ture more or less; and it is estimated that there are in all, 1500 hands employed in this business. Value of work manufactured by wholesale about $200,000.

CARRIAGES.

Number of factories 10; capital invested $132,000; annual products, $345,000, and hands employed 300. In addition to these, there is a large number of omnibus factories.

AN ACT to provide for recording the conveyances
of vessels, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That no bill of sale, mortgage, hypothecation or conveyance of any vessel or part of any vessel of the United States, shall be valid against any person other than the grantor or mortgager, his heirs and devisees, and persons having actual notice thereof, unless such bill of sale, mortgage, hypothecation, or conveyance, be recorded in the office of the collector of customs where such vessel is registered or enrolled: Provided, That the lien by bottomry on any vessel, created during her voyage, by a loan of money or materials necessary to repair or enable such vessel to prosecute a voyage, shall not lose its priority or be in any way affected by the provisions of this act.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the collectors of the customs shall record all such bills of sale, mortgages, hypothecations, or conveyances, and also all certificates for discharging and cancelling any such conveyances, in a book or books to be kept for that purpose, in the order of their recep

tion, noting in said book or books, and also on the bill of sale, mortgage, hypothecation, or conveyance, the time when the same was received, and shall certify on the bill of sale, mortgage, hypothecation, or conveyance, or certificate of discharge or cancellation, the number of the book and page where recorded; and shall receive, for so recording such instrument of conveyance or certificate of discharge, fifty cents.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the collectors of the customs shall keep an index of such records, inserting alphabetically the names of the vendor or mortg ager, and of the vendee or mortgagee, and shall permit said index and books of records to be inspected, during office hours, under such reasonable regulations as they may establish, and shall, when required, furnish to any person a certificate setting forth the names of the owners of any vessel registered or enrolled, the parts or proportions owned by each, (if inserted in the register or enrollment,) and also, the material facts of any existing bill of sale, mortgage, hypothecation, or other incumbrance upon such vessel, recorded since the issuing of the last register or enrollment, viz: the date, amount of such incumbrance, and from and to whom, or in whose favor made; the collectors shall receive for each such certificate, one dollar.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That the collectors of the customs shall furnish certified copies of such records on the rceipt of fifty cents for each bill of sale, mortgage, or other conveyance.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That the owner, or agent of the owner of any vessel of the United States, applying to a collector of the customs for a register or enrollment of a vessel, shall, in addition to the oath now prescribed by law, set forth in the oath of ownership the part or proportion of such vessel belonging to each owner, and the same shall be inserted in the register or enrollment; and that all bills of sale of vessels registered or enrolled shall set forth the part of the vessel owned by each person selling, and the part conveyed to each person purchasing.

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That the twelfth clause or section of the act entitled "An act in addition to the several acts regulating the shipment and discharge of seamen and the duties of consuls," approved July twentieth, eighteen hundred and forty, be so amended, as that all complaints in writing, to the consuls or commercial agents as therein provided, that a vessel is unseaworthy, shall be signed by the first, or by the second and third officers, and a majority of the crew, before the consul or commercial agent, shall be authorized to notice such complaint, or proceed to appoint inspectors as therein provided.

SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That any person, not

being an owner, who shall on the high seas wilfully, with intent to burn or destroy, set fire to any ship or other vessel, or otherwise attempt the destruction of such ship, or other vessel, being the property of any citizen or citizens of the United States, or procure the same to be done, with intent aforesaid, and being thereof lawfully convicted, shall suffer imprisonment to hard labor for a term not exceeding ten years nor less than three years, according to the aggravation of the offense.

SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That this act shall be in force from and after the first day of October next ensuing. Approved, July 29, 1850.

HORTICULTURAL DEPARTMENT.

From the Columbian and Great West.

NATIVE GRAPE.

Messrs. Editors: About a year since, I made, through the medium of your paper, a request to persons in the U. States, having new, hardy grapes in their vicinity, promising to be of fine quality for the table or wine, to send me the cuttings, as I was anxious to test the quality of all such, both as table grapes and for wine. After thirty years' experience, I have not found one foreign grape that would suit our climate. I have tried from the extreme south to the snow-clad mountains of France, where the wine region suddenly terminates.

I obtained last spring twenty-six kinds of grape cuttings, twenty-four of which were new varieties with us. By grafting, I obtained fruit from a portion of them and from the fruit, wood, and leaf, expect four or five of them to be superior table grapes, and may prove valuable for wine. A portion of them from the wood and leaf are clearly the Fox grape. This grape can always be known from the wood and leaf. This wood is covered with a hairy down, and the leaf thick, like leather, and white and rough on the under side. It generally bears but few bunches, and most of them small, and the fruit has so much of the muscadine scent, that you can judge of the proximity, when within one hundred feet of them. The skin is thick, and the pulp hard. It would be rare indeed, if one of this character should be valuable either for the table or for wine. I should know something of this grape, for in my youth I saw none other, except the small winter grape, and then

thought them delicious. The Catawba may be an improved seedling from it, as in all the Catawba seedlings I have seen there is a disposition to go back to the Fox family. Among those sent me were several of this family, and I fear they will prove of no value.

Cuttings must be the wood of last year's growth. Any person having or knowing of new hardy grapes in their vicinity, will do me a favor by sending me cuttings and the origin of the vine, and a description of its fruit and quality; the size of the bunch; and of the berry; and the bearing character of the vine, and the time it ripens the fruit. The favor to me may be of little moment, compared with the benefit they may render the country. Many portions of the United States are destined to rival the best wine countries of Europe, and they may be the means of bringing into notice a native grape that may be worth millions of dollars to the nation. In all cases, I shall request the person sending the grape to name it, if too modest, let me give it his name. Cuttings may be now sent, or any time before the vine begins to grow. I will send samples of the wine to persons sending cuttings, when of good quality.

A grape may not be fine for the table, but the juices may be pleasant when separated from the skin and pulp, and make a good wine. A great change is also wrought in the fermentation. The Hughes' Crab Apple is not eatable, yet it has no equal as a cider fruit. Where there is an express line in the vicinity, they may be sent by it, as the expense will be no object.

Past experience proves that the Ohio river, in our vicinity, and for some distance above, and a long distance below, is as good a location as any in Europe, and will soon rival the best of them. We should plant the seed of our best native grapes, and select the most promising plant, which is easily done from the vigor of the plant and the appearance of the wood and leaf. A cross between different varieties would also be desirable. The Catawba will be worth millions to the nation. Yet a better one may be found in our woods, or raised from the seed.

I shall be under obligations to editors who will notice that part of this letter which requests cuttings of new hardy grapes. Of the quality of all obtained last spring, I can this fall speak with certainty, as I shall not only have sufficient quantity of each to test their quality for the table, but for the wine also.

Cuttings should have some green mops covering their bottom ends, to keep them moist. Cut off an inch above an upper and lower eye, of such cutting.

When no other mode of conveyance offers, a few crafts may

be sent by mail, enclosed in three or four moist newspapers.Cut them one inch above an eye, and two inches below an eye. Two eyes to each graft will be sufficient. Select small solid wood.

N. LONGWORTH.

GRAPE CULTURE IN IOWA.

We have received a box of Isabella and Catawba grapes, as a present, from our highly esteemed correspondent, Charles Corkery, Esq., of Dubuque, Iowa, for which we beg to return our grateful acknowledgements. In appearance and flavor these grapes compare favorably with any that we have seen in the St. Louis market. The clusters are large and well filled; the berries fair; of equal size, and equally matured-indicating that the conditions of the climate and soil were favorable to the production of the fruit. The following extract from Judge Corkery's letter will give some idea of the extent to which the grape culture has already been carried in Iowa:

"Permit me to present you with a specimen of our Catawba and Isabella grape, raised some fourteen miles north of this city. They grow all through this country very abundantly and luxuriantly, and are brought to market in wagon loads.

These are not the Italian grape, cultivated at Sinsennawa Mound, six miles from this place, to which I alluded on a former occasion. I have not heard from that vineyard recently, but it looked fine when I saw it last fall, and the owner (Rev. S. Mazzuchelli) promised me to write you on his experience and success.

This specimen is sent merely that you may convince your "southern readers" that they cannot excel us much in the culture of grapes." CHAS. CORKERY.

We have heretofore considered the vallies of the Ohio and Missouri rivers as destined to become the wine producing region of the United States, east of the Rio del Norte; but judging from the evidence before us, and from other accounts, we are ready to conclude that in all probability the conditions of climate and soil are more favorable to the production of grapes in Iowa, than in the more southern portions of the Mississippi valley.