for ten years, between 1827-8 and 1837-8, there was an increased rate of consumption of between 1 and 2 per cent, while in the subsequent period of ten years the consumption diminished from to 4 per cent, the rate of increase being nearly the same for the last as compared with the first period. Contrary to expectation, there has been less variation in the supply than in the consumption, the former not differing more than from 1 578-1000 to 2 918-1000 per cent between any two periods, but keeping a nearly equal progress in the last period between 1847-8 and 1856-7, inclusive. Another remarkably fact is disclosed by these figures, as regards the supply, to wit, that from the first to the second decennial period there has been a progressive decrease in the rate of increase, while in the last decade there has been an increase in that rate. SUPPLY OF COTTON. 1852-53..... 1853-54... 1854-55..... 1855-56..... 1856-57..... 2,940,000 1857...... 1,096,000 4,036,000 The increase in supply during these five years over the preceding period of five years was 4,094,000 bales, or 4.757 per cent yearly. The increase in the consumption during these five years over the preceding period of five years was 4,105,000 bales, or 4.850 per cent yearly. VINEYARDS OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. California promises to become one of the most extensive wine-producing countries in the world. In 1856, according to the official agricultural statistics, that State contained 1,531,224 grape-vines. Fully one-half of this number were in the county of Los Angeles. The figures given by the county Assessor were :— "Vines, bearing, 592,400; vines, young, 134,000;" total, 726,400. The manufacture of wine and brandies in the city of Los Angeles, the county seat, is, according to the same and other accounts, carried on in a corresponding ratio. The California Chronicle of December 16th, 1857, published, editorially, a description of one of the largest vineyards in that section, from which we condense the following: The vineyard now owned by the Messrs. Sansevain, located in Los Angeles County, was planted and brought to its present maturity by Mr. Louis Vignes, an uncle of the present proprietors, who has resided thirty-two years in Los Angeles. It embraces an area of fifty acres, and contains 55,000 thrifty vines. The total amount of wine manufactured, 1857, the past year, was about 62,000 gallons-2,000 gallons of which was the "Angelica," a fine white wine. In addition, 3,000 gallons of brandy was manufactured. It requires about 44 gallons of wine to make one gallon of brandy. Thus the entire manufacture of wine during the year amounted to 75,500 gallons. Eleven pounds of grapes are re quired to produce one gallon of wine-the manufacture of the 75,500 gallons of wine then consumed 830,000 pounds, or 377 tons of grapes. In addition to their own raising, the proprietors purchased 50,000 pounds of grapes this year. The wine cellars or vaults at this vineyard are worthy of note, as being of mammoth dimensions for California. There are four vaults, each one hundred and fifty feet in length by eighteen in width, and ten in depth. There are three smaller ones of fifty feet in length, and the same width as the former. In these vaults the wine is kept until ready for market. In San Francisco the proprietors have a large cellar where several men are constantly engaged in bottling off the finer wines for market. STATISTICS OF POPULATION, &c., CENSUS OF MINNESOTA IN 1857. The Committee on Territories of the Senate of the United States, in January, 1858, presented their report on the admission of Minnesota into the Union, which contained the returns of the census of Minnesota taken in the fall of 1857, by the United States Marshal of the Territory. We have rearranged these returns, forming the following table, in which the counties are given in the order of their population, according to the figures before us. 689 Pipe Stone 24 .... 688 Nobles.... 16 136,464 Wabashaw 5,115 McLeod. Dodge..... 3,680 Morrison Blue Earth... Le Sueur 3,628 Faribault Aggregate of these counties.... From Fillmore County, the return was not complete. From seven counties, viz.:--Mower, Sibley, Manomin, Pierce, Pembina, Mille Lac, and Itasca, there were no returns. By comparison of the above with the "estimate of population in July, 1857, prepared at that time by the Constitutional Conventions," which was published in the Merchants' Magazine of December, 1857, (vol. xxxvii, p. 775.) it will be seen that it was an exaggerated statement. The counties from which there are no returns in the present table are thinly populated; and allowing that the combined number of their inhabitants is 3,600, it appears that the entire white population of Minnesota at the last census was 140,000. We are informed that the aggregate Indian population (comprising the various portions of the Sioux tribe, and the Ojibbewas) approaches 5,000. GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS FOR EMIGRANTS TO THE UNITED States. We have received copies of the correspondence furnished by the Department of State in answer to a resolution of the Senate calling for information on the subject of contracts made in Europe for inland passage tickets for emigrants to the United States. It embraces a circular letter from Mr. Marcy to United States Ministers in foreign countries, with replies and various accompanying documents. The subject is fully set forth in a letter from Mr. Verplanck, President of the Board of Commissioners of Emigration, who was instructed to communicate to Mr. Marcy their request that some proper effort should be made to induce the governments of those countries of Europe whence emigration to this port chiefly flows, to prohibit altogether the booking passengers for inland passages or transportation in the United States, or selling abroad passage tickets, or contracts for passage tickets, to be used on this side of the Atlantic. The establishment of the Castle Garden depot effectually broke up the system by which emigrants had so long been shamefully defrauded in the city of New York, but only led to the transfer of the seat of depredations from that port to the port of embarkation. The chief operators not only proceeded to open offices in several of the principal seaports of Europe, but established agencies in towns far in the interior. Through their instrumentality, emigrants were greatly overcharged for real tickets, or imposed upon by fraudulent ones, and finally consigned to dishonest confederates in the United States. The measures which were adopted by this government to suppress this organized conspiracy to defraud, met with a very good degree of success. The main object to be effected was to make it illegal for any emigrant agent in Europe to sell tickets or make contracts for inland American carriage or transportation, and several governments took action conformably to this plan. SEAMEN REGISTERED IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1857. The State Department has presented to Congress an abstract of returns of American seamen registered in the several ports of entry of the United States during the year ending 30th September, 1857. This statement, given below, is continuous of the reports of previous years. as presented in the Merchants' Magazine of March, 1857, (volume xxxvi, page 368,) and in former volumes :—— We learn from an authentic source that Belgium, according to the censu taken in 1856, then contained 4,529,642 inhabitants. Its Chamber of Representatives consists of one hundred and eight members, of whom forty are returned by the Walloon provinces, fifty-one by the Flemish, and seventeen by that of Bra. bant, whose population is mixed. Though forming one kingdom, Belgium contains two races of distinct types and character, speaking different languages, and having little in common, except their religion. MERCANTILE MISCELLANIES. MERCANTILE OBITUARY-ZEBEDEE COOK, ESQ. Mr. ZEBEDEE COOK, who for many years was widely known, from his connection with insurance companies in Boston and New York, died at his residence in Framingham, Mass., on Sunday, 24th of January. 1858, aged seventy-two years. His life had been passed in active business, as will be seen from the following account which we condense from the Boston Daily Advertiser: Mr. Cook was well known as an enterprising and public spirited citizen. He was born in Newburyport on the 11th of January. 1786. In 1810, he removed to Boston, and established himself as a merchant at No. 35 India-street; but a few years afterwards changed his business to that of an insurance broker, and adjuster of commercial accounts, a pursuit for which his accurate and well balanced mind was particularly adapted. In 1822. he was chosen President of the Eagle Fire Insurance Company in Boston, which office he held until 1827, when he resigned it, and resumed his former business of an insurance broker. Upright and honorable in all his business transactions, he was highly respected by an extensive circle of acquaintance. Of a commanding and fine personal appearance, and at the same time eminently social, genial, and cordial in his manners, he held a prominent rank in society. He took a warm interest in political affairs, being an ardent and zealous member of the federal party, and subsequently a no less ardent whig. He was one of the originators of the Massachusetts Horticul tural Society, and was, at one time, its President. In 1835, he was chosen a representative from Boston to the State Legislature, and was re-elected successively the three following years. In 1838, the Mutual Safety Insurance Company was established in New York, the first upon that principle which was formed in the country, and Mr. Cook was invited to become its President; which invitation he accepted and accordingly removed to New York with his family; The duties of this office he discharged for many years with eminent skill and ability, to the entire satisfaction of the stockholders. He was afterwards, for some time President of the Astor Insurance Company in New York. During the summer of 1857, having retired from active business, he purchased a beautiful country residence in Framingham, Mass., where he had hoped to enjoy some years of rest and happiness. His funeral took place on Wednesday, 27th of January, from Dr. Gannett's Church, in Federal-street, Boston. The services were conducted by the Rev. Drs. Gannett and Dewey." HOW A LEAKING SHIP MAY BE SAVED FROM SINKING. The attention of many practical men has been given to a consideration of the best means of providing against or averting the foundering of a ship at sea, and quite a number of suggestions have been thrown out through the press. The subject is one of the deepest importance, and anything that promises a greater degree of safety than is now had must prove valuable. We derive the substance of the annexed paragraph from a recent number of one of the Boston newspapers in which it was printed as an uncredited quotation from some other journal. We give it for what it is worth. The author of the statement is represented to be a French gentleman who does not wish to disclose his name, and who asserts his belief that by the means mentioned any vessel may be kept from sinking, provided she does not leak more than three feet an hour. Some time ago, a slaver named The Three Friends, while making a trip from the coast of Africa to Bahia, in Brazil, with three hundred negroes on board, was seen and chased by an English frigate. Finding the frigate overhauling her, the captain of The Tree Friends came up with the lanyards of his standing rigging, which was then thrapped in to the mast, a short distance from the mast heads, the wedges were slackened around the mast, the main rail and plankshear sawed through about one-third their thickness, and other measures adopted to make the vessel increase her speed. The sea was heavy and she plunged through it at such a rate, that she sprang a very serious leak, making nearly three feet of water an hour. All hands were employed in pumping and bailing, but the leak gained fast on them, despite their utmost efforts, and destruction or capture stared them in the face. At this juncture the captain bethought him of the syphon, and a large one was immediately prepared A hole was cut through the stern of The Three Friends just above the level of the water outside; the syphon inserted; the air exhaused by means of a pumping apparatus fixed in the outer orifice, and capable of being instantly withdrawn; and the water from the inside of the vessel started through the syphon. The experiment was completely successful, the syphon discharging the water as fast as it leaked in the vessel. For twelve successive days, during which time the chase was maintained, the syphon was in successful operation, until The Three Friends arrived safely in Bahia. AN OLD-TIME DEFENCE OF PAPER MONEY. A number of the Worcester Magazine of the year 1786 contains several articles of permanent interest, among which is one with the heading, “PAPER MONEY, RAISED FROM THE DEAD, SPEAKETH FOR ITSELF," that reads as follows: "Gentleman of Saul's character, why hast thou raised me? I should have thought I had friends enough in America, to have risen up and vindicated my character; but alas! though in almost every newspaper my character is run down as though I was one of the worst of villians, and I had been the greatest enemy to America, I cannot find that I have any friend that dares to stand up and boldly speak a word in my behalf. But I trust the continent will lend an ear while I speak briefly in my own defence. Who, a few years ago, could have thought that Americans could so soon have had their eyes dimsighted by the beams of yellow dust, and so soon been dandled on the knee of foreign manufaetures, when they had so solemnly exclaimed against them, and so soon be rocked asleep in the arms of luxury. But if there is any fool awake, or can possibly be awakened, let them remember the rock from whence they were hewn, and the hole of the pit from whence they were digged. Oh America, America! in a few years, how art thou fallen by thy wicked conduct! By thy ingratitude thou hast raised thy old friend, even from the dead! "Poor. proud, prodigal America, do remember thy low estate, when Britain thirsted for thy blood and treasure; thou wast then so exhausted by this long trade with England, that thou hadst no medium to stand a contest with England for thine own natural rights. Had it not been for me, thou must have been crushed beneath thy foe, and forever swallowed up; but I pitied thy miserable condition-I appeared early for thy relief-by me your armies were raised, clothed, victualled, and paid--I delivered many out of distress and difficulty-I raised many from the dung-hill, who now despise me, and exalted them to great renown in this life-I never deserted your armies, as many of your pretended friends did, but kept with you under all your difficulties, though Britain and all the Tories did me so many injuries. You had all my health and strength when I was in my youth and prime of life. I spent my life, fortune, and character, for America; and though I died, I died in their defence, and to their great advantage-like a good general, I left victory in sight to cheer surviving Americans. But I can laugh disdain in the face; I fear none of their rage and malice; I died for their deliverance from foreign foes, and will rise again to deliver them from their domestic ones, rather than America should be forever enslaved by the lovers of the yellow dust.—PAPER MONEY." |