Cost (annual) of farming, including fences, roads, and taxes... $132,700,000 $600,000,000 75,400,000 Net profits.... Rate of net income 57,800,000 .per cent 91 IV. SERIES--MANUFACTURES. The following compilation will show the exports of wheat and flour from Canada in 1856 and 1857, according to the trade and navigation returns :— DRY GOODS TRADE OF BOSTON AND VICINITY. A very large proportion of the stocks of goods on hand is composed of goods left over from last year's importations-the value of those imported since October last having fallen off nearly 70 per cent when compared with the imports of the corresponding time of the previous year, as will be seen by the annexed table. It is evident that, until importations again rally, the retail prices of dry goods will materially advance, with a somewhat limited variety for ladies to select from at that. Our table compares the value of imports of all kinds at this port, and also of dry goods, since the 1st of October last with the corresponding period of the year previous : The following comparative statement of the principal articles exported from the United States, and imported into Calcutta, for the five years ending December 31, 1857, we copy from the late Annual Report of the Boston Board of IMPORTATIONS OF RAGS INTO THE UNITED STATES. The import of rags into this country is large, reaching for the year 1857, 44,582,080 lbs., valued at $1,448,125. A correspondent of the Portsmouth Journal gives the following particulars relative to the origin of the rags : The importation of foreign rags into the United States for 1857 was 69.461 bales; 35,591 of which were from Italy, but only 1,489 bales of these came from Genoa. Of the rags from Italy, rather more than one-third are entirely linen -the balance is a mixture of linen and cotton; and about the same proportion exists in the rags from Trieste. From Trieste you will notice that only 3,183 bales were received in 1857, while 12,077 bales were imported from Great Britain. About 2,000 bales were also imported from Bremen and Hamburg, both of which are free cities. France strictly prohibits the export of rags, and so does Rome. The few coming from Ancona (a Roman province) being by special permission, on payment of large fees. Prussia and Germany generally impose so high an export duty on rags as to stop the trade. The exports from Alexandria and Smyrna are collected chiefly in Asia Minor; and the collection and sale is confined to only one or two parties, who have the monopoly from the government, subject, however, to the restriction, that all domestic demand must be supplied at a fixed price, before any export is allowed. It is so also with the rags from Trieste, which are collected in Hungary under government restrictions, and only the surplus over the domestic demand can be exported. Quite a large portion of the rags shipped from Leghorn are collected in Egypt and Barbary, and brought to Leghorn, where they are sorted, packed, and sold for export to the United States or elsewhere. IMPORTS OF RAGS INTO THE FOLLOWING PORTS IN 1857. The following is a summary of the number of vessels, capital, and persons, etc., employed in the cod and mackerel fisheries from Massachusetts ports : Tonnage of the same...... 24,500 Schooners employed in fisheries 325 Tons of halibut smoked................. Bbls. of mackerel, 68,000; value $560,000 Quint. of codfish, 125,000; .... 200 20,000 300,000 $1,200,000 3,250 COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS. BLANK COPYING BOOKS. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, March 1, 1858. SIR-I acknowledge the receipt of your report, under date 2d instant, and accompanying papers, in regard to the appeal of Mr. Richard Mosely from your decision as to the rate of duty to be assessed upon certain articles of merchandise imported by him in the steamship" Niagara," from Liverpool, and invoiced as "copying books." The books in question, as imported, are com posed of blank leaves, and are intended and used solely for the preservation of copies of writing transferred to them by means of a press. It appears from your report that you assessed duty on the articles in question at the rate of 24 per cent, under the classification in schedule C of the tariff of 1857 of "manufactures of paper, or of which paper is a component material, not otherwise provided for," not regarding them, as claimed by the appellant, as falling within the classification of "blank books, bound or unbound," in schedule E, the terms of which you think applicable only to "volumes of blank paper intended for any species of writing, as for memoranda, for accounts or receipts." The books in question, in the opinion of the Department, should be regarded as embraced in the classification of "blank books, bound or unbound," in schedule E of the tariff of 1857, and subjected to the duty, at the rate of 15 per cent, imposed on the articles designated in that schedule. That the books in question are "blank" is admitted, and it must, it would seem, be also conceded that they cannot be discriminated by any well-defined line of distinction from what are known as "blank books" in common parlance. A difference in the classification and rate of duty ought not, in the opinion of the Department, be made to depend upon the fact that the writing is to be transferred to the volume by a press instead of a pen. The decision is therefore overruled, and the articles in question are entitled to entry as "blank books, bound or unbound," under schedule E of the tariff of 1857, at a duty of 15 per cent. I am, very respectfully, 66 HOWELL COBB, Secretary of the Treasury. A. W. AUSTIN, Esq., Collector of the Customs, Boston, Mass. HEMP CARPETING, TREASURY DEPARTMENT, March 1, 1858. SIR-Messrs. Wyman and Acklay have appealed to this Department from the decision of the collector at Boston, assessing duty on an article invoiced as Dutch carpeting" at the rate of 24 per cent, under the classification in schedule C of the tariff of 1857, of " carpets, carpeting, hearth rugs, bed sides, and other portions of carpeting, being either Arbusson, Brussels, Ingrain, Saxony, Turkey, Venitian, Wilton, or any other similar fabric." The appellants contend that the article in question, being manufactured of hemp, should be charged with duty at the rate of 15 per cent, under the classification in schedule E of the tariff of 1857, of "manufactures of hemp, not otherwise provided for." 'Dutch carpeting" is a fabric differing from some one or more of the descriptions of carpets specially named in schedule C only in the material of which it is composed, the former being of hemp and the latter of wool; and the question is presented, whether carpeting composed of hemp can be regarded as a fabric similar" to the enumerated varieties, within the meaning of the law. The Department is of opinion that that term has reference as well to the material of which the fabric is composed, as to the mode of manufacture or the use for which it is designed, and that the article in question should be charged with duty at the rate of 15 per cent, under the classification in schedule E of "manufactures of hemp, not otherwise provided for." The decision of the collector is therefore overruled. Very respectfully, A. W. AUSTIN, Esq., Collector, Boston, Mass. HOWELL COBB, Secretary of the Treasury. |