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STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE.

8. CULTIVATION OF

1. AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS OF MAINE. 2. THE CEYLON COFFEE CROP. COTTON IN VENEZUELA. 4. COTTON GROWING IN ALGERIA. 5. WOOL GROWING.

AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS OF MAINE.

HON. JOHN A. POOR has furnished a comparative statement showing the Agricultural Products of Maine in the years 1850 and 1860, as returned to the Census bureau by the U. S. Marshal, and compiled by Mr. P. from the abstracts of Agriculture prepared by Mr. KENNEDY, the Superintendent of the Census:

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Shortly after the departure of the last mail for Europe, a very abundant blossom made its appearance throughout the coffee districts of the Kandian country; this was succeeded by calm weather, so that there was nothing to interfere with the setting of the fruit, and since that time gentle showers have fallen, which will have the effect of filling-out the young coffee, and mature a further supply of wood for another blossom, which is expected about three weeks hence. The planters appear to be unanimously of opinion that the present blossom is as fine as any they have had for many years, and that, with ordinarily favorable weather, we may hope to ship during the season 1862-3 a larger crop than has ever before left Ceylon.-Ceylon Times.

CULTIVATION OF COTTON IN VENEZUELA.

An English company, with a capital of £2,000,000, has been organized for the purpose of growing cotton in Venezuela, and the Venezuela government, by a recent decree, declared free from importation duties all implements and machinery used for cultivating cotton, and preparing it for market.

There is, perhaps, no country on the continent of America, not excepting the most favored of the Southern States, where cotton can be produced with less labor, larger yield per acre, and of better quality, than Venezuela. The Provinces of Caracas, Aragua, Guarico, Carabobo, and Yaracuy possess a very great advantage over the more easterly districts, as the crops are not endangered by the nortes, or periodical rains, that fall and wash cotton from the bolls after they have opened at the time of gathering, as frequently occurs in other districts. In the above-named provinces the ground does not even require to be plowed to afford a larger return than is common in our Southern States, and thus the cost of producing is considerably less. Hundreds of square miles of the most fertile cotton lands are lying waste and useless that could be immediately converted into cotton fields, and a very few months would suffice to produce and to have ready for shipment many thousand bales of cotton, in addition to the number annually shipped from La Guayra, Puerto Cabello, and other ports.

COTTON GROWING IN ALGERIA.

The Courrier d'Alger gives some interesting details relative to the company founded by some English manufacturers, with a capital of £1,000,000 sterling, for the cultivation of long staple silky cotton, on 70,000 acres of the plain of Habra, of which the French Government has given them a grant, comprising 30,000 acres of the marshes of the Macta, which they are to drain. The negotiations for this grant of territory were concluded between the directors of the company, the Duke of Malakoff, Governor-General of Algeria, the Director-General of the Civil Service, and the Minister of War, who happened to be in Paris at the same time. But even after the arrangements were agreed on, and the capital lodged, the directors of the company reserved for themselves the right to examine the ground previous to being bound by any engagement. The result has been perfectly satisfactory, and the previous arrangements have been ratified, so that the works are to be shortly commenced. The directors of the English company have undertaken to expend forthwith £160,000 in draining the marsh, constructing dams on two points of the river above the plain of Habra, and in cutting two canals to irrigate that plain. It is anticipated, however, that the proposed improvements may cost £280,000. The company have asked permission to construct a harbor where the marsh of the Macta joins the sea, and where they intend to embark their produce. This point is called the Port aux Poules, and the directors further propose to make the canal which is to communicate with the sea sufficiently wide and deep to permit large boats to advance a long distance into the interior. The communication between the various points of the company's vast extent of territory is not to be carried on by means of common roads, but by railways according to the American system. These railways can be laid down at a moderate expense, in consequence of the ground being perfectly level. They will, moreover, effect a great saving of time and labor. Instead of the common plow, which could not turn up more than one acre a day, the company are going to employ ten steam plows, which will turn up twenty acres of land in the same time. It is expected that the establishment of the new company will confer an immense advantage on the colonists already settled near the plain of the Habra. The directors propose to supply their neighbors with water to irrigate their lands at the trifling sum of £1 the hectare, and to advance them money at 5 per cent, to cultivate their land, on the sole condition that they shall grow cotton according to the method suggested by the company, and shall sell their cotton to the company at the current price. The directors further propose to supply the colonists with improved machinery, by which they may add forty per cent to their produce.

The Journal d'Havre says that during the last week M. DE RAVINEL, deputy for the Vosges, and M. PAUYER QUERTIER, mayor and deputy for the city of Rouen, had a long interview with Marshal RANDON, Minister of War, on the subject of cultivating cotton in Algeria. The Marshal assured the deputies that the Government would give all the assistance in its power to any attempt to carry such a project into execution. He recommended the deputies to send competent persons to Algeria to choose land best calculated to produce cotton of good quality.

The Constitutionnel states that, independent of the English colonists

acres.

who are about to cultivate cotton in Algeria, M. DE BRAY, a Protestant clergyman, has selected eighty-five families from the agricultural population of the Hautes-Alpes and in Piedmont to establish them on a tract of land in Algeria of which he has obtained a grant. This land is situated near Aumale, at a locality called des Trembles, and embraces 2,500 Some of the colonists have already arrived, and express themselves delighted with the fertility of the soil, and well satisfied to live in a country which promises them so many comforts. Other letters state that the last winter has been more favorable for colonists than the one preceding, and that field operations have not been interrupted by the weather. The Constitutionnel vouches for the truth of this statement. It adds that the colony of Algeria progresses and will continue to progress. Previous colonists have suffered much, a fact which cannot be denied. In new colonies the weak succumb under their sufferings; the strong become hardened and survive. Algeria has passed through the first period; it is now entering on the second. With some additional efforts the hopes of the colonists will be realized. The natives are beginning to copy the European mode of cultivation, and capital is flowing into the country.

WOOL GROWING.

The Secretary of the Vermont State Agricultural Society, DANIEL NEEDHAM, in his annual report, has the following remarks upon the important subject of wool-growing:

"The price of wool for the next few years, reasoning from analogy, must be high. The cotton crop will not be planted extensively at the South, as it has been in years past; and if the blockade is not raised by the first day of April, in many States it will not be planted at all. Should the rebellion not be suppressed within another year, as very likely it may not be, very little of the cotton crop of 1861 will find its way to market for the next eighteen months; and when we consider that the people must be clothed; that the use of woolen fabrics during the present high price of cotton goods is much more economical; that the million of men in the field wear and destroy, in weight, a third more of clothing than in the peaceful avocations of life; that at the South all the carpets have been cut up into blankets, and that very little of the worn out stock will be supplied until peace is restored-from the fact that the South has not even the raw material to replenish with-the whole seceding States not producing as much wool as the State of Ohio alone; it can be seen, that not only during the war, but at its close, when the million of men in the army return to their former employments, discard their military clothing, and dress as they were wont, in broadcloth and doeskins, the price of wool must continue above the average price for the last five years. In time of war, the quality of wool is a matter of no small importance. Vermont has limited herself to the production of the finest wools. But the wool most in demand now, and bringing the highest prices, is a coarser grade. The query may well be made, whether it will not be equally profitable for us to turn our attention to the production of a somewhat coarser staple, and at the same time furnish richer and higher priced mutton for the market."

STATISTICS OF POPULATION.

1. MOVEMENT OF COLORED POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES. 2. POPULATION OF FRANCI COMPARED WITH OTHER EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.

MOVEMENT OF THE COLORED POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES.

THE following statistics possess peculiar interest in connection with the idea advanced by some, that the North will be overrun by a colored population:

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