tively small. The number of practical agriculturists taken from their occupations is deemed too few for their influence to have been very perceptible, and the demand of food may not have been materially lessened on this account. It cannot, we believe, be viewed as fairly counterbalancing other and more influential elements, such as those for instance, which are comprised in the variations of the seasons, the improvements in husbandry, and greater foreign demand.

The year opened with unusual promise of activity in business at home and abroad; a prospect which has proved remarkably correspondent to the actual result. Expectation of greater demands from abroad, with a prosperous state of things at home, authorized, it was felt, more than usual effort to meet the requisition of almost starving nations, and a multiplied population of our own. Besides the increased amount already devoted to the winter grains in the previous autumn, the spring and summer seeding, it seems, was considerably larger than usual.

Taking the whole extent of the country, the season of the previous year, (1846,) was favorable; in the large grain districts the crops were abundant, and this, again, may have had a tendency to stimulate agricultural industry, particularly as the outlet for the surplus appeared to be widened. Farmers are proverbially influenced not a little by the effect of one or more favorable or unpropitious seasons. They feel encouraged, when they have been successful, to go on and extend yet more their enterprizes; but if balked in their expectations by untimely weather and lessened harvests, they shrink back, and scarcely feel willing to repeat their experiment. Happily, this year there had been and yet existed that combination and co-operation of causes which dispelled their fears, and emboldened them to plunge the plough yet deeper and farther into and through the soil; and their most sanguine expectations have met, it is believed-looking at the collective aggregate—with a proportionate reward of their labor.

Whether the stream of surplus products will flow wider, or be narrowed down again to its former dimensions, time must determine; but from the best information we can gather, we should be inclined to hazard the belief, that though subject to occasional interruption, the progress of demand upon our agricultural resources will be steady, and with increased needs to be supplied. Facts that we are yearly accumulating seem to justify this expectation.

Unlike many other countries, especially those of the old world, the whole of our population comparatively enjoy the means of livelihood, and are sed from the plenty that abounds in our land. Vast numbers of their poor and starving have sought a refuge among us, and many, too, better providerl, have chosen their habitation on the rich and fertile lands of the west and north-west, that are there outspread to invite their residence. Taken in the aggregate, these, while they have added to our population, have probably also increased the amount of products raised

among us.

The emigration from Europe has been far beyond what it ever was before. By the returns of the collectors of five of the principal ports. to the Secretary of State, the number of persons of this character arriving during the year ending Sept. 30, 1847, is stated to be 233,798, an in

crease of not less than 82,131 in one year. It is very probable that the
addition of others at the smaller ports, and those entering our country
by the way of Canada, would swell the aggregate to not less than 300,-
000, and possibly more. The following table presents the comparison, ,
in this respect, of the last two years :
For the year ending

For the year ending
Sept. 30, '46.

Sept. 30, '47.

Increase New York, 98,863

145,830

46,967 Boston, 14,079

20,745

6,666 Philadelphia, 7,237

14,763

7,526 Baltimore, 9,327

12,018

2,681 New Orleans, 22,148

40,442

18,294

151,664

233,798

82,134

The ratio for the months since Sept. 30, for the whole time has probably increased rather than diminished, though we notice that, as to the port of New York, it is stated there has been a slight falling off. In ihat port, however, in one of the months since that at which the enumeration above given closed, we have seen it stated the persons thus arriving amounted to about 17,000.

A portion of this emigration no doubt still lingers in the Atlantic cities, and numbers are employed on the various rail roads and works of public improvement still in progress. But the vastly greater number direct their way to the west. A single fact or two shows the influx of population from this source in the north-western states. In general the current flows on unobserved, but now and then some incident transpires which calls the attention to its ever-widening tide. In the catastrophes which have occurred on the lakes and rivers of the west, it is found that a large proportion of the passengers moving westward are foreign immigrants. Thus, in the case of the steamer Phænix, lost by fire recently, out of three hundred prssengers, not less than about two hundred are said to have belonged to this class. This was the fact, too, in the wreck of the Talisman, on her way up the Mississippi. A very large proportion of the passengers were Germans. The Norwegians alone in Wisconsin :rre said to number not less than 15,000, and many thousands more are expected soon; 8000 more are stated to occupy the northern portions of Illinois. From 50,000 to 100,000 Germans, it has been mentioned, on what appears to be good authority, are preparing to embark for the United States in the course of another year.

Thousands of acres, and some of the best kind, are in every successive stage of improvement, and every year takes from them a fair preportion and adds their products to the great aggregate of the harvests.This, in the more recently constituted States, furnishes a large counterbalance to the effect of the disastrous season, and is one reason why, notwithstanding the apparent necessity of reduction in our estimates, we have sometimes put down an actual increase. The sale of the public lands during the past year, as appears by returns to the Land Oflice, amounted to 2,526,600 acres, principally in the States of Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Iowa, Wisconsin.

No. State or Territory.

Maine,
2 New Hampshire,
3 Massachusetts,
4 Rhode Island,
5 Connecticut,
6 Vermont,
7 New York,
8 New Jersey,
9 Pennsylvania,
10 Delaware,
11 Maryland,
12 Virginia,
13 North Carolina,
14 South Carolina,
15 Georgia,
16 Alabama,
17 Mississippi
19 Lo is ana,
19 Tennessee,
2) Kentucky,
21 Ohio,
22 Indiana,
23 Illinois,
24 Missouri,
52 Arkansas,
26 Michigan,
27 Florida,

Wisconsin Territory,
29 Jowa,
30 Texas,

District of Columbia,

ESTIMATE OF THE CROPS FOR 1847. Population Population Bushels of Bushels of Bushels of in 1940. in 1847. wbeat.

barley. oats.
501,973 600,000 890,000 286,650

1,720,000
284,574 300,000 6:0,000 129,150 2,100,000
737,699 850,000 256,000 170,100 2,000,000
105,830 130,000

4,500 54,000 210,000
309,978 330,000 125,000 28,000 1,510,000

291,948 302,000 664,000 55,000 3,905,000 2,428,921 2,780,000

14,500,000

3,931,000 26,200,000 373,306 416,000 1,100,000

10,000 5,225,000 1,724,033 2,125,000

14,150,000

150,000 18,835,000
78,085 80,000

410,000 4,400 650,000
470,019 495,000 4,960,00 € 2,900 1,860,000
1,239,797 1,270,000 12,000,000 90,000 10,000,000
753,419 765,000 2,350,000

4,000 3,507,000
594,398 605,000 1,300,000

4,500 1,000,000
691,392 800,000 1,950,000 12,300 1,140,000
530,756 690,000 1,200,000 7,500 1,831,000
375,651 640.000 500,000 2,000 1,378,000
352,411 470,000
829,210 950,000 8,750,000 6,500 9,918,000
779,828 855,000 6,000,000 18,000 14,100,000
1,519,467 1,850,000 16,800,000 240,000 26,500,000
685,866 960,000 7,500,000 39,000 15,290,000
476,183 735,000 4,900,000 116,000 4,200,000
383,102 600,000 1,750,000 13,000 6,020,000
97,574 152,400 200,000 1,000

440,000
212,267 370,000 8,000,000 210,000 5,500,000
54 477 75,000

10,000
30,945 215,000 1,200,000 30,000 1,500,000
43,112 130,000 1,000,000 35,000 1,000,000

140,000 1,110,000
43,712 46,000
16,000

15,000 20,000 50,000

Bushels of Bushels of Bushels of rye.

buckwheat. Indian corn.
195,000 76,000 2,890,000
460,000 169,000 2,228,000
620,000 138,000 3,410,000

50,000 4,500 800,000
1,200,000 480,000 3,180,000

350,000 330,000 2,100,000
3,650,000 3,660,000 16,000,000
3,050,000 980,000 8,000,000
12,000,000 3,600,000 20,200,000

55,000 14,000 3,620,000
975,000 115,000 8.300,000
1,500,000 560,000 36,500,000
235,000 18,000 25,000.000
54,000

12,600,000
70,000

25,000,000
75,000

26,000,000
23,000

16,000,000
2,200

9,000,000
390,000 28,000 74,000,000
2,650,000 16,000 62,000,000
1,000,000 1,200,000 66,000,000

250,000 100,000 38,000,000
155,000 120,000 33,000,000
86,000 25,000 25,000.000
10,000

7,000,000
90,000 290,000 6,500,000

1,000,000
8.000 30,000 1,000,000
12,000 20,000 2,900,000

1,500,000
7,500

45,000
525,000

28

31

32 Oregon,

Total,

17,069,453

20,746,400

114,245,500

5,649,950

167,867,000

29,222,700 11,673,500 539,350,000

ESTIMATE OF THE CROPS FOR 1849.

Bushels of Tons of Tons of Pounds of Pounds of Pounds of potatoes. hay hemp. tobacco. cotton

rice.
7,800,000 1,113,000
4,655,000 606,000
4,308,000 682,000

50,000,000 2,500,000 3,000
2,600,000 136,000

14,000,000 42,000,000 3,500,000
3,500,000 30,000

35,000 100,000,000 78,000,000
1,840,000 24,000

205,000 210,000,000 15,500,000
2,150,000 18,000

350,000 160,000,000 300,000
2,050,000
800

200,000 250,000,000 1,000,000
1,300,000 27,000

135,000 195,000,000 4,000,000
2,700,000 45,000 1,000 35,000,000 35,000,000 10,000
1,810,000 130,000 15,000 65,000,000 2,000,000 20,000
4,644,000 1,400,000 600 9,000,000
2,350,000 385,000 530 3,880,000
2,100,000 365,000 600 1,288,000

7,500
1,050,000 80,000 10,000 14,000,000
520,000
1,100

300,000 15,000,000 700,000
1,080,000 96,000
850,000 40,000
200,000

Pounds of Pounds of silk cocoons. sugar.

550 500,000

880 2,225,000
40,000 530,000

960
200,000 45,000

8,000 10,500,000
5,000 12,800,000

4,500
35,000 2,000,000
3,600
7,900
6,350

1,750,000
6,200

15,000
5,800

35,000
6,000 370,000
5,880 15,000

250
1,200 275,000,000
20,000 530,000

4,400 3,000,000
35,000 5,000,000

800 6,400,000
3,200

615,000
230 500,000

260
1,500 3,260,000
500 300,000
40 350,000

175,000

20,000
600

5,500

27,750 220,164,000 1,041,500,000 103,040,500

404,600 324,940,500 IND LANA PUBLIC DEBT.

From the New York Journal of Commerce.

An agent of the State of Indiana is now paying, in this city, the semiannual interest of two per cent. on one half of the original amount of her debt, to such of her creditors as have discharged or will discharge the State from the other half of the principal, as also the interest due on said discharged half of the principal.

The law of Indiana, under which the payment of interest is making on the preferred half of the principal debt,-provides further,—" That the State will make no provision whatever to pay either principal or interest, on any internal improvement bond or bonds, until the holder or holders thereof shall first surrender said bonds to the Agent of the State, and shall have received in lieu thereof, certificates of stock as provided in the first section of the Act."

The first section alluded to in this quotation, requires, as first above stated, that the holders of the bonds of the State shall give them up, and receive in lieu thereof, two certificates, each for an equal moiety of the principal of said bonds; one of which certificates the State promises to pay the interest thereon from and after the 1st of January, 1817, and finally to pay the principal of said half; and that the holder shall look only to the revenues of the Wabash and Erie Canal for the principal and interest of the other certificate.

To obtain the promise of payment of this preferred half of the principal, and also of one half of the interest due on said preserred half principal, the law of Indiana requires, first, that the creditors of the State shall subscribe to and conplete the Wabash and Erie Canal, in an amount not less than eight hundred thousand dollars. Without this amount of subscription, nothing could be received by any one. With it, those who subscribed, could receive a new promise and the “solemn, irrevocable pledge of the faith of the State” for one half the principal and less than one half the interest due, “ for the whole of which they held the same solemn and irrevocable pledge of faith as is contained in the new promise."

There is in this Act, a palpable violation of the Constitution of the United States, which says, “No States shall pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts."

There is no probability whatever that the subscribers to this forced loan will ever receive from the revenue of the Canal the half of the original debt of the State, from which they have been compelled to discharge the State. But whether there is a probability of it or not, the violation of the Constitution is equally great in either case; as the obligation of the contract” is impaired, and one half of the debt is absolutely annulled, by the act of the State forcing the creditors to accept those terms or nothing.

It is hoped and believed that sober second thought will induce the State of Indiana, now the fifth in rank of population and wealth in our