PRODUCTION OF HOGS IN KENTUCKY.

The following official statement of the number of hogs assessed in each county of the State of Kentucky for the years 1853 and 1854, was compiled at Frankfort, the seat of government for that State, expressly for the Cincinnati Price Current. The increase over last year, it is seen, is 158,807 head:

WHEAT PRODUCTION AND EXPORTATION OF THE UNITED STATES. The Cincinnati Railroad Record estimates the wheat crop of 1854, in this country, at one hundred and fifty millions of bushels, and the home consumption at one hundred and twenty millions, leaving but thirty millions for export. The exports of the United States in wheat and flour, reduced to bushels, in 1831 and 1852, were as follows:

In 1851....
In 1852...

.bushels

....

101,000,000
143,000,000

12.038,380
16,551,902

It will be seen that the proportion was very nearly the same, viz.: twelve per cent of the crop. In a crop of one hundred and twenty millions the same proportion will give eighteen millions of bushels for exportation. But as the price was then low, we must allow for an increased export under high prices. Thirty millions, however, is the very utmost we can export, without changing the use of wheat and flour to that of corn. It is very evident, then, that if the war in Europe continues, deranging as it does the sources of supply, and the market for breadstuffs, the prices for breadstuffs in this country will continue to range much above the ordinary average.

The Record adds

There is a popular error as to the production of wheat in the United States, which pervades the commercial circles as well as the newspapers. It arises from confounding the capacity to produce with the actual production. Men look round on the fertile grain-growing soil of the United States, and say, "We can feed all Europe." Very true, we can, but we do not. The countries on the Baltic and Black seas send vastly greater surpluses to market than we do, and always will, unless prices rule higher in the United States. The fact is, that on the average prices paid for wheat, the American farmer has no great temptation to indulge in that crop. Notwithstanding all the boasts made of wheat culture on the prairie lands of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois, they have as yet made no advance on the wheat culture of Ohio. The fact is, that the grass and corn which go into cattle and hogs are the most profitable crops. Under present prices, it is true the farmer will produce as much wheat as he can, but he had no such prices until after the fall planting was made. The agriculture of a country cannot be changed in one year or two. At one dollar per bushel, the farmer will be glad to cultivate wheat; but he seldom has that temptation, and the great irregularity of prices is one of the drawbacks on that crop.

We conclude, then, even if Ohio produces more than an average crop, yet there will be no excessive surplus of grain in this country. If we need heavy surpluses, we must have another year of cultivation to produce them.

THE CULTURE OF COTTON IN INDIA.

England is making every effort in her power to release herself from dependence on the United States for her main supply of "food for her looms." We fancy it will be a long time before she accomplishes that object. We copy from a London journal the following statement:

A resident in India has forwarded to Mr. Bazley, President of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, four samples of cotton produced in Assam, obtained by him at one of the monthly meetings of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of Calcutta. No. 1. Dera Kupas indigenous cotton, with seed in it, grown in Debrooghur; No. 2. Jaloha Kupas indigenous cotton, with seed in it, grown in Debrooghur; B, No. 1. Sea Island cotton, gathered in Debrooghur, in December, 1853; B, No. 2, cotton grown from American Gulf seed, gathered in Debrooghur in December, 1853. B, No. 1 and No. 2 are both grown from United States seed. The B No. 1 is said to preserve all the characteristics of Sea Island cotton, though grown so far inland as Upper Assam; the B No. 2 is considered a valuable cotton, and both are held sufficient to prove that even excellent cotton can be grown in India. The indigenous cotton is poor. Mr. Blundell recommends that a supply of good fresh Sea Island seed be obtained from South Carolina and Georgia, and sent to Debrooghur, properly packed, and upon this recommendation the Chamber intends to act directly, including also seeds of other American cottons, the Upland, New Orleans, &c.; also of Egyptian and of the Brazil descriptions. The Brazil, Mr. Blundell thinks might answer well-the

same length of staple might be preserved, and the fiber made finer and less wiry by the soil and climate. Another suggestion which he makes is, that as land in India pays a tax to the Government, it might be advisable, should the business of growing, cotton at Debrooghur be taken up by the Manchester interests, to solicit the Court of Directors to forego any rent of the land for the first ten or twelve years.

AGRICULTURAL AND COMMERCIAL VALUE OF RAILROADS.

The Democracy, a journal recently established at Buffalo by an association of gentlemen, and conducted with a good deal of ability, publishes the following table and remarks illustrating the value of railroads :—

Upon the ordinary highways, the economical limit to transportation is confined within a comparatively few miles, depending of course upon the kind of freight and the character of the roads. Upon the average of such ways, the cost of transportation is not far from fifty cents per ton per mile, which may be considered as a sufficently correct estimate for the whole country. Estimating, at the same time, the value of wheat at $1 50 per bushel, and corn at 75 cents, and that 33 bushels of each are equal to a ton, the value of the former would be equal to its cost of transportation 330 miles, and the latter 165 miles. At these respective distances from market, neither of the above articles would have any commercial value, with only a common earth road as an avenue to market. But we find that we can move property upon railroads at the rate of fifteen cents per ton per mile, or for one-tenth the cost upon the ordinary road. These works, therefore, extend the economic limit of the cost of transportation of the above articles to 3,300 and 1,650 miles respectively.

STATEMENT SHOWING THE VALUE OF A TON OF WHEAT, AND ONE OF CORN, AT GIVEN POINTS FROM MARKET, AS AFFECTED BY COST OF TRANSPORTATION BY RAILROAD AND OVER THE ORDINARY ROAD.

How wonderfully does the railroad enhance the value of farming lands at a distance from market! American farms, generally speaking, are very far from market. Indeed, New York is the market for the bulk of the northern agricultural products. Most English farms have a market nearly in sight of them. But ours are for the most part so far away, that railroads of long lines and long connections instantly double, treble, quadruple, and quintuple the worth of grain lands near where they run. This has been the case in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Canada. The President of the Nashville and Chattanoogo road has stated that the increase in the value of a belt of land ten miles mide, lying upon each side of that line, was equal to $6 50 per acre, or $96,000 for every mile of road, which cost the company only $20,000 a mile. It has been calculated that the construction of the 2,000 miles of railroad in Ohio would add to the value of landed property in that State three hundred millions of dollars-that is, five times the cost of the roads, which was $60,000,000. The country can stand bankruptcies that come through railroad enterprises, if it can stand any. Of all forms, they are the least mischievous.

IS FARMING PROFITABLE ?

We should be glad if the following statement which we find in the Manchester Farmer, was the means of inducing many of our young men to enter into a pursuit far more certain of securing a competency than that of merchandising in our overcrowded cities:

We often hear the affirmative of this denied, and by persons, too, whose opinions were entitled to credit. We do not prefer to discuss this subject, but to give a practical illustration of it, and let our readers make the application.

Deacon Brooks Shattuck, of Bedford, bought and moved upon a farm, eleven years since. It was a rough farm, for which he paid $2,300. He was a manufacturer, and had shattered his health in a mill at Lowell. He paid, in cash $900, leaving a debt to be paid on the farm of $1,400. During that eleven years he has supported a large family, educated his children, having one son in college, has contributed liberally to the charities of the day, has been a liberal supporter and patron of agricultural societies, spending time and money freely, to further these objects-in a word, he has been an active, industrious book-farmer. Now mark the result. He has sold from his farm, $100 worth of land, and $300 worth of wood, timber, &c., standing upon the same, which may not be reckoned as the result of agricultural labor. He has paid the $1,400, and a few weeks since sold his farm for $3,700, giving a balance on his farm of $1,500, for improvements, and the rise in the value of lands. To recapitualate receipts from farm :—

for the receipts on the purchase, and carrying on a farm for eleven years, besides the support of a large family. In addition, he has recovered his health, so as to labor daily on his farm.

ASPARAGUS SEED A SUBSTITUTE FOR COFFEE.

Asparagus is waxing potent enough to threaten a usurpation of breakfastdom! Hear what experimental philosophy pronounces on the coming revolution: —

Liebig (the illustrious German chemist) says that asparagus contains, in common with tea and coffee, a principle which he calls "taurine," and which he considers essential to the health of those who do not take strong exercise. Taking the hint from Baron Liebig, a writer in the London Gardener's Chronicle, was led to test asparagus as a substitute for coffee. He says: "The young shoots I first prepared were not agreeable, having an alkaline taste. I then tried the ripe seeds; these roasted and ground make a full-flavored coffee, not easily distinguished from fine Mocha. The seeds are easily freed from the berries by drying them in a cool oven, and then rubbing them on a sieve." In good soils asparagus yields seeds abundantly; and if they are charged with "taurine," and identical with the seeds of the coffee plant, asparagus coffee may be grown in the United States at less than half the cost per pound of the article now so largely imported.

THE DIOSCOREA JAPONICA A SUBSTITUTE FOR POTATOES.

GALLIGNANI says: "For the last four years considerable attention has been paid at the Museum of Natural History, in Paris, to the cultivation of a plant coming from China, and known under the name of dioscorea japonica. This plant, says the writer of a paper sent to the Central Agricultural Society, may by its size, weight and hardy character, become exceedingly valuable in France, as it will serve as a substitute for the potato. Its tubercles, like those of the Jerusalem artichoke, resist in the open air the severest winter without sustaining any injury. Several specimens of these roots, of very large size, were presented in 1852 to the society, one of which, of a cylindrical form, was three feet in length; another tubercle, presented in 1853, weighed three pounds, the former having been in the earth 20 months, and the latter 16. The flavor of this vegetable is more delicate than that of the potato."

NAUTICAL INTELLIGENCE.

DISCOVERY OF A SHOAL OFF NEW POINT COMFORT, AND DESCRIPTION OF YORK SPIT, CHESAPEAKE BAY.

T. J. ALMY, of the United States Navy, Assistant in the Coast Survey, represents to A. D. Bache, Superintendent, the discovery of a shoal southeast of New Point Comfort Lighthouse, which he proposes to call "New Point Shoal." The particulars of this discovery, as given in the following extracts from Mr. Almy's letter, will be useful to navigators:

While prosecuting the soundings off to the southward and eastward of New Point Comfort Lighthouse, I discovered a shoal with 18, 17, and 16 feet upon it. This is the only detached shoal, if I may except the "Inner Middle," with which I have met anywhere below Windmill Point, or below the widest part of Chesapeake Bay. This shoal is three-quarters of a mile long and a third of a mile wide, extending in an E. N. E. and W. S. W. direction, and the 16 feet shoal part lies due southeast from New Point Comfort Lighthouse, a distance of four nautical miles from it. There are 5 and 6 fathoms between this shoal and the lighthouse. The best charts have 6 fathoms where this shoal lies.

York Spit is, as you know, one of the greatest dangers to navigators in this part of Chesapeake Bay. It is a narrow spit or bar lying between the entrance into Mobjack Bay and the entrance into York River, varying in width from a quarter to half a mile, and extending out from the land 6 nautical, equal to 74 statute miles, where it commences to deepen beyond 3 fathoms. At a distance of 6 nautical miles from the land there is, as I found, only 14 feet of water.

FIXED LIGHT AT PLUMB POINT, PORT ROYAL, JAMAICA.

The following official notice has been received at this office, and is published in the Merchants' Magazine for the information of mariners. It was signed by Thomas Henderson, Commodore, Geo. J. Gibbon, master of Her Majesty's ship Imaum, and published by order of the Commissioner, and of the Lighthouse Board:

A light-house has been erected 66 yards north of the south extreme of Plumb Point, on the Palisadoes, immediately opposite the town of Kingston, Jamaica, (West Indies) in lat. 17° 55′ 45" North, and long. 76° 47' West of Greenwich. It is 68 feet above the level of the sea, painted white, and will exhibit, on and after the 20th July, a fixed light, red from S. E. by E. § E. to W., and white S. W. to N. W. It may be seen, in clear weather, 12 miles distant.

Directions. The red light brought anything to the northward of N. W. by W. 4 W. will clear, to the southward, the low shelving ground of Cow Bay Point, and Lamotte's Bank; and the same light, brought to the westward of N. E., will clear, to the eastward, all the shoal ground lying to the eastward of Maiden and South East Cays.

Vessels working up from the southward for anchorage off Plumb Point, or intending to proceed into harbor, must tack immediately on losing the red light until within half a mile S. W. of the Point, when the white light will open, bearing N. E.; then steer W. by N. N. until it bears E. & S., passing close to the northward of the White Beacon Buoy off the Forth Spit of Gun Cay; then alter course to S. W. by W., and as soon as the light opens of the south extreme of Gun Cay, E. S., steer W. by N., which will lead in between the Beacon and West Middle Shoals, (or take the channel to the northward of the New Shoal, passing close round Port Royal Point,) and as soon as the bright light on Fort Augustus bears N. by E., haul up for it, which will lead clear to the westward of the harbor knowle, and the South and North Pelican Spits, and as soon as Plumb Point Light bears S. E. by E. southerly, haul up ↑ S. for the anchorage of Kingston, when a red light will be seen on Fort Augusta astern, bearing W. N. from the anchorage off Kingston.

The white light will show the vicinage of all the cays and shoals lying to the southward and westward of Plumb Point, as well as the northeastern limits of the shoal extending to the eastward of the North Pelican spit westward of Kingston harbor.