The amount of sugar annually consumed in Europe is estimated at 568,000,000 kilogrammes.

The great success which attended the beet root cultivation led the chemists to look round for a good substitute for coffee, which was first brought to the island in the year 1723. This plant, as is well known, was brought from Mocha, in Arabia, to Batavia, by the Dutch, and from there it was sent to Amsterdam, and a few grains distributed among the various sovereigns of Europe. Louis XIV. conceived the idea of sending it to the colonies, and accordingly it was first sent to Martinique, and afterwards to St. Domingo. No substitute has as yet been discovered which can at all rival its exquisite flavor. Delille used to say that he imagined he drank a sunbeam in every drop of coffee. Hayti exports annually to Europe and America 40,000,000 pounds. The discovery of a substitute, it may readily be supposed, would be very disastrous to the trade of Hayti.

DISTRIBUTION OF THE NAVY.

The principal use of the navy being to protect the interests of commerce, it is a matter of useful information to record their situation on the 1st of July throughout the world, as follows:

The following table will give a good idea of the gradual increase and decrease in our naval forces abroad ::

The following is a comparative statement of the value of imports into Canada, and the duties collected thereon, during the respective half years ending on the

CUBA AND PORTO RICO.

The Cuban Messenger remarks:-In regard to our own island, we will here give the official reports of the total revenues during the first four months of the present year, compared with the result obtained during the same period of 1859, which is as follows:

CUSTOM-HOUSE REVENUES-ON IMPORTS AND EXPORTS.

As to Puerto Rico, the result is not as favorable, but it must be remembered that the prosperity and business of that island was unprecedented in 1858, when the total amount of the imports and exports reached the enormous sum of $12,815,519. The comparative tables of 1858 and 1859 are as follows:

In consequence of this, the revenues of the island were in 1859 about $200,000 less than in 1858. This difference can be easily understood when we are reminded of the fact that the number of vessels arriving and leaving the different ports of that island in 1859, was much smaller than the year previous, as is shown by the following table :

Years.
1858..

1859..

:

Difference against 1859...

The commerce and productions of both islands are rapidly increasing; and, as the government is disposed to encourage all sources of public wealth, it is reasonable to expect that the revenues will increase in the same proportion as the commercial and agricultural interests become more extensive.

SILK.

The Japanese say they can supply silk to rival the Chinese. progress of affairs Lew supplies may soon be wanted.

In the present

Raw silk, free of duty, was imported in the fiscal year 1858-9, to the value of $1,330,890, of which $701.182 care direct from China, and $630,000 worth through England and France. What share of this last was Italian cannot be ascertained. Raw silk, paying duty, was imported to the value of $288,267, of which but $4,733 came directly from China. The import of the previous fiscal year was nearly the same, a larger proportion coming direct from China; but, in previous years, the quantity was less by about half a million dollars.

In 1855-6 the value of raw silk imported..

$991,284 953,734 1,540 195 1,619,157

In 1858-9

The following is a technical statement of qualities of Chinese raw silk imported and consumed in the United States for the past two calendar years :—

The export trade to China in the fiscal year 1858-9, was largely of cottons, nearly $3,000,000 worth of cotton goods, in every form, being sent out, of which $2,500,000 was plain brown cottons.

The following is the account of the export of domestic cottons to China and

the East Indies for five calendar years, as made up by the commercial journals:

1857...... 12,676 15,341 28,017

New York. Boston. Total.

48,419 23,664 64,083

53,662 16,566 70,228

The average value of these is somewhat above $55 the package, making the export value nearly $400,000.

TOTAL VALUE OF EXPORTS TO CHINA FOR THREE YEARS.

The exportation from Boston is to the East Indies, including China, while at New York the item covers only the shipments direct to China.

MOUTHS OF THE MISSISSIPPI.

Captain HUMPHREYS, of the War Department at Washington, in a paper upon the "Bars of the Mississippi," says in regard to what is now doing at the Mouth of the Mississippi, under the auspices of the department :-In the latter part of 1858 those parties (CRAIG & RIGHTER) refused to comply further with their contracts to maintain the depth of eighteen feet in the channels for a period of four-and-a-half years, and, by their failure, the winter of 1858-9 passed without any work being done upon the bars. The War Department was obliged to enter into a new contract with other contractors for deepening the Southwest Pass; but these likewise failed to carry out their contract. The War Department, in accordance with law, opened the work to competition as to the plans and methods to be used, as well as to cost, merely requiring that a certain depth should be obtained and maintained. The contractors were at liberty to use any plan, any process, any means that they chose to stir up the bottom. They were at liberty to use Mr. ELLET's plan if they thought fit, and probably would have done so had they considered it the most economical and effectual plan. Having, however, failed to secure, in that way, a continuation of the work, the department was forced to resort to a contract for the use of the dredges and appliances, and its officers are now, for the first time since 1839, with a remnant ($70,000) of the appropriation of 1856, conducting the operation of deepening the channels. The plan used is that of stirring up the bottom of the channel during the river flood, and leaving the current of the river to carry it seaward to deep water. It is one that has been successfully tried.

It may be remarked, that the requirement of the appropriation act of 1856, that the work must be done by contract, has been one source of the defect of continuity in the operation, and the failure to maintain the increased depth after it was attained; for the failure of contractors to continue the deepening could only be ascertained after the shoaling, arising from neglect, had occurred. Then new contracts had to be entered into, and thus additional time was lost during the season for successful dredging and of commercial activity. But no plan whatever will prove of any practical benefit to navigation unless a permanent fund be provided, untrammeled by restrictions as to the mode of expenditure, from which a sufficient sum annually can be relied upon for the continuous prosecution of the work after the channel has once been opened. This can be effected by dredging with harrows or scrapers; that is, tearing up the bottom of the channel, and leaving the current of the river to carry off the loosened material, other and more powerful means being applied to the mud lumps. This plan is in accordance with the law under which the bar is formed, as demonstrated by experiments, in all conditions of the river, made by my direction under the authority of the Topographical Bureau.

TOBACCO-ITS GROWTH AND CONSUMPTION.

The last annual report on foreign commerce, from the State Department, gives very full and explicit information on the subject of the growth, manufacture, and consumption of tobacco in foreign countries, where we have also a market for our own tobacco. The low prices of the wine crop for some years, and also the failures of the crop, induced many large owners of vinyards in Germany to convert, at great expense, their vinyards into tobacco fields-tobacco then