who employed Messrs. Broadhead, Wright, and Geddes, to commence the construction of the Erie, and Mr. Garvin, that of the Champlain Canal. The following year the dimensions of these canals were fixed at forty feet surface and four feet depth, with locks ninety feet long and fifteen feet wide. The estimated cost of both canals was stated at $7,750,000. (The actual cost was about $8,500,000.) Work was commenced on the Erie Canal by the ceremony of breaking ground, July 4, 1817.

In 1819 the Canal Commissioners appointed Benjamin Wright principal, and Canvass White and Nathan S. Roberts chief engineers. To Mr. White is due the arrangement of some of the most important plans and details of the works of the Erie Canal, and also the discovery of the hydraulic cement rocks of Onondaga, which have continued to furnish the supply of that article for the State works. A portion of the middle section of the Erie Canal, and also of the Champlain Canal, was open for navigation in the fall of 1819, and the Erie Canal was completed in the fall of 1826.

In 1825 the Legislature directed the construction of the Cayuga and Seneca, and the Oswego Canals, and surveys for fifteen other canals, amounting to seven hundred and fifteen miles in length. The Oswego Canal was completed in 1828, and the Cayuga and Seneca in 1829.

In 1829 the construction of the Chemung and Crooked Lake Canals was authorized. The former was completed in 1833, and the latter in 1836, under the direction of Holmes Hutchinson, as chief engineer.

The construction of the Chenango Canal was commenced in 1833, and completed in 1837, under the charge of John B. Jervis, as chief engineer. The Black River and the Genesee Valley Canals were commenced in 1836. The two last named works are yet unfinished.

In 1825 the Canal Commissioners stated that "the great press of business on the eastern end, before long, will exclude packet (passenger) boats from this section of the canal."***" and it is presumed that the experience of two or three years more will satisfy the public that it would be proper to commence the construction of another parallel canal on the eastern section."

The Legislature of 1834 passed an act directing double locks to be constructed east of Syracuse, and in the following year directed the enlargement of the Erie Canal for its whole extent.

The Canal Board determined the dimensions of the enlarged, canal at seventy feet surface and seven feet depth, with locks one hundred and eighteen feet long and eighteen feet wide.

The work was commenced in 1836 and prosecuted until 1842, when the embarrassed condition of the treasury and the financial difficulties of the country induced the Legislature to direct a suspension of the work. A small amount of work has been performed annually since that date, chiefly for the purpose of bringing into use structures and portions of the canals which had been nearly completed previous to 1842, and those which were necessary to replace the decayed sturctures, and those portions of the canal the navigation of which was most embarrassed.

The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company was incorporated in 1823, and the work was commenced in 1825, and completed in 1830. The canal is one hundred and eight miles long, and as originally constructed had a surface width of forty feet and a depth of three feet, with locks seventy-six feet long and eight-and a-half feet wide. Its dimensions were enlarged in 1848, so as to allow the use of boats of nearly three times the tonnage of those first built.*

In 1827 the Legislature loaned the company $500,000, and in 1829 $300,000 to aid the completion of the work. Mr. Wright was, at first, the chief engineer, and was succeeded by Mr. Jervis.

The Legislature, in 1825, directed William Campbell, who was afterwards surveyor general, "to locate and survey a good road from Lake Erie to the Hudson, through the southern tier of counties."

In 1826 the Legislature gave the first charter for a railroad from Albany to Schenectady, seventeen miles long, which was completed in 1830, by John B. Jervis, as chief engineer.

In 1829, Dewitt Clinton, Jr., published a pamphlet giving a sketch of the route for a railway to connect the navigable waters of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan, with those of the valley of the Mississippi. This route started from Piermont, on the Hudson River, followed nearly on the line on which the New

• This was effected at a cost of $2,500,000, and a saving of one-half the expense of transportation.

York and Erie Railroad has since been built to the Alleghany River, and thence through Northern Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, to the junction of Rock River and the Mississippi, and thence to Council Bluffs on the Missouri.*

The New York and Erie Railroad Company was chartered in 1832, and a survey of the road made by Mr. Clinton at the expense of the general government. Another survey was made in 1834, by Mr. Wright, at the expense of the State government. In 1886 the Legislature loaned the company $3,000,000, which sum was subsequently (in 1845) donated to them. The work on the road was commenced in 1835, but was soon suspended. In 1838 it was resumed; very little was however accomplished until 1845, when new parties took hold of it and opened one-half of it in 1849, and completed it to Lake Erie early in 1851. Horatio Allen was prominently connected with this work as consulting, and T. S. Brown as chief engineer, during its construction.

The first link in the Central Line of Railroad was completed in 1830, but it was not until 1843 that the whole line between the Hudson and Lake Erie was finished. The continuation of this line from Albany to New York was commenced in 1847, and completed in 1851. The line through the northern part of this State was completed in 1850. The other railroads of the State are generally tributaries of these main trunk lines.

In 1838 the legislature made loans to the Ithaca and Owego, the Canajoharie and Catskill, and the Auburn and Syracuse Railroad Companies, to the amount of $637,700, and in 1840 to the Auburn and Rochester, the Hudson and Berkshire, the Tioga, the Tonawanda, the Schenectady and Troy, and the Long Island Railroad Companies, to the amount of $648,000.

By the last returns made to this office of the several railroad corporations, and from other sources, it is ascertained that there has been expended on all the railroads of this State, the sum of $117,707,620 58, and that the number of miles in operation is 2,432.

STATISTICS OF POPULATION, &c.

RESULTS OF THE CENSUS OF GREAT BRITAIN.

NUMBER II.

LAW OF POPULATION IN GREAT BRITAIN.

The increase of population depends on many varying elements; but it is not intended here to discuss at any length what is termed the Law of Population.

The increase or decrease of a people depends upon the age of marriage, the age of parents when children are born, the numbers who marry, the fertility of the marriages, the duration of life, and the activity of the migration flowing into or out of the country. These influences act more or less upon each other. The report here indicates the effect of a change in each element while the others remain constant.

1. The numbers of the population bear a definite relation to the duration of life, or to the mean lifetime. Thus, if the mean lifetime of a population is 30 years, then if the births are 100,000 a year, and remain uniform, the population will be 30 times, 100,000, or 3,000,000. Now, the births remaining the same, let the lifetime be gradually extended to 49 years, then the population will become 4,000,000; or if the lifetime is extended to 50 years, the population, from the extension of life alone, will rise from three to five millions. The deaths, upon this hypothesis, will be equal to the births, and the same in number when the population is five as when it is four or three millions. It is probable that the mean lifetime of the great body of the population did increase from the year 1801 to 1821, when the increase of population was greatest in Great Britain.

2. The interval from the birth of one generation to the birth of their descendants of the generation following, bears also a definite relation to the numbers, which increase as the interval is shortened. Thus, if the population increases at the rate of 1.329 annually, and if the intervening time from generation to generation is 33 years, it

Connected lines of railroads are now completed or in rapid progress on the whole length of the route, and nearly on the line described by Mr. Clinton.

follows that the increase from generation to generation is 55 per cent, or that every 1,000 women are succeeded, at the interval of 333 years, by 1,553 women; every two couples, male and female, by three. If the interval is contracted, and the increase from 1,000 to 1,553 takes place in 30 years, the annual rate of population increases from 1.829 to 1.477 per cent; and as we assume by hypothesis that the births and the lifetime remain the same, the population would be ultimately one-ninth part more numerous than it was under the former conditions. Early marriages have the effect of shortening the interval between generations, and tend in this way to increase the population.

3. An increase in the fertility of marriages will evidently cause an increase in the population.

4. In ordinary times, a large proportion of the marriageable women of every country are unmarried, and the most direct action on the population is produced by their entering the married state. Thus, in the Southeastern division, comprising Surrey, Kent, Sussex, Hants, and Berks, the number of women of the age of 20 and under the age of 45, amounted at the last census to 290,209, of whom 169,806 were wives, and 120,403 were widows or spinsters. 49,997 births were registered in the same counties during the year 1850, or 10 children were born in 1850 to every 58 women living in 1851. Of the children, 46,705 were born in wedlock, 3,292 were born out of wedlock; consequently, 36 wives bore in the year ten children, and of 366 unmarried women of the same age, (20-45,) ten also gave birth to children. A change in the matrimonial condition of a large proportion of the 120,403 unmarried women, out of the 290,209 women at the child-bearing age, would have an immediate effect on the numbers of the population; and, if continued, by increasing the rate of birth to the living through successive generations, would operate on population like a rise in the rate of interest on the increase of capital.

5. The effect of migration on the numbers of the population is evident. It is probable that the emigration of Irish has contributed to the increase of the population in England, and it is certain that the emigration from the United Kingdom contributes largely to the increase of the population of the United States. The emigrants are a self perpetuating body in healthy climates, and they increase faster abroad than the general population at home, as they contain an excess of the population at the reproductive age; so that if their numbers are added together it is certain that we get, in the aggregate, a number much below the actual number of survivors. The population of Great Britain and Ireland, including the army, navy, and merchant seamen, was 21,272,187 in 1821, and about 27,724,849 in 1851; but in the interval, 2,685,747 persons emigrated, who, if simply added to the population of the United Kingdom, make the survivors and descendants of the races within the British isles in 1821, now (in 1851) 30,410,595.

6. The numbers of the population are increased by the abundance of the necessaries of life, and reduced by the famines, epidemics, and public calamities affecting the food, industry, and life of the nation. The pestilences of the middle ages - the famine, the influenza, and the cholera of modern times-are examples of one class of these agencies; the security and freedom which England has latterly enjoyed, are examples of the beneficent effect of another class of influences, not only on the happiness of the people, but also on the numbers which the country can sustain at home and can send abroad to cultivate, possess, and inherit other lands.

The extent to which all these causes affect the increase of the population of Great Britain, will ultimately be known by means of a continuous series of such observations as have been commenced at the present census.

DECLINE OF THE POPULATION OF SPAIN.

The Clamor Publico, a Spanish journal published at Madrid, presents in the following statement a deplorable picture of the decline of Spain :

Under the Moors, the population of Spain was 30,000,000; it is now 15,000,000. When Granada was conquered, in 1787, it was defended by walls flanked by 1,030 towers. The kingdom, of which it was the capital, was 70 leagues long by 30 broad, and possessed 32 cities of the first rank and 97 of the second. Granada, before its fall in 1487, contained 400,000 inhabitants, of whom 60,000 bore arms; it now contains about 60,000 souls, all counted. The population of the whole kingdom of Granada was 3,000,000. Malaga, in the seventeenth century, contained 80,000 in

habitants; it now possesses only 50,000. Madina del Campo, in the seventeenth century, contained 60,000 inhabitants; it now contains 6,000.

Merida, at the same epoch, possessed 40,000 inhabitants; it now possesses only 5,000. In the sixteenth century, the diocese of Salamanca had 127 cities and villages; it now has 13 only. Segovia, in 1725, had 5,000 families; now 2,000. Seville, in the seventeenth century, had a population of 300,000, of which 130,000 were employed in manufactures; it now contains 96,000, all told. Toledo, in the fifteenth century, had 200,000 inhabitants; it now has 15,000. Valence, which in the year 1600 counted a population of 600.000, now hardly numbers 60,000. In 1778, there were counted 1,511 abandoned villages in Spain, and the number has been increasing from that time to this.

CENSUS OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.

The Polynesian of March 18, 1854, furnishes the following summary of the census returns, taken December, 1853:

In 1778, Cook estimated the population of the group at 400,000; but probably the real number was not over $00,000. In 1850, the number of inhabitants was 84,165. The rapid diminution of population since 1849 is partly explained by the existence of measles and smallpox, which were very fatal; but, aside from these extraordinary causes, there is a gradual and regular falling off, which by many is supposed to amount to as much as 8 per cent yearly.

The district in which Honolulu is situated contains not far from 9,000 inhabitants, of whom 1,180 are foreigners.

STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE, &c.

AGRICULTURE IN GERMANY.

The Berlin correspondent of the London Times, writing to that journal, says:— Among the earliest subjects that will engage the attention of the Zollverein conferences will be the reduction of the duty on iron-which the South German States, particularly Wurtemberg, are preparing to oppose energetically-and, even more urgently than this, the facilitation of the internal traffic in grain, so as, if possible, to obtain an internal free trade in corn. The excessive emigration that is now taking place from the South of Germany-we may with propriety call it a Teutonic Exodus is mainly attributable to the dearness of provisions, though there are of course other troubles, of a political and social nature, which contribute to fill up their cup of

bitterness to overflowing. From Bohemia and Moravia we hear of hundreds of families constrained to live on grass and roots. In the Palatinate and Rheinhessen, formerly remarkable for cheap living, the complaints of dear provisions have become general. Potatoes cost six times, hay five times as much as they did thirty years ago. Even in Prussia the price of corn (rye) in some parts has risen to sixty thalers (£9) the wispel (24 bushels)

Representations were lately made to the President of the Ministry and Minister of Finance, stating that in Berlin, with the population over 400,000, there are at present only about 1,200 wispels of rye on hand, of which 200 are already sold, and that prices have been rising steadily for many years past, and the supply not increasing. The local statistics of Berlin show that while house rent has increased from certain local causes, the octroi levied at the gates on meat and all cereals, whether converted into food or not, had not increased in proportion to the increase of the population. By some authorities on this subject, this diminution or want of extension in the supply is attributed to the increased cultivation of tobacco; in some parts of the South of Germany two thirds of the land that formerly produced wheat and potatoes now bears tobacco. Many years ago the annual consumption of tobacco in Germany amounted to 3 lbs. per head of the whole population, while in England it only amounted to lb. The difference now is doubtless still greater than it was then. In Silesia along there are more than 4,000 acres devoted to the growth of this plant, which offers this great attraction, that its conversion into cigars supplies labor for a number of hands during the winter.

་

Another cause for the insufficient production of corn may be found in the enormously increased cultivation of beetroot for sugar purposes-a subject of so much importance to England and Ireland that I shall return to it specially on another occasion. Agriculture in general seems to be thriving in Prussia. The aggregate value of the annual produce of grain has increased by 50,000,000 thalers since the year 1820; that of cattle breeding by 60,000,000; taking both together as the produce of the land in general, the present annual value amounts to 500,000,000 thalers, against 300,000,000 in 1820. The great increase is doubtless due to the number of railways, which admit of the produce being brought to market; where there is no railway, the land has so little value, that it does not pay the proprietor to manure or drain it. If he wants to increase his produce for any purpose, it pays him better to purchase a few hundred acres more than to spend money on those he has.

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIONS IN CALIFORNIA.

We learn from the Pacific, that Mr. William Wolfskill, of Los Angeles, has fifty acres of land, which affords the following quantity and variety of products:

Thirty-five acres of grape-vines, with about 1,000 plants to the acre, produce each about 1,100 bbls., or 34,650 gallons of wine. Three acres of peach-trees, with 100 trees to the acre, average 40 lbs. to the tree, 12,000 lbs. Seventy pear-trees average 1,000 lbs, to the tree, 70,000 lbs. Forty apple-trees, 240 lbs. each, 76,000 lbs. Twenty orange-trees, bearing about 2,000 each. Twenty-five fig-trees, about 300 lbs, to the tree. Ten apricots, about 100 lbs. each. Ten citron bushes, with about 20 each. Sixty English walnut-trees, just beginning to bear. An olive-tree, and a few quinces. The value of these products on the ground is as follows:

750 bbls. of wine distilled make 4,725 gallons of brandy, at

Mr. Wolfskill's ranch is about 700 miles by land from his garden or vineyard, on Punta Creek, in the valley of the Sacramento. There, about 3,000 head of cattle, and