sulted in a complete failure; the free negroes found the sun too hot, and either resorted to the towns or returned to this country.

Another case related by Mr. Holmes is one of white labor. The distinguished William Wirt, having purchased land in Florida, and having some scruples against the employment of slave labor, carried down to his Florida plantation a large number of white men. They commenced work in autumn, and during the winter and spring seasons worked with such diligence and fidelity that Mr. Wirt began to conceive his brightest anticipations already realized. But summer came with its hot days and moist nights, the sinews of the white laborers were relaxed, their strength began to fail, and finding the burning heat altogether too much for them, they threw down their agricultural implements, and in a body left the plantation. Mr. Wirt would have lost his entire crop, but for the fortunate circumstance that a gang of negroes were in the neighborhood for sale, whom Mr. Wirt purchased, and thus his crop was saved.

Another experiment with white men was tried in Florida by a New York gentleman, who took a large number of German laborers to Florida, and began the cultivation of New Smyrna, which, says Mr. Holmes, was a tract of land upon which a German colony once settled, but finding free labor could not cultivate Southern soil, had abandoned it. With true German fidelity and industry, the new laborers began their task, and after placing the ground in beautiful order, planted the crops. But they, too, were abruptly driven off by the hot weather, and there being no negroes for sale in the neighborhood to supply their place, the New York gentleman lost his crop and abandoned his estate.

There is no plant whose history shows so many vicissitudes as that of the tobacco. Imported from America soon after the discovery of that continent, it was received into the old world with a species of enthusiasm. It was not long, however, before some of the evils and inconveniences involved in the use of it began to appear, and a host of enemies were raised up against it. Theologists pronounced it an invention of Satan, which destroyed the efficacy of fasting. Councils forbade it to all ecclesiastics under their control. Popes Urban VIII. and Innocent XI. punished the use of it with excommunication; Sultan Amurath IV. with the most cruel kind of death; Shah Abbas II with penalties almost as severe; Michael Feodorovitch Tourieff offered a bastinado for the first offense, cutting off the nose for the second, and the head for the third offense; Prussia and Denmark simply prohibited; and James of England wrote against it.

Finding, however, that no penalties, however severe, could check the indulgence in a luxury so highly appreciated, sovereigns and their governments soon found it much more advantageous to turn it into a source of revenue; and the cultivation and manufacture of tobacco were gradually subjected almost every where to fiscal regulations or monopolies. Tobacco was in such general use in America when first discovered, and was there so widely spread, that it is difficult to come to any conclusion as to what precise part of that vast continent is its native country-probably some portion of the Mexican empire. As to the precise date of its introduction into Europe, it has been already stated that it followed closely upon the discovery of America. The Spaniards under Columbus had scarcely landed in Cuba, in 1492, when they began to smoke cigars; but they could only fully appreciate its luxuries when, in 1518, Fernando Cortez occupied the island of Tobago, where the plant was found growing in great abundance. Hernandez, the naturalist, was, it is believed, the first who brought

it into Spain from Mexico, in 1539. It was introduced iuto Portugal from Florida by one Flamingo, and into France by Father Andre Thevet, or by some friend of his, although the more common opinion is that the first seeds received there were those sent about the year 1560 to Queen Catharine of Medicis by Jean Nicol, French ambassador in Portugal. It was probably raised also in England a few years later, but received no notice till its well known introduction by Sir Francis Drake from Virginia, in 1586. In Tuscany it was first cultivated under Cosmo de Medici, who died in 1574, having been originally raised by Bishop Alfonso Tornabuoni from seeds received from his nephew, Monsignor Nicolo Tornabuoni.

Next to salt, tobacco is the most generally consumed of all productions. The annual consumption here is on an average 16.86 ounces, or considerably more than a pound weight to every man, woman, and child throughout the United Kingdom. Moreover, this consumption is greatly on the increase. Between the years 1821 and 1831 the increase was at the rate of about one ounce per head; during the next ten years it was somewhat less than an ounce; but from 1842 to 1851 it was three ounces; making an increase of 44 per cent in proportion to the population within the last thirty years. In Denmark, exclusive of the Duchies, the average consumption in 1851 was nearly seventy ounces per head. But this is nothing to what is used in warm countries. If the population of the earth be taken at 1,000,000,000, and the consumption reckoned as equal to that of Denmark, or seventy ounces per head, the produce of the whole world will amount to nearly 2,000,000 tons (1,953,125) a year. The value of the quantity thus reckoned, at twopence a pound, amounts to above £36,000,000 sterling.

BROOM-CORN: THE METHOD AND COST OF CULTIVATION.

The following is an extract from a letter to the Commissioner of Patents, dated at West Glenville, Schenectady County, New York. It briefly describes the mode of culture, cost, and commercial value of this product of agriculture:

"Broom-corn for many years has been cultivated to a considerable extent with us, especially on the 'flat lands' lying along the Mohawk River, and is considered a profitable crop. The principal objections to growing it on upland' are, that it makes no fodder or manure, except the stalks, which are but of little importance, either as a fertilizer or for feed. They are generally consumed in the field after the brush is taken off.

"The usual method of cultivation is to plow the land in the spring, harrow it until the soil is pulverized and mellow, and then roll it down smooth with a revolving plank or log roller. The seed is sown with a drill as early in the spring as the condition of the ground will admit, in rows, at the distance of three feet apart, and from six to eight inches apart in the drills. As soon as the corn is above ground, a narrow space of ground on each side of the row is scraped with the hoe, to prevent the weeds from hindering its growth, the remaining space being left for the cultivator, which is frequently run to keep down the weeds. The cultivation is finally finished by running the plow twice to each row.

46

The brush is cut while green, and as often as convenient. As it grows from eight to twelve feet high, the tops are first bent or lopped to one side and cut, with seven or eight inches of the stalk left on. Each stalk composes a brush."

The amount of money realized by Mr. Elihu Smith, of Sunderland, Franklin County, Massachusetts, from a crop raised on one acre and nine roods, and which was exhibited to the Board of Agriculture for that State, is stated as follows:-

1,025 pounds of brush, at 10 cents

67 bushels of seed, at 40 cents..

Total receipt..

Expenses for plowing, harrowing, planting, manuring, hoeing, harvesting, scraping, and cleaning the seed, and interest on land....

$102 50

26 80

$129 30

38 50

Net profit......

$90 80

LAND SALES IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1854-55.

The regular Washington correspondent of the New York Courier and Enquirer has compiled with great care the subjoined statement of the quantity of land sold and price per acre, together with the entire receipts in each State reported, as follows:LAND SALES IN THE FREE STATES AND TERRITORIES FOR 1854-55.

There was sold for cash during the preceding fiscal year 7,035,735 acres of public lands, showing an excess of lands sold for cash during the year just closed of 7,834,000 acres, that is to say, an increase of over 100 per cent. But the aggregate quantity of land alienated by the general government was undoubtedly somewhat less in 1854-55 than in the previous year. The total sales and grants of lands in 1853-54 amounted to 23,338,313 acres, of which three and-a-half millions were located with military warrants, about thirteen millions of acres were granted to States and corporations for various purposes. Of military warrants under previous acts, there remained unlocated at the beginning of this fiscal year a number sufficient to absorb 4,307,880 acres of land. The presumption is that this whole quantity was taken up within the year But as all the land spoliation bills, but that for the relief of the old soldiers, failed in the last Congress, it is probable that the 19,000,000 acres sold and located, comprised nearly the whole of what was alienated by the government within the year.

BEET SUGAR OF FRANCE,

France is the largest producer of beet sugar in the world. A favorable soil and climate, and a rural and industrious population, contribute to the successful prosecution of the beet sugar manufacture. This manufacture originated during the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte. His continental system raised colonial produce to an almost fabulous price. The high rate of sugars induced many to look around for the means of producing sugar at home, and an impetus was given to the search by the offer of a magnificent premium by the emperor to the successful discoverer of a permanent home source of supply. Of all the plants tried the beet proved the most promising, but forty years elapsed before the manufacture of beet sugar was enabled to cope successfully with colonial sugars. From France the culture spread through Belgium, Germany, and far into the interior of Russia, and now there is produced of this kind of sugar on the continent of Europe three hundred and sixty millions of pounds, nearly

one-half of which is manufactured in France, in three hundred and thirty-four manufactories. In the vicinity of Lille the average yield of the sugar beet is sixteen tons to the acre, and at Valenciennes nineteen tons. In some localities twenty-five tons are produced.

RAILROAD, CANAL, AND STEAMBOAT STATISTICS.

STEAMBOAT DISASTERS ON THE WESTERN WATERS.

The third annual report of the United States Steamboat Inspectors of the Western Waters has been printed. The report embraces the period from September 30, 1854, to September 30, 1855. The following is a condensed summary of the most important particulars of this report:

The total number of passengers carried was 1,046,249. The lives lost for the two years are thus stated:—Last year, by explosion, 34; by fire, 55; total, 89. This year by explosion, none; by fire, 13; by sinking, 3; by other modes, 12; total, 28.

These comparisons will show that while this year there have been carried double as many passengers to and from the port of St. Louis as there were last year, not onethird the number of lives were lost-and none at all by that much dreaded catastrophe, the explosion of a boiler. So extraordinary a fact of improvement cannot fail to make a deep impression on steamboat men and on the public. They will be apt to ask themselves if accidents can be so greatly decreased, why may they not be avoided altogether? Let us hope, for the glory of science, for the praise of steamboat men, and for the sake of humanity, that the ensuing year shall be wholly devoid of acci dents among steamboats, resulting from causes that steamboat men should control.

CANALS AND RAILROADS.

FREEMAN HUNT, Esq., Editor of the Merchants' Magazine, etc:—

DEAR SIR:-These are not rivals; they are auxiliaries. Up to this time, canals have yielded the largest profit to their owners. In Great Britain there has been a fair trial of these modern commercial channels. Her canals average an annual income of over five per cent, while her railways yield but 3 6.10 per cent. Railways have the great advantage in monopolizing the travel and the freight in articles of small weight and great value. Railway managers have sunk money by carrying freight below cost. This has been done chiefly to compete with water channels. It has also been, to a great extent, with a view to show increased gross earnings. Great deceptions on stockholders have been practiced in this way.

I have compared the results of the freight business of sixteen of the principal railroads of New York and Massachusetts-eight in each State, having an aggregate length of 2,314 miles, and built and equipped at a cost of $138,000,000-with the New York canals of 800 miles in length, and which, I suppose, have cost about $40,000,000.

The freight carried one mile by sixteen railroads last year, was, in tons. 859,488,837 The freight by the canals carried one mile during the season of navigation last year, was...

Excess by the 800 miles of canal over the 2,300 miles of the sixteen railroads

.....

668,659,043

809,170,412

The cost of carrying one ton per mile on the canals was eight mills, and on the railroads, averaged nearly three cents. Some of these roads, according to their own showing, carried freight below cost; and every man conversant with the management of railroads in this country a few years past, knows that this has been done in several instances to the extent of sinking the whole capital of the roads.

The canals that have their lake termination in Toledo need only to be well managed to become profitable to the owners, as well as a rich blessing to the country through which they pass. In private hands, they would be so at once. Yours,

J. W. SCOTT.

COST OF FUEL TO RAILROADS.

Considerable has been said of late about the substitution of coal for wood as fuel for the engines upon our railroads, and it would seem with some prospect of its practicability. The following, from the Alexandria (Virginia) Sentinel, bears upon this point:

From a table made up by T. C. Atkinson, Esq., and which we have been permitted to inspect, we gather the following statement of the expense of fuel on the various railroads named for each mile run by a locomotive on said roads for the year 1854:—

On the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad the cost of fuel is about 9 per cent of the average cost of running a train of cars. On the Boston and Lowell Road it is about 30 per cent, and on the northern roads generally, where fuel is high, it varies from that down to 18 per cent.

It is evident, in view of the vast amount of fuel required for the locomotives, and the growing scarcity of wood, that coal will be brought more and more into use, both from economy and necessity.

We learn that the low cost of fuel in the expenses of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad is due in great part to the large use of coal. It will readily be understood that,