wine exchange, of land speculations, and of monopolies. Instances of this awakening enterprise, to an extraordinary degree, are to be met with among the oldest and wealthiest families. In such cases, they are the architects and builders of their own extensive establishments; they are, also, the contractors for public works, and, not unfrequently, for government loans. They grow their own corn, olives, fruit, hope, and vegetables; rear their own horses, cattle, sheep, and swine; make their own bread, wine, and oil; and refine their own sugar and spirits; fabricate their own porcelain and glass; tan their own leather; build their own carriages and afford an excellent example for national imitation.

CULTIVATION OF TOBACCO IN OHIO.

A few years ago, according to the Dayton Gazette, the Messrs. Pease commenced the cultivation of tobacco at Carrollton, and found the soil of the Miami bottoms admirably adapted to its culture; but the cigar makers of Cincinnati, refused to purchase it, as they contended nothing would do for wrappers but the Connecticut seed leaf; therefore the tobacco raised in Ohio was shipped to the East. The Messrs. Pease obtained for their crop about $5,000 per year. One day Mr. Pease recognized his mark on a box of tobacco at the factory of a celebrated cigar merchant of Cincinnati, and he inquired of the tobacconist, where he obtained it. He was told that it was the best quality of Connecticut seed leaf, just received from Philadelphia. Mr. Pease claimed it as his own raising and pointed to his mark to corroborate his statement. Ever since then the Ohio seed leaf has found a ready market at home, and its reputation has been yearly increasing. The amount raised has also greatly increased. The crop of last year, raised in the neighborhood of Carrollton alone, has sold in the sheds to eastern merchants for nearly four hundred thousand dollars. This forming a basis, we may safely estimate the value of the tobacco crop of this county last year, at eight hundred thousand dollars. This year a much larger amount will be planted than ever before. The average prices approximate 6 cents per pound, which amply remunerates the farmer, making a good crop worth $100 per acre.

PRICES OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS AND LABOR IN OLDEN TIMES.

The Tribune reduces to dollars and ceats the prices annexed to the inventory of the estate of Captain Thomas Wheeler, of Stonington, Conn., in the year 1755. Wheat was 624 cents per bushel, corn 334 cents, and rye 44 cents. Tallow was 54 cents per pound. and cheese 4 1-6 cents. Hay $4 17 per ton. Horses ranged from $10 to $55. Oxen were from $30 to $50 per yoke. Cows from $10 to $17. Sheep 48 cents per head. Fat swine $3.85. Negro s'aves from $2 76 for “an old negro woman," to $152 78 for “a negro man named Cipeo."

Since reading the article in the Tribune, we have referred to the travels of the Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt in the years 1795, 1796, and 1797, where we have observed the prices of corresponding articies in Western New York, as he found them at that period. At Painted Post, which had then been settled about four years, wheat was seven shillings a bushel; Indian corn four; oats three; rye eleven shillings and sixpence; hay three pounds a ton, although very little of this article is sold, and that only in the depth of winter. A cow costs from eighteen to twenty-five dollars; sheep from sixteen to twenty shillings, and wool

four shillings a pound. Laborers' wages are from four to six shillings a day, and ten dollars a month without victuals. Maid-servants earn about six shillings a week." The price of rye, as here given, must have been exceptional, or may be accounted for as a misprint. At the estate of Benedict Robinson, who settled near Seneca Lake in the train of Jemima Wilkinson (whom, by the way, he already regarded with distrust) the price of rye is given at five shillings. Tolerably good oxen were selling there at from sixty to seventy dollars a yoke.

At this time the settlements were new, and the demand for the products of the earth was probably such as to raise the prices in Western New York above those in the older settlements, just as now the prices of similar articles are higher in Minnesota than in Illinois.

Thirty-three years ago, in Northern New York, wheat was seven to eight shillings per bushel, corn and rye three and sixpence to four shillings, and hay from five to ten dollars per ton, the latter being a starvation price. Horses were worth from forty to one hundred and twenty-five dollars, and oxen from eighty to one hundred dollars a yoke.

The present prices of wheat in this city are from $1 60 to $1 80; corn is 72 to 84 cents, and rye 90 to 95. The rise in the price of horses all over the country is almost fabulous. It is but a common nag that is worth only $150, and matched horses go up to indefinite hundreds per pair.

POSTAL DEPARTMENT.

THE POST-OFFICE ESTABLISHMENT OF RUSSIA.

The Memorial National, of St. Petersburg, gives the following details of the post-office establishment of Russia :—

In 1825 there were only 603 offices in the country, now the number is upwards of 750. The extent of ground run over by the mail conveyances was, in 1825, only 10,000,000 versts, (the verst is a little more than five-eighths of a mile ;) in 1850 that extent had increased to 18,000,000. There are now, throughout all the empire, regularly organized roads for the post, with 3,950 stations for relays, and a staff of 16,510 employees. At the stations there are kept 50,000 horses, 432 reindeer, 1,800 dogs, and 580 boats and barges. In 1825 the number of private letters conveyed was 5.000,000; in 1835, 6,000,000; in 1840, 8,000,000; in 1845, 10,000,000; and in 1850, 12,000,000. The number of letters and packets sent by the crown exceeds the above. In this number are included all packets sent under the government seal, and in this category are comprised journals, reviews, and correspondence of learned societies.

The Washington Union publishes the following interesting particulars relative to the system of "posting" in Russia, from the letter of an intelligent correspondent, who is now traveling in Asiatic Russia. His letter was written at Irkoutsk, in Eastern Siberia, at which place he arrived on January 7th, 1857, after a passage of thirty-five days (including halts) from Moscow. On the route he had a good opportunity to observe the system, the distance being about 3,426 miles, or some twelve degrees more of longitude than from Boston to Astoria :

This system of "posting" was originally established by the government for its own sole purposes-first strictly military, then followed the mail for the public, and finally for the use of travelers. There is, from this place to Moscow, two

hundred and ten stations, at which six “troykahs,” eighteen horses, are contracted for by the government to carry the mail twice a week, at three hundred rubles each"troykah" per year. The stations were originally built by the government, and a postmaster appointed to reside at each. This arrangement compels the contractors to furnish the mail with the necessary horses and vehicles; the horses at all other times (with the exception of one troykah," which must remain always for the dispatch of government couriers.) are at the command of travelers, who carry what is called a "pardaroshua," that is, an order by the government on the postmasters to furnish a certain number of horses for this "pardaroshua." The government receives, when delivered to you, one-half of a copecte a verst per horse for the distance you are to travel by "post." This order, besides being an absolute command on the postmaster to furnish the horses which are required. authorizes them, in case the "post" horses are employed in the transportation of the mail, to procure (command) other horses from the peasants of the villages. The system in Russia is very complete, and seems to work well, and is worthy of consideration by our government in case a "post-road" be established from our western frontiers to California. The distance from Moscow to this city is 5,138 versts; the verst being two-thirds of our mile, will give 3,426 miles. This is accomplished, under ordinary circumstances, in 25 to 30 days; by government couriers in 15 or 20 days, ordinarily in 16, 17, or 18 days. There are 210 stations, or changes of horses. This gives the average of 25 versts to the stationthat is, each relay of horses has to run 16 miles. Now, the government pays to the contractors 300 silver rubles ($225) for each "troykah," (three horses;) that is, 1,800 rubles to each station for the service of the mail; this, multiplied by 210, will give for carrying the mails from Moscow to Irkoutsk 378,000 rubles, ($283,000) The regulations posted in the stations give the passengers the right to travel eight versts per hour in the fall, twelve in the winter, and ten in summer. This rate of speed you have a right to enforce. As to the couriers, they make all that the horses are capable of, and as many as twenty-eight horses have been driven to death in going once over the route. The government pays a stipulated price for the dead horses-twenty-five rubles each. One of the most singular features in this route from Moscow, such an immense distance over such an immense waste of country, is the fact that it occurs less than half-a-dozen times that the change of horses does not take place in a city, town, or village. I have no hesitation in saying that I passed through, between this place and Moscow, five hundred cities, towns, and villages. This, of course, has been the work of time and a strong government, because villages are made by imperial command. But, nevertheless, there is much to be learned in this respect, and it might be of real service to us in solving the problem as to a post-road being the avant courier of the Pacific Railroad to unite the Mississippi with the Pacific Ocean. In performing the journey myself, I employed over seven hundred horses, because I frequently had four, and sometimes five, to my sleigh; this, with the two hundred and ten drivers, and fifteen additional postillions-say two hundred and twentyfive drivers at a cost of three hundred and twenty-five rubles for a "troykah," or about eight cents per mile.

POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT OF CANADA.

The receipts into the Canada Post-office Department, from correspondence with the United States during the last year, amounted to $75,537 28, and on this side $86,817 65 were collected, making a total of $162,353 93. The value of the postage stamps sold in Canada, during 1856, was £6,071 148. 6d., a large increase over any previous year. The number of provincial dead letters for the year reaches the enormous extent of 110,915; of dead letters originating in the United States and transmitted to London, 14,443; of dead letters originating in the United States and transmitted to Washington, 28,540; making the total number of dead letters 155,898. The number of dead letters originating in Canada and

received from Washington, was 30,648; and the number of similar letters received from the General Post-office in London, was 3,559. The number of letters registered during the year ending May, 1856, was 330,000, and upon an average estimate, made in February of the present year, it would appear that the yearly number has increased to 450,000. Of the 350,000 letters registered during the last postal year, only 35, or a thousandth part of the number, were lost. The number of letters said to contain money, lost within the year, was 78.

BUSINESS OF POSTAL CARRIAGE IN CERTAIN CITIES.

STATEMENT OF THE NUMBER OF LETTERS, CIRCULARS, HANDBILLS, NEWSPAPERS, AND PAMPHLETS, RECEIVED AND DELIVERED BY CARRIERS, AND THE AMOUNT RECEIVED FOR CARRIAGE, IN THE CITIES OF NEW YORK, PHILADELPHIA, BOSTON, BALTIMORE, HARRISBURG, SYRACUSE, LOWELL, AND MANCHESTER,

At Harrisburg, the number of letters, &c., are not furnished. In the second column many letters are included, being of the same rate with circulars, &c. The rates vary in different cities, which accounts for the apparent discrepances.

THE POST-OFFICE SYSTEM OF FRANCE.

We find in an exchange the following account of the management of the postoffice in France, with some statistics of the system; but from the absence of due credit to its author, we are unable to vouch for its entire accuracy:

From the 1st of January, 1849, the postage on single letters was decreed to be rated at 20 centimes, (four cents.) pre-payment was left optional, but stamps were introduced, and despite the unhappy state of the country, this measure proved profitable; in 1847, but 126,000,000 of letters passed through the post-office; there were 158,000,000 in 1849. In 1850, the postage was raised to 25 centimes, with the hope of increasing the post-office revenues; it had a contrary effect, and in July, 1854, the rate was restored to 20 centimes, with 10 centimes extra if the letter was not prepaid. In 1856, there were 252,000,000, returning 48,000,000 francs, instead of (as in 1849) 126,000,000 of letters, and 45,000,000 francs. The number of registered letters was 176,000 in 1847; in 1855 there were 655,000. Letters are now sorted on the railways, while the train is in motion; there are now 82 large post-office cars, and 674 persons attached to them; this arrangement saves 12 or 14 hours.

When a train arrives in Paris, the mail bags are directly carried to the train about to leave Paris, instead if to the General Post-office. The country mails are made up twice a day-to many cities three or four times. All public conveyances now carry a letter box; when they reach their destination, they deliver it to

the post-office, which gives them another on their return trip. There was no rural mail service before 1830. There is a daily distribution in most communes, (one out of every eleven only being without this daily distribution.) The rates of postage between large towns and their suburbs have been greatly diminished. The commission on money orders has been reduced from 5 per cent to 2 per cent. Before the reduction it returned to the government 1,095,000 francs; immediately after the reduction it fell to 795,000 francs; it is now 1,770,000 francs. Twenty years ago the postage on a letter between London and Paris was 2f. 90c., (58 cents,) it is now 40 centimes, (8 cents,) if it be prepaid. Newspapers cost English subscribers only 14f. 40c. per annum more than they do French. Reviews pay 19f. instead of 49f., as formerly. The postage paid on the Revue des Deux Mondes between Paris and Calcutta was 25f. 72c. per number; it is now lf. 20c. Postage is heaviest between France and Austria, the two Sicilies, and the Pontifical States. 1f. for Austria, 1f. 30c. for Naples, 1f. 40c. for the Neapolitan provinces, and 1f. for Rome; 252,000,000 letters annually is but seven letters per head in a population of 36,000,000. Here, too, as in a great many other matters, ignorance is one of the causes which prevent this tax from being very lucrative.

STATISTICS OF POPULATION, &c.

POPULATION, COMMERCE, AND RESOURCES OF JAVA.

According to the Boston Atlas, which gives in brief a summary of the popula tion of Java by a recent census, that island contains 11,116,680 inhabitants, divided, as to race, as follows:

Javanese, the descendants of the Hindoo conquerors ...
Sundese, a mountain race, anterior to the Javanese.

Chinese, mostly Coolies, about 12,000 arriving every year.

Malays, chiefly traders on the coast.....

Arabs, principally "native" ship owners

Buginese, enterprising traders of Celebes..

Europeans, including soldiers and half-breeds

Total.....

7,850.250

2,950,145

195,260

76,125

15,250

11,500

18,150

11,116,680

There are 560 inhabitants to the square mile in the province of Bagelen, nearly 600 in that of Surabaya, and about the same proportion in that of Keda-none of which provinces, except Surabaya, contain any city or town of note. This density of population is double that of Belgium, the most densely peopled country in Europe. This population supplies its own food, and at the same time, according to the Javaasche Courant, official journal at Batavia, exported in 1855 :— On government account-florins On private account

Total.....

40,850,435 84,261,962

84,112,397

Or $29,850,578, which does not include the foreign trade of the free ports of Batavia, Samarang, and Surabaya.

In a recent report of the Dutch Minister of the Colonies to the Second Chamber of Deputies at the Hague, he gives in round numbers the following value of the most important exports of Java in 1856 :