COMPARATIVE COST OF RAILROADS.

Twenty years ago, a short road at Quincy, to carry marble, was all the pioneer we had. Now we have nearly 4,000 miles of railroad in actual daily operation in the United States; and a great deal more in the rest of the world. The materials of experience are therefore sufficiently abundant. The cost of seventy-nine railroads in the United States is given in a table published in the American Railroad Journal. The aggregate length of them is 3,723 miles, and the cost is $109,841,460; or $29,325 85 per mile.

In the Carolinas and Georgia, 7854 miles cost but $14,063,175, or $17,919 per mile; those of North Carolina and Georgia, 5834 miles long, cost $8,391,723, or $14,387 72 per mile; those of Georgia, 3374 miles, cost $5,231,723, or $15,489 per mile; the Central Railroad in Georgia, 1904 miles long, cost $2,551,723, or $13,570 72 per mile; and that part of the Georgia Railroad, of 65 miles, which has been constructed of late years, is said to have cost less than $12,000 per mile, including an edge rail; or, as commonly called, a T rail.

The residue of the railroads on the list, in the Northern and Eastern States, amounting to 2,937 miles in length, cost $95,788,295, or $32,633 23 per mile.

TRANSPORTATION OF MILK ON THE ERIE RAILROAD.

The following statement of the revenues ensuing from the transportation of the single article of milk, for the four years ending Dec. 31, 1845, is derived from the books of the New York and Erie Railroad Company :

1842. $3,430 72

1843.
$18,497 46

1844.
$28,055 08

1845. $30,694 20

STATISTICS OF POPULATION.

IMMIGRATION INTO THE UNITED STATES.

THE following statement of the number of immigrants who have arrived at the port of New York during the six months commencing on the 1st of January, 1846, and ending on the 30th of June, is derived from the books of the United States Revenue Barge Office, under the charge of Captain Thorn:

Showing a total of 50,631 for the six months ending June 30th, 1846. The number of immigrants, according to the same authority, for the six corresponding months of 1845, was 37,809; being an increase in favor of the first six months of 1846, of 12,820.

A letter in the Washington Union, from Hanover, Germany, May 23d, 1846, estimates the number of emigrants to the United States, from Europe, during the present year, at not less than 200,000. Many families in affluent circumstances, the writer says. are quitting Holland for our shores. Twenty thousand persons, chiefly French or Swiss, also will embark at Havre. Forty thousand Germans, at the lowest computation, will sail from Bremen, three or four thousand from Hamburg, as many more from Rotterdam, and four or five thousand from Antwerp. These, with thirty thousand from Ireland, the writer believes, will carry with them a capital exceeding $20,000,000.

PROGRESS OF POPULATION IN BOSTON.

In the Merchants' Magazine for July, 1846, (Vol. XV., p. 34 to 50,) we published a very elaborate statistical view of the "Progressive Wealth and Commerce of Boston," based on the admirable report of Mr. Shattuck, but omitted any notice of the past, present, and progressive population of that city. That deficiency we now proceed to supply, drawing our data from the same authentic source.

The number of persons enumerated in the census of Boston of 1845, was 114,366. The increase of the population since 1840, has been 29,366; 35 per cent, or an average annual increase of 5,873, or 7 per cent.

The following table shows the total population of Boston by each census, from 1742 to 1845, distinguishing the white and colored population, and the per centage of the two colors:

From this statement it appears that the proportion of the colored population has been gradually diminishing. It has been reduced from 4.70 per cent in 1800, to 1.61 in 1845, or 3.06 per cent.

The following table shows the proportions of the sexes at different periods:

The number of foreign males in Boston,

The number of naturalized foreigners. over 21 years of age, in 1845, was 9,763. Of these, 1,623 were returned as naturalized. Some are stated as having “obtained their first papers,” but 7,053 were returned as not naturalized. The previous censuses gave 1,752 not naturalized, in 1820; 3,468, in 1830; and 4,606, in 1835.

POPULATION OF THE AUSTRIAN MONARCHY.

A statistical return lately published at Vienna, gives the total population of the Austrian monarchy at 37,491,120. Of this, Hungary has 12,273,717; Bohemia 4,249,669; the Kingdom of Venice 2,219,938; and Lombardy 2,588,426.

JOURNAL OF MINING AND MANUFACTURES.

WAGES OF WOMEN IN FACTORIES.

In the Stark Mills, (cotton,) at Manchester, New Hampshire, Mr. W. Amory, the agent, says, under his signature, that the average wages of all the girls there employed, over and above their board, was, in February, 1843, only $1 46 per week; and in the same month in 1846, $1 93 per week; or nearly 33 per cent increase, over 1843.

The same gentleman furnishes the following table of the comparative average wages, exclusive of board, of the girls in the Amoskeag Mill, for the month of January, in the four successive years, 1842, 1843, 1844, 1845, 1846, employed in the different processes of manufacturing cloth :

AVERAGE WAGES PAID THE OPERATIVES IN THE AMOSKEAG NEW MILL, IN THE MONTH OF JANUARY, IN EACH YEAR, SINCE STARTING UP.

John Aiken, agent of the Lawrence Manufacturing Company at Lowell, says that all the female job help in the mills worked, between the second Saturday of November, 1842, and the second Saturday of February, 1843, 48,730 days, and received for wages $23,418 90-it being at the rate of 48 5-10 cents per day, or $1 63 per week, clear of board, at $125 per week. All the female job hands employed in the mills of the same company, between the second Saturday of November, 1845, and the second Saturday of February, 1846, worked 35,841 days, and received for wages $19,724 11-it being at the rate of 55 3-10 cents per day, or $2 05 per week, clear of board.

The average wages of the female operatives in the employ of the Jackson Manufacturing Company, New Hampshire, for the four weeks ending February 21, 1843, is stated by Edmund Parker, the agent of that company, at $1 44; and for the four weeks ending February 20, 1846, at $2 04. The advance in the wages of the factory operatives at Lowell, is evidenced in the amount of deposits in the Savings Bank, as follows:

It will be noticed that, in 1844, when the earnings increased, the deposits were augmented.

FIRST CAST-IRON MANUFACTURED IN MICHIGAN.

A correspondent of the Jackson Patriot, writing from Union City, under date of June 4, 1846, says that the first cast-iron ever manufactured in Michigan was made at the Union Furnace, lately erected in Union City, on Friday, the 29th of May, 1846. The company, it is said, are now casting from two to three tons of pig iron per day, and the iron is believed by judges to be of excellent quality, and the ore, the product of that state, abundant.

AMERICAN IRON AND STEEL MANUFACTURE.

The new mode of manufacturing malleable iron directly from the ore, was invented almost simultaneously in England and the United States; in the former country by W. N. Clay, and in the latter by S. Broadmeadow, and was patented in both, in the early part of 1844. One of the most intelligent and practical manufacturers of iron and steel in Pennsylvania, writing in answer to several inquiries propounded, upon the subject of the manufacture of steel, to William H. Starr, of New York, says :

"Upon the subject of steel, much more may now be said than formerly, in point of its manufacture in the United States. The recent National Fair, held at Washington, has given ample proofs of the adaptation of our iron for that purpose; for specimens there exhibited bore favorable comparison with the best imported article, both in appearance and test trials. The first cost of manufacturing must be materially less than can be afforded by European establishments, if it is only from the great difference in the cost of the bar-iron used in its conversion; they paying £36 ($172_80) per ton, while it can be procured here for $85 to $90. The difference in labor, fuel, &c., necessary for its manufacture, would be somewhat favorable to home manufacture; in addition to which, there is transportation, duty, insurance, &c., all of which must naturally flow as profits into the lap of the American producer of this article.

"The outlay necessary to erect works for the manufacture of the best steel, must of necessity vary according to their magnitude, and capability of turning out a larger or smaller quantity of it; yet I may venture to assert that an outlay of $8,000 would be all-sufficient for the production of 300 tons per annum."

ENTERPRISE OF MASSACHUSETTS MANUFACTURERS.

The Fall River Iron-Works Company, which has a large establishment at Fall River, in Massachusetts, including a rolling-mill 412 feet long, and 100 feet wide, a nail-mill, 226 feet long, and 44 feet wide, a foundry, 24 puddling-furnaces, an air-furnace, 2 cupola-furnaces, and 5 steam-engines, has lately purchased the valuable coal-mine near Cumberland, known as the Clifton property, embracing a part of the ten-feet coal-vein, to which a railroad has been lately opened from the Mount Savage Iron-Works, connecting it, by means of the Mount Savage Railroad, with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The Cumberland Civilian, from which we derive this information, says that "the annual consumption of coal in the Fall River establishment is 17,050 tons; and of pig iron, 7,750 tons; scrap iron, 5,580 tons; blooms and billets, 620 tons-the product of which is 1,750 casks of nails, 1,550 tons of castings, 6,200 tons of hoop, round and square iron, &c., &c. They give employment to 520 hands, and the gross value of the manufactured goods for the past year is $1,038,500. Richard Borden, Esq., is the agent and director of this extensive concern." Massachusetts is thus destined to share in the benefit of the Cumberland mines, by making them tributary to her own industry.

MINERAL RESOURCES OF ALABAMA.

It appears from the report of the committee on agriculture, made at the last session of the Alabama legislature, that there are five principal, and several other minor mines of gold and silver in Randolph county, Alabama, producing about $125,000 annually, and employing from three to five hundred people. There are inexhaustible beds of fine iron ore in the same county. There are also rich mines of gold and silver in Talapoosa, and gold has also been found in Coosa, Talladega, and Chambers. Iron foundries have also been established in Benton and Talladega. Nitre is found in abundance in Blount. There are immense quantities of coal near Tuscaloosa, and in many other places. Salt can be manufactured near Jackson, in Clarke. Lead ore in large quantities, and of excellent quality, is found in the bed of the Tennessee on the Muscle Shoals. The marble quarries of Alabama are said to produce some as fine specimens as the finest Carrara of Italy.

COMMERCIAL STATISTICS.

PRICE OF FLOUR, WHEAT, AND CORN,

AT BALTIMORE, ON THE FIRST OF EACH MONTH, IN EACH YEAR, FROM 1839 to 1846. WILLIAM G. LYFORD, Esq., the industrious editor of the "Baltimore Journal and Price Current," furnishes the following statement of the prices of flour, wheat, and corn, in the Baltimore market, for the last eight years. It is understood that the flour comprises the standard brands of Howard-street and City Mills, the two principal denominations sold in that market. The wheat is of good to prime quality of red; and the corn of the like quality, and includes white and yellow. The high prices paid for wheat early in 1839, were in consequence of the great scarcity arising from the failure of the crop in 1837, which made it necessary to supply the deficiency by importations from Germany, and a few other foreign ports.