12,384 66 80,398 80,398 90,222 103,252 97,103 106,407 102,170 66 125,973 66 89,403 66,853 92.587 66 110,222 66 89,062 128,750 95.193 66 117,248 66 66 66 1830, 78,262 171,834 29,058 62,176 196,881 30,206 67,018 268,164 38,212 1833,. 66 1833 " 66 1834,. 112,187 248,724 124,031 90.45 *This per centage is calculated on the exports only, the city consumption having been thrown out. Exclusive of the stock of Rough Rice at the Mills. For explanation of Rice Crops, see article "Rice," page 112. See Note in Detailed Tables, page 92. 100,447 170.007 108,543 111,631 198.617 121,089 2. MEMPHIS IMPROVEMENTS, BUSINESS, &c. [We take pleasure in publishing the following gratifying evidence of the progress of Memphis.-ED.] The course of Memphis is still onward; her business of all kinds, trade, commerce and population steadily increasing; new houses, as well for business as family residences, are being erected in various quarters; and, everything, in short, manifests unmistakeable evidences of a thriving and growing community. There is now little doubt that the Memphis and Charleston railroad will soon be put under contract, and completed in some two or three years-for it can just as well be done in this time, as in twenty or thirty years. This will add greatly to our trade; and add in an equal ratio to the prosperity of every interest, as well as to the population of our city. The right spirit is also beginning to manifest itself in regard to the improvement of the public roads connecting Memphis with the interior, as well as in the erection of manufacturing establishments of various kinds, which will be more particularly noticed in our next. We have been highly gratified at another fact intimately connected not only with the interests of Memphis, but of the surrounding country, also: we allude to the great decrease in the number of trading boats lying at our landings in the last year or two compared with former periods. This proves either that our planters and farmers are producing themselves those necessary articles for which they have heretofore been dependent upon the industry and thrift of other States, or that the business of selling these articles has become more regular and legiti mate by being transferred to established houses both on and under the bluff. Whilst most of the heavy, or auction, grocery and produce business is done upon Front Row, Main street bids fair, and that before long, to be the great dry and fancy goods street of the city; from the fact, that it is the handsomest, and dryest, and least dusty, and less blocked up with persons, packages, boxes and barrels, and less bustling and noisy than Front street; and, of course, the very street where the ladies "most will congregate," promenade, and do their shopping. Indeed, there is much of this business, wholesale and retail, now done upon this street, by houses of well established reputation; as well as much produce, grocery and commission business. The finest block of business houses upon Main street is that occupied by Messrs. S. & A Fowlkes & Co., J. Banks & Co., J. H. Stephenson & Co., and J. A. Fransioli & Co. These are opposite the United States hotel; and the best fitted up and arranged, with reference to comfort, convenience and safety, are those occupied by the Messrs. Fowlkes-indeed, we have not seen them surpassed anywhere in these respects. Their produce, grocery and commission department is on the south-east corner of Main and Adams streets, and adjoining it is their dry goods store. These are kept warm in cold weather by furnaces and flues, conveying the requisite amount of heat to every part of the buildings. In the cellar is a capacious cistern in which is placed a forcing pump for raising the water to a reservoir at the top of the house, from which water is conducted to every room in both houses by means of pipes. Attached to the forcing pump is one hundred feet of hose, by which fire can be promptly extinguished without the aid of fire engines. These houses are well filled with all the articles proper to each, and are doing a very extensive and profitable business. They have also contracted for the erection of a fire proof warehouse for the storing of cotton, &c., in the rear of the block spoken of. This will be 148 long, by 5871% feet broad. The cellars are dug for two other buildings of similar height and dimen sions, which will make the block complete, and its whole length one hundred and forty-eight feet. These will be erected by H. B. Joiner and Charles Jones. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 1. CULTURE OF COTTON IN BRITISH INDIA. It is important that our planters keep steadily before them what the British government is doing, or is likely to do, in its vast India possessions, in regard to the cultivation of cotton. In this view, we have heretofore, and shall from time to time hereafter, cull from the papers, in that quarter, whatever touches the general subject. INDIA COTTON CULTURE. We discussed, at considerable length, last week, the all-important question of a commission to India, to investigate thoroughly the real nature of the impediments that prevent the extension of cotton cultivation in the presidencies most favorable to its growth. Mr. Bright has already presented to the House of Commons, a petition from the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, embodying its views on this subject, and praying for a full and impartial inquiry through the medium of a government commission. The honorable member for Manchester has, also, given notice of his intention to move for the appointment of such a commission; and we are glad to see that active exertions are in progress to strengthen his hands, by an effective representation of the opinions of the mercantile classes of Manchester, on this important subject. A petition now lies in the Exchange, which has already received the signatures of upward of two hundred of the principal merchants and manufacturers of this district. The following is the petition: TO THE HONORABLE THE COMMONS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, IN PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED. The petition of the undersigned, merchants, manufacturers and other inhabitants of Manchester and Salford, and their vicinities, Showeth-That, for the last four years, the cotton manufacture of this country, which, in a healthy state, supplies nearly one-half of the whole value of British exports, has been subjected to most injurious disturbances through an inadequate supply of the raw material, for which, from its nature, this country is wholly dependent upon imports from warmer climates. That it is of vital consequence to every interest in this kingdom, that a trade, in which so vast an amount of fixed capital is embarked, which distributes such immense sums, weekly, among a population dependent on them, and which influences the well-being of every consumer in the State, in proportion as it is in a prosperous or a depressed condition, should be as little as possible liable to pernicious fluctuations from a deficient supply of its first requisite. That, to engender steadiness of supply, it has become of absolute necessity, that the sources whence cotton may be obtained, should be immediately multiplied. That, in looking to the countries capable of producing cotton, your petitioners first fix their attention upon India, because the plant is there indigenous, and the cultivation of it has been pursued for centuries. They see, however, with regret, that while the use of cotton manufactures has increased with an almost incredible rapidity, in countries which cannot produce the raw material, India, which has so long possessed the raw material and a population adequate to the production of any quantity, has not, from the inferiority and want of improvement of the quality of her cotton, participated with other and younger countries in the supply of it. That your petitioners believe that the supineness of India, in the improvement of her cotton, has not arisen from the unfitness either of the soil or climate. The government of India, at great cost and with much apparent earnestness, have endeavored to arouse the native population to a sense of their own interest, in this respect; but the experiments have mainly, if not entirely, failed, and the hopes of relief from that quarter, so hopeful by nature, are becoming faint, and the benefits which a more enlarged intercourse with this country would confer upon India, are repressed. That it is in evidence before your honorable house, that large portions of India are well suited to the production of cotton-your petitioners are anxious to have it ascertained, by means of an inquiry that may leave no doubt, what have been the causes which have restrained India from so improving the quality of her cotton, as to enable her to compete with the cottons of other countries in the British market; and as such an inquiry could not but be most useful in displaying the economical condition of the people of India, and in providing data whereby your honorable house may, at the proper time, be better enabled to consider whether the system heretofore applied to India is such as is best calculated to excite the energies of the people, to lead to industry and well-being, and to develop the resources of the country; and being desirous only that the truth should be made manifest, and that errors in government, if errors exist, should be corrected. Your petitioners humbly pray, that, for the benefit both of this country and of India, and for the useful guidance of the legislature, your honorable house may address her Majesty to appoint, forthwith, a royal commission, to make strict inquiry within the presidencies of Bombay and Madras into the causes which have prevented the increase of the cultivation and the improvement of the quality of the cotton grown within them. The capabilities of India, for the growth of any quantity of raw cotton, are unquestioned. The difficulties that impede its cultivation, arise from the causes that spring from the very nature of the government, and are remediable only by an entire change in its financial and internal policy. These causes are to be found chiefly in the impoverishment and exhaustion of the material resources of the people the utter absence of all encouragement, on the part of the government, to any improvement in the means of communication-a wasteful and injurious system of taxation, that strikes at the very root of industrial enterprise, and which denies everything like security or protection to the capital, as well as to the labor, of the cultivator. The government of India assumes to be the landlord of every portion of the soil, and derives the main bulk of its revenue from a direct tax on the produce of the land. Now, if this were a fixed amount, equitably levied, not by an arbitrary assumption on the part of the govern-ment, of a right to determine what proportion of the whole produce would constitute a sufficient remuneration for the skill, industry and capital of the cultivator, but on a fair valuation of the intrinsic worth of the mere use of the soil, as an implement of production, this form of taxation would probably be the least injurious in which it could fall upon the tax-payer. But the assessment of the Indian land tax is both arbitrary and capricious. As a rule, it is excessive as well as fluctuating; and the natural consequence is, to deprive industry of all stimulus by destroying the only incentive which can sustain it— the certainty of reaping the full fruits of its own skill and perseverance. Experience sufficiently shows us, in this country, how powerful the tenantcy-atwill system has been in checking agricultural improvements, although the great majority of landed proprietors were not disposed to deal harshly or unjustly with enterprising or improving occupiers. The mere liability to have the fruits of their industry torn from them, has operated like a blight on the energy of our farmers, and maintained the produce of the soil far below its natural capabilities. How, then, must the same principle have worked in India, where the landlord was not the 'squire of the parish, influenced by local ties and associa tions, but the government of a huge territory, constantly under the pressure of financial exigencies, and interested in raising the largest revenue in the most summary way? How could industry, capital or cultivation, increase under a system where the amount of produce was invariably made the criterion for determining the tax-paying capabilities of any particular district? For this, unquestionably, has been the practice of the Indian government in most of the collectorates. In the able report of the Bombay commission, made three years ago, the evils of a fluctuating assessment to the land tax are very clearly shown. But a much more important fact is also substantiated by the same document, viz. that a fixed assessment, though bearing a large proportion to the gross average produce, than a fluctuating one formed on the actual estimates of each year's standing crop, is much more favorable to cultivation and industry. But the facts stated in this report, not only show the advantages of a fixed, over a fluctuating estimate, but prove, most conclusively, that a low fixed assessment tends rapidly to increase cultivation, and is more favorable to the revenue than a high one. In the collectorate of Broach, the report informs us that the fluctuating was changed for a high fixed assessment; while, in the Shalopore collectorate, a similar change was made to a fair or low fixed assessment. What was the result of this experiment, in the two districts only, in twelve years, with a high but fixed assessment-from 834 to 1846? In the district of Broach, the total land under caltivation increased only from 590,000 beegas to 610,000; while, in Shalopore, with a low assessment, the quantity of cultivated land increased from 499,000 to 1,713,000 beegas: so that, not only was the revenue obtained from the low assessment much greater than it would have been with a high one, but the cultivated surface was increased, in this collectorate, above 400 per cent. A government commission, despatched to India, expressly to investigate the operation of the land-tax assessments in all the cotton growing districts, would supply a vast fund of facts illustrative of the destructive effects of the present loose and arbitrary system of taxation. Whether India can, or, can not, successfully compete with the cotton growing States of America, such an inquiry would, at any rate, conduce most materially to her prosperity, by revealing the real impediments with which our system of government fetters her resources and harasses the industry of her people. The position of Lancashire is every year becoming more critical, and the necessity more imperative for some decisive attempt to ascertain whether or not our possessions in British India can be made conducive to the greater security of our staple manufacture. The accounts, which every successive steamer now brings, from the other side of the Atlantic, with reference to the deficiency of the last cotton crop, and the apparently unfavorable season for the planting of the new one, render it more than ever important that some decisive steps should be taken to render us less dependent upon a single soil and climate for our future supplies. We trust, therefore, that the exertions which are now making will induce the government to accede to the motion of Mr. Bright, and that both the Manchester Chamber of Commerce and the Commercial Association will cordially co-operate to bring the whole weight and influence of the mercantile community of Manchester to bear upon what we cannot otherwise designate than as a great national necessity.-Manchester Examiner. CULTIVATION OF COTTON IN INDIA. As we have repeatedly explained, the transport of cotton from the fields to the port of shipment, as at present conducted, is all but fatal to the character of the staple, and even to the profits of the traders. Until some substitute is found for the miserable bullock-droves, which now supply the only means of carriage, it is quite impossible that a fair trial can be given to the cotton-producing qualities of India. Yet, at this point, also, the personal intervention of English agents might be of infinite service, for their reports would convey authentic information as to facts, and when these facts have been duly appreciated, we are entitled to anticipate with confidence that capital would be no longer wanting to establish all the requisite communications between one port of India and another. At present, the very name of a railroad has been brought into unfortunate disrepute by the results of improvident speculation and scandalous mismanagement. But these miscarriages should serve rather to guide than to deter, and with warnings so impressive, and so fair a field as India for the revival of enterprise, results of a widely different character might be safely expected. Above all, it must be remembered that our choice is not absolutely free. Cotton we must have, and though some aid may be, perhaps, contributed from miner sources, it is evident to all who have considered the subject, that in India alone can be found any permanent or effectual safeguard against such contingencies as have suggested the present remarks. There is, we fear, little room left for doubting that the apprehensions which have been repeatedly expressed, for the steadiness of our cotton supplies, will receive an unpleasant verification in the imports of the ensuing season. Already have the results of last year's deficiencies become sensible. It is not anticipated that the total shipments to England, from the American ports during the present season, will exceed 1,000,000 bales. They have, hitherto, not reached 950,000; and, indeed, the total exports since the first of last September, have been fully 500,000 bales below those of 1849, and 200,000 below those of 1848. Last year the shipments to England, during the first half of the month of April, were 84,000 bales; this year the return, for the corresponding period, gives an export of only 29,000-showing a decrease of nearly two-thirds. Facts, like these, read us an impressive lesson upon our position and our perils. Cotton is scarcely less indispensable to us than corn; whereas, while in one case we can command the resources of the entire globe, by the immutable laws of demand and supply, in the other we are virtually dependent on the produce of a single State and the variations of a single climate. The cotton plant is as liable to injury as the vine, and a bad crop is as probable an event as a bad vintage: yet, against se |