the mortice, and the upper leaning against the timbers which span the abutments. Then loose boards are placed on the upper side of these studs or posts, which are firmly held to their place by the weight of the wa'er. Thus the dam is completed. When we wish to make a Pond Freshet we go to the upper dams on the different branches of the creek, some of which are twelve miles above Titusville, and commence about midnight either to pull with a lever or chain, or cut away these studs, and the water all rushes out of the dam at once. We then wait until this water gets into or commences running over the next dam, and then cut it away, and keep repeating this process until we come to the lower dam three miles below Titusville. When it, which is a very large dam, is cut, we have let loose all in one body, in some cases the water of seventeen dams, which makes a rise of from twenty-two to thirty inches above the highest rock on the swiftest ripple. The studs are again put in, water collects, and the mill men saw and grind until they are all stopped from twelve to forty-eight hours by the next Pond Freshet."

The shippers and boatmen, having been notified of the day upon which the freshet is to take place, begin to make preparations several days previous to it. Boats are overhauled, put in order, and then towed, by men or horses, to the point on the creek from which they intend to start. The boats are then loaded and everything made ready for the coming flood which is to waft them to that much desired harbor, the mouth of the creek. About the time the freshet is expected, the boatmen stand ready to let loose their lines. A cool rushing breeze is the first sign of it, and soon after comes the swirling waters. Inexperienced boatmen generally cut their boats loose upon the first rush of water. As a matter of course, their boats run ahead of the water, and get aground upon the first ripple or shoal. The creek being very narrow, and the force of the current generally swinging the boats across it, a jam, and not unfrequently a great loss of boats and oil ensues, just from the inconsiderate haste of a few. The experienced boatmen waits at his harbor until the water commences to recede, then cuts his line loose, and trusts himself to the mercy of the swift current, and comes into port upon th highest part of the rise. The current of a first class Pond Freshet will run at the rate of six miles an hour. An ordinary one about four miles, and a small one two miles anda-half. If the boatman meets with no obstacle, he soon anchors his craft at our wharf.

There are several points of the creek where formidable obstacles are interposed to vex the navigator. Among these are the pier at M'Clintock Bridge, and a pier, to support the machinery of a well, in the middle of the creek immediately below; the Forge Dam, through which is only a narrow passage for boats; the pier of the bridge at this place, and the bar at the mouth of the creek itself. One boat getting across the creek at either of these points is apt to cause a "jam." The boats are crushed against each other, and being generally built very light are easily broken, and if loaded with bulk oil the contents are poured into the creek. If in barrels, the boat sinks and the barrels float off, and the owner rarely recovers all of them again.

Once landed at our wharves, the boat is either unloaded, or if the water is in good boating stage, goes, after brief preparation, to Pittsburg-Oil City Register.

DRIVE YOUR BUSINESS, BUT NEVER PERMIT YOUR BUSINESS TO DRIVE YOU.

We once knew a successful merchant who gave the above as the rule of his life and the key of his success. It is a motto containing certainly great wisdom, and yet comparatively few act in accordance with its teaching. To drive ones business is a proposition easily understood, but how to prevent its becoming the driver is a more difficult problem. Who does not meet every day merchants, worthy men, almost out of breath and always under high pressure during banking hours? How often, too, do we see them bowed down with premature old age, resting under the pressure of heavy business cares. These men are all permitting their business to be the driver, and we undertake to say that very few of them really enjoy one moment of their lives, while more than four-fifths of them die poor. On the other hand, were these same men willing to do less, always seeing the end from the begining, they could show at the close of life their worldly work accomplished, without taking all their time from higher and better thoughts and works, a fair balance in money made, blessed with infinite satisfaction and comfort. The evil of the day is the desire to do a large business. "If," says the enthusiast, "I can net five thousand dollars out of a year's business, I can surely realize more than twice the profit out of twice the business." This may or may not be true. If you triple your capital you might perhaps safely double your business, but not more. For it should be remembered that a larger business requires additional thought, attention, and work, and hence more capital than the proportionate increase of the business-for there will be less time for financeering. We frequently forget that when we double our business we are doubling labors and cares which are already as great as ought to be undertaken. Unless, therefore, we observe some such rule as the above, we shall find that in increasing our business we shall only be increasing our troubles, and leaving a balance at the end of life of simply so many obligations met, so much interest paid, so many extra steps taken, so many anxious days and sleepless nights passed, with nothing to the other side of the account except premature old age and disappointed hopes.

MAKING NEEDLES.

Needles are made of steel wire. The wire is first cut by shears, from coils, into the length of the needles to be made. After a batch of such bits of wire have been cut off they are placed in a hot furnace, and then taken out and rolled backward and forward on a table till they are straight. They are now to be ground. The needle pointer then takes up two dozen or so of the wires and rolls them between his thumb and fingers, with their ends on the grindstone, first one end and then the other. Next is a machine which flattens and gutters the heads of ten thousand needles in an hour. Next comes the punching of the eyes, by a boy, so fast that the eyes can hardly keep pace with him. The splitting follows, which is running a fine wire through a dozen of perhaps of these twine needles. A woman with a little anvil before her files between the heads and separates them.

They are now complete needles, but they are rough and rusty, and easily bent. The hardening comes next. They are heated in batches in a furnace, and when red hot are thrown into a pan of cold water. Next

they must be tempered, and this is done by rolling them backward and forward on a hot metal plate. The polishing still remains to be done. On a very coarse cloth needles are spread to the number of forty or fifty thousand. Emery dust is strewed over them, oil is sprinkled and soft soap is daubed over; the cloth is rolled hard up, and with several others of the same kind thrown into a sort of wash pot to roll to and fro twelve hours or more. They come out dirty enough, but after rinsing in clean hot water, and tossing in sawdust, they become bright and are ready to be sorted and put up for sale.

PAPER STOCK FROM WOOD.

An old paper manufacturer writes with great confidence and enthusiasm of a new process for reducing wood to paper pulp, which has been discovered by Prof. CHADBOURNE, of Williams and Bowdoin colleges. It depends upon a combination of chemical and mechanical principles, by which the woody fibres are alike strengthened and separated from each other. The process is pronounced by practical paper makers and patent examiners as entirely unique, and quite certain in results. It involves no change of machinery, and no additional expense, except for the pulp machine, which will cost from fifty to one hundred dollars. If no unforseen difficulty arises in working in on a large scale, it will reduce the cost of paper pulp to less than one-half its present value, or to some forty or fifty dollars a ton. The invention is now in the hands of one of the largest and most energetic paper manufacturers in the country, a patent has been applied for, and in due time the full value of the process will be tested on a large scale.

The Boston Journal is printed on paper made of wood, but whether the process of manufacture is the one above referred to, we cannot say. The paper presents a clear surface, is of soft and firm texture, and admirably adapted for newspaper purposes. The Journal states, that the specimens it has thus far used, is not a fair test of what the manufacturers propose to do. All who have to use paper, (and who does not?) will wish the manufacturers abundant success.

POPULATION OF CHICAGO.

The Controller took the census of Chicago during the month of October last, and ascertained the population to be as follows:

The census of 1860 was taken for June. The increase has therefore

been 10,000 inhabitants a year.

COTTON PLANTING UNDER GOVERNMENT A FAILURE.

An important fact appears in the Port Royal correspondence of the New York Tribune, which is, that the effort of the government to cultivate cotton, under military direction, is a failure. The correspondent says:

It is understood that General HUNTER will direct the suspension of the cultivation of cotton on the plantations worked under the auspices of the government during the coming season. He proposes to have all the soil devoted to the raising of corn, in order to afford some direct relief to the Subsistence Department, and decrease as much as possible the drafts of this department upon the Federal Treasury.

One of the reasons for the change is the discrepancy between the financial profits of last year's cotton crop and the government capital invested in it. It is true, uncontrollable meteorological causes had most to do with the unsatisfactory crop; but in the present straitened condition of the national finances, it is well argued, similar investments of uncertain promise must be discountenanced.

Another reason is the desire of General HUNTER to make as many of the able bodied plantation hands available for service in the army and fatigue duty as possible. Corn, potatoes, etc., can be well raised by the women.

If the cotton culture cannot be prosecuted with a financial profit at Port Royal, we may reasonably doubt whether it can anywhere. From that qua ter in fewer years have come the most abundant crops; the soil is prolitic; the climate is the most favorable. Everything favored success; but where fortunes have been made heretofore, we now see fortunes lost in futile experiments.

LIVING AND MEANS

The world is full of people who can't imagine why they don't prosper like their neighbors, when the real obstacle is not in banks or tariffs, in bad public policy or hard times, but in their own extravagance and heedless ostentation. The young clerk marries and takes a house, which he proceeds to furnish twice as expensively as he can afford, and then his wife, instead of taking hold to help him earn a livelihood by doing her own work, must have a hired servant to help spend his limited earnings. Ten years afterwards you will find him struggling on under a load of debts and children, wondering why luck was always against him, while his friends regret his unhappy destitution and financial ability. Had they from the first been frank and honest, he need not have been so unlucky. The single man" hired out" in the country at ten to fifteen dollars per month, who contrives to dissolve his year's earnings in frolic's and fine clothes; the clerk who has five hundred a year, and melts fifty of it into liquor and cigars, are paralleled by the young merchant who fills a house with costly furniture, gives dinners, and drives a fast horse on the strength of the profits he expects to realize when his goods are all sold and his notes all paid. Let a man have a genius for spending, and whether his income be a dollar a day or a dollar a minute, it is equally certain to prove inadequate. The man who (being single) does not save money on six dollars a week, will not be apt to on sixty; and he who does not lay up something in his first year of independent exertion, will be pretty apt to wear a poor man's hair into his grave.

CONTENTS OF No. II., VOL. XLVIII.

ART.

I. TEA-ITS CONSUMPTION AND CULTURE II. HEALTH. NEW YORK versus LONDON..........

PAGE.

113

120

III. THE PORT OF NEW YORK, PAST AND PRESENT. IMPORTS AND
EXPORTS....

COMMERCIAL CHRONICLE AND REVIEW.

125

Condition of Treasury-Official Views-Appropriations-Effect of Depreciation -Rise in Prices-Table of 55 Articles-Deficits-Capital in the CountryInvested-Proportion Demanded-Danger of Panic-Debt Paid in GoldAmount of Debt-Mode of Borrowing--Prices of Stocks-Gold Investments -Rate of Borrowing-Mr. Hooper's Bill-New Currency Proposed-Movement of Specie-Rates of Exchange-Imports at the Port-Duties Per Cent -Cost of Import-Uncertainty of Prices-Exports-Specie Abroad........... 128

STATISTICS OF TRADE AND COMMERCE.

Trade and Commerce of the Port of New York....

137

Foreign Imports (Other than Dry Goods and Specie) at the Port of New York,