present census. The island is based upon a fossil bearing limestone, which contains an almost endless variety of casts of shells, corals, &c., which are found abundantly everywhere on the island and along the shores. It is divided into two rocky spines, which are elevated several feet above the level of the lake, forming gentle slopes and giving a good surface drainage. The elevated points are stony, with thin, though rich soil. The intervals and slopes have a deep, rich soil, resting upon a thick, compact stratum of clay.

GRAPE CULTURE AND WINE-MAKING.

It is now well settled, in the minds of such as have watched the progress of the matter, that Kelley's Island is destined to become one of the most important vine-growing sections of our country. The first cultivated vines were set on the island in 1843, and for fifteen years have never failed to produce fruit. The old vines are yet healthy and are in vigorous bearing.

Although grapes were thus early cultivated upon the island, it was not until quite recently that vinyards were set for the purpose of making grape-growing and wine-making a business. From statistics furnished us we learn that up to 1858 there were but 16 acres in bearing; in 1859, 20 acres. while for the present year the whole amount of bearing vines reaches 62 acres.

The following table which has been furnished us, was made out with care and gives a correct and full statement of the grape cultivation at this time. The number of acres by actual measurement would be more than the table shows, as the estimate was made from the cuttings, and no allowance made for the alleys which are left through all of the larger vinyards :

GRAPE STATISTICS OF KELLEY'S ISLAND, OHIO, 1860.

This table shows how rapidly this new branch of industry has sprung up on the island. From 16 acres in bearings in 1858, they now have 62 acres in bearing, with a total of 2304 in cultivation-99 of which are of this year's setting.

The Catawba is the principal grape cultivated. This ripens perfectly and seems better adapted to the climate of the islands and the shore immediately along the lake, than it is to the interior, where fogs retard the ripening, and early frosts cut it off before it is matured.

MANNER OF CULTIVATION.

The ground is first prepared by being thoroughly underdrained and by deep plowing. The roots are then placed six feet apart in rows of eight feet. The growing plants are trellised on iron wire stretched between cedar posts.

The best cultivators have abandoned the old mode of close pruning, so much in vogue in European countries, and followed in many places in the United States. They say that a larger growth of wood is needed here. The old method of trenching the ground has been abandoned as it seems to injure the vines.

We are informed that the whole cost of fitting the ground, setting the plants, trellising and cultivating until the vines are in bearing, is $300 per acre. The trellising costs about $130 per acre. There was consumed on the island this season 15 tons of No. 9 telegraph wire, and it is estimated that twice that quantity will be needed next year. It is estimated that one man will cultivate three acres, calculating his labor for the entire year.

The maximum returns per acre is given us as $1,100. Mr. CARPENTER for one year realized that amount from an acre, but the vines have never fruited well since. The average yield is $600. The price of grapes and of the fresh juice is growing less each year, principally because many wish to realize their money, so as to enable them to plant a larger breadth of vines. Grapes sold last year in the vinyards for 7 cents per pound, and the juice for from 90 cents to $1 per gallon. Land on the island is valued at from $100 to $200 per acre.

What they will soon need on the island is a well constructed wine cellar, where their wines can be properly kept until they are well matured. But in this particular they are soon to be well provided for. Mr. CARPENTER has a cellar now in process of construction, which, when completed, will not be excelled, in some particulars, by anything in this country, and so far as we know, in the world.

By excavating the southern slope of the island several extensive quarries of stone have been opened, and among the number Mr. CARPENTER has one of the largest. The rock is seamed back into the hill and transversely, cutting the whole stratum into huge blocks of various sizes. Mr. CARPENTER found in his quarry two of these seams 35 feet apart, running back in perpendicular lines, with faces exactly parallel and as even as a wall of cut stone. Mr. CARPENTER conceived the idea of removing the block of stone found between these seams for the purpose of constructing a wine cellar. After removing this huge block of stone to a perpendicular depth of 16 feet, and back into the hill a distance of 110 feet, he came to a seam, cutting the others at right angles. This gave him the side and back walls and the floor of a cellar, all of solid rock, and left him nothing to do to complete it but to provide for the roof and the front wall. The floor is on a level with the rock in the quarry in front of the cellar, and as these seams extend down to depths unknown, they will drain it most perfectly. The front is to be a wall of mason work, and the roof an arch of stone.

At a height of seven feet from the floor, upward, there is found a stratum of

shale-like rock, about four feet thick, which is so broken as to enable the workmen to displace it with picks and heavy hammers, and along this, the masons, at the time of our visit, were cutting a broad, substantial shoulder. for the base of the roof arch to rest upon. The roof will thus commence seven feet from the floor along the sides, and, resting upon this shoulder cut in rock as solid as the eternal hills, will be carried up to a point in the center, 16 feet above the floor, and will thus have a curve rising nine feet from the base, and this will bring the top of the arch on a level with the surrounding surface.

Over this cellar, built like the houses of Edom, or the ancient tombs of Asia, Mr. CARPENTER will erect his wine house, and so arrange it that the juice will be conducted from the press vats to any part of the cellar below. The capacity of the cellar will be ample for 300,000 gallons of wine. It is broad enough for three rows of casks, placed so as to leave the requisite room to pass along and examine both ends of the casks--a thing which has to be done daily in wine cellars.

COTTON.

The third annual report of the British Cotton Supply Association contains many curious facts, illustrating the energy and research of the association, acting under the imperative necessity of finding some source to supply, if not present requirements, at least the future increase of demand.

In examining this report, we are rather surprised at the extent of the ground covered by the enterprise of the association. There is not an inhabited cotton country in the world to which their attention has not been directed.

Through the influence of her Britannic Majesty's consuls, the cultivation of cotton has been commenced in Turkey. The Home Minister of Greece has introduced it into some dozen departments of that classic land, and in the island of Cyprus an estate of eighty thousand acres has been devoted to it. A few months ago, Sir MACDONALD STEPHENSON, who is engaged with a railway connecting Smyrna with the fertile valley of the Meander, in Asia Minor, has distributed seed and directions for planting and gathering the crop among the farmers of that celebrated region.

Of Egypt, the committee say that they are about publishing a report, showing the origin, progress, and extent of the cotton culture in the land of Pharaohs. That report, they add, will contain suggestion for increasing the growth from one hundred thousand bales per annum to the large figure of one million. In Tunis, the Bey, stimulated by the representations of the committee, is using exertions to induce his subjects to raise cotton. In Western Africa, at Sierra Leone and Sherbro, cotton gins have been introduced, and a trade commenced in the native cotton raised in the neighborhood. In Liberia, the President is making great exertions to establish the cotton culture. An agent of the association has been traversing that country, and has awakened a strong interest in the subject. Along the Gold Coast, the governor of the English possessions is exerting himself to carry out the views of the association. At Accra and Cape Coast Castle, are agricultural societies, which make the cotton cultivation their specialty. A great deal of cotton is raised in the countries adjacent. The Accra Agricultural Society has engaged with a Lancashire firm to purchase this cotton, which they buy in the seed for less than a cent a pound. This cot

ton, cleaned, is worth in Liverpool fourteen cents a pound. Not long since an agent of the association visited the interior. His report, it is said, leaves no doubt that soon a large export trade will grow up. In one district this agent found 70,000 people busy growing, spinning, and weaving cotton.

The prospect is, that in the numerous towns which stud the coasts cotton marts will be established. At Elmina, Benin, Old Calabar, and the Cameroone, a good beginning has been made by the distribution of seeds and cotton (hand) gins. At Lagos, already a hopeful trade has been opened. The exports from the western coast rose, from 1858 to 1859, from 1,800 bales to 3,447. At Abbeokuta, the native chiefs have contracted with the New York African Civilization Company for the allotment of lands to a colony of free blacks from the United States. An English company is forming in aid of this enterprise, one gentleman offering to take shares to the amount of $10,000. Along the line of the river Niger it is proposed to establish trading stations. It is reported that immense quantities, worth, clean, in Liverpool, 16 cents, may be bought, cleaned, on the Niger, for 6 cents.

In South Africa, the Government of Natal is stimulating the cotton culture by proposing to receive what is called the hut tax from the native subjects in cotton. Numerous farmers there are planting it. One of them reports that he has on hand 100,000 pounds. In Eastern Africa, the Oxford and Cambridge Mission is about to establish a European colony in the Valley of the Shire, one great object of which will be the raising of cotton.

In the West Indies efforts are being made to revive and extend the cultivation. In Havana there has been established a company (the Anglo-Spanish Cotton Company) for this purpose, with a capital of four millions of dollars. In Jamaica the British Cotton Company report very encouraging progress.

In South America some enterprising cultivators have taken cotton cultivation in hand with excellent prospects. It British Guiana an effort is being made to extend the cultivation there.

In Batavia, East Indies, good progress has been made; and in Java seed has been furnished for planting on one of the estates in that island. In Ceylon the subjects of the crown are to be allowed to pay a portion of their tax in cotton.

From the Feejee Islands the committee have received specimens of cotton growing wild there, and reproducing for from ten to fifteen years. The samples are so valuable as to range from 13 to 24 cents a pound. It is calculated that from one-half the area of these islands might be raised three or four millions of bales. But as the total population of the islands is only 200,000, it is clear that there must be a large increase to their working population before that pitch of excellence can be reached. The committee hope that the cession to Great Britain, proposed by the chiefs, will be accepted; and add the expression of their high admiration of the quality of the cotton growing wild on the islands. They say that from no other quarter of the world "has such a collection of graduated qualities been received."

Pegu is also receiving attention. Australia has entered into the cultivation, and is expected soon to export freely. Samples of "sea island" from Australia have sold at from 1s. 8d. to 2s. per pound.

But it is evidently to India that this spirited association looks most hopefully