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IV. ISLANDS IN THE ATLANTIC OCEAN.

89,310
12,250
5,590

Geog. sq.
Miles.

Population.

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Sahara....

128.08

V. THE NORTHERN COAST.

6,860

35

AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. (See METHODISTS.)

AGRICULTURE. The year 1866 was not a very favorable one for agricultural productions. The spring and early summer were cold and backward, and after a short period of intense heat in July, there was, throughout the latter part of that month, the whole of August, and the early part of September, a more frequent and copious rainfall than usual, accompanied by 114,045 a low temperature, with frost in many sections on September 21st. The long rain and early frost injured the Indian-corn crop in many sections, and caused the wheat to grow after being stacked. In the region of the Ohio River and its tributaries a destructive flood, about the middle of September, injured and in many counties nearly ruined the crops. This flood was the result of the excessive rains which, for seventy-five days, had fallen almost constantly. Other sections were also visited by floods, but not with such destructive effect.

Geog. sq. Population.

Miles.

2,750,000

12,200
12,150 2,999,124
2,150 600,000
16,200 750,000
31,000 7,465,000

73,700 14,564,124
4,000,000

114,600

VI. MOHAMMEDAN KINGDOMS OF CENTRAL SOUDAN.

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Miles.

Population.

Of the cereals, the wheat crop was estimated by the Agricultural Department at 160,000,000 bushels for the States east of the Rocky Mountains, of which 143,000,000 was the product of the twenty-two Northern States (of which statistics were given in 1865), about 5,500,000 5,000 5,000,000 bushels less than the previous year in those 4,730 5,000,000 States, a decrease which was supposed to be 2,660 1,500,000 2,420 5,000,000 fully made up by the superior quality of the 7,960 12,000,000 grain in 1866. The crop of the eleven South5,800,000 ern States was nearly 17,000,000 bushels, a little 4,500,000 less than one-half that of those States in 1859, the latest date in which there has been any complete return of their crops.

3,880
3,330

Fellatah kingdoms together..... 14,870 22,800,000

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The yield of wheat on the Pacific coast is increasing rapidly. The California crop alone is estimated at over 14,000,000 bushels, of which, it is said, 12,000,000 bushels will be exported. Oregon and Washington Territory, and Nevada and Utah also produce some wheat. The entire crop of the country may safely be put down at 180,000,000 bushels, or fully five bushels to each inhabitant.

The rye crop varies but little from year to year. It is not a very important crop, and during 1866, aside from the Pacific States, where but little is grown, is estimated at 21,029,950 bushels.

The barley crop is also very nearly stationary. The crop, exclusive of the Pacific States, in 1866 was 11,465,653 bushels, while that of 1859 was 11,146,695 bushels. Only 110,773 bushels are reported as given in the eleven Southern States in 1866.

The oat crop is said to have been the largest ever grown in this country. The estimate for 1866 is 271,712,695 bushels, an increase of a 500,000 little more than one hundred millions of bushels 400,000 since 1860. This increase is almost universal, 10,000 Wisconsin being the only Northern State reElyab.. 8,000 Unknown negro countries on porting less than last year, and the yield of the both sides of the equator..... 70,000 42,000,000 Southern States being nearly or quite up to the amount of 1860. This large aggregate does not include the crop in the Pacific States.

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The hay crop was not equal to last year; in the Northern States east of the Mississippi it was about one-fifth less; the Trans-Mississippi States and the South report a fair amount. It does not vary much from 21,000,000 tons.

The corn crop is put down as 880,000,000 bushels, of which 185,000,000 bushels are credited to the eleven States not hitherto reported, against 274,000,000 bushels in 1859. The decrease in the Northern States from the crop of 1865 is about 25,000,000 bushels, and the decrease in quality is equivalent to 75,000,000 bushels, making an aggregate decrease of feeding value, as compared with the great crop of 1865, of about 100,000,000 bushels. As, how ever, the crop of 1865 was an excessive one, 22.7 per cent. above the average, this reduction only brings the crop of 1866 to about a fair average, or a little above it.

The cotton crop was estimated from the best data, at the close of December, at 1,750,000 bales of 400 pounds each. As the actual bales are now nearly 500 pounds each, this would be equivalent to a million and a half of such bales. The cotton-planters had expected, early in the season, a much larger crop; but owing to bad seed, ignorance on the part of many of the best method of cultivation, a very wet spring followed by a dry early summer, and heavy, drenching rains in August and September, and over extensive sections the ravages of the cotton or army worm, the crop was less than half what was expected. In Louisiana there was added extensive flooding of the cottonlands from the breaking of the levees. Of the Sea Island or long-staple cotton, the quantity raised is about 20,000 bales, less than half the average before the war.

It is hardly probable that this crop will ever again reach the production of 1860, 4,664,417 bales, or if it should, that so large a portion will ever be exported as was of that crop. There are several causes which will prevent this. Among these are, the deterioration of the soil in much of the cotton-growing region, which, unless cultivated for a time in other crops, and restored to its fertility by abundant manure or seeding down to clover, and ploughing in that crop, will not yield one-fourth as much as it would eight or ten years ago. Then there will be a lack of efficient laborers for the cottonfields; the negroes, no longer compelled to labor in them will, in many cases, prefer mechanical employment, and labor less severe than that of the cotton-field in hoeing and picking time, and other crops, fruits, vines, the silk culture, etc., etc., will give a better return, for less labor, than cotton. If, however, under higher and more efficient cultivation, the exceptional crop of 1860 should be reached or surpassed, there would be a far larger proportion of it consumed at home than in any of the years before the war, not only from the increase of cotton manufactories at the North, but from the tendencies of a free and enterprising people to manufacture their raw material largely in the Southern

States. The production of yarns and of the coarser qualities of cotton goods is already, in spite of the many difficulties it has to encounter, rapidly increasing in the South.

But to return to the crop statistics of 1866. The potato crop, always an important one, was throughout most of the Northern and some of the Southern States a full average; in some of them, as in Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania (all States yielding largely of this crop), it was from 10 to 20 per cent. in advance of last year, and in Texas it was unusually large and fine in quality. The only States in which the crop was seriously below the average, were South Carolina, Louisiana, Missouri, and Wisconsin. The crop of 1859 was 110,571,201 bushels, and until the present year there has been no return which included the eleven Southern States. The crop in twenty-two Northern States east of the Rocky Mountains was, in 1863, 98,965,198 bushels; in 1864, 96,532,029 bushels; and in 1865, 101,032,095 bushels. The production of the cmitted States in 1860 was about 8,000,000 of bushels, so that the entire crop of 1866 could not have varied materially from that of 1859.

The tobacco crop was about eleven-twelfths of an average crop, and in the twenty-two States reported in 1865 it was in advance of that crop, which however was not a large one. In Kentucky and Tennessee it was above the average; in Virginia slightly and in Missouri materially below the average, and as these four are the States of largest production, it early became evident that the figures of the crop of 1859, 429,390,771 lbs., would not be reached. The Agricultural Department estimate the crop of 1866 at 350,000,000 lbs. We have elsewhere (see TOBACCO) given a full account of the culture of this crop, which is one of great importance to our commerce.

Buckwheat was a fair average crop, about 18,000,000 of bushels.

Sorghum, though affected in some districts by the heavy rains and the premature frost of September 22d, was about nine-tenths of an average crop, being smallest in the extreme northern and southern tiers of States, while in the middle tier and in Texas it was above the average. The crop has increased rapidly within the past five or six years.

The amount of domestic live stock in the United States is a matter of great interest not only to the farmer but to all our population; for upon it depends the supply of meat for our tables, as well as of draught cattle for locomotion, the transportation of produce and freight, and the operations of the farmer. Until near the close of 1866 it has not been possible to determine with any considerable accuracy the aggregate number of horses, mules, cattle, sheep, and hogs in the United States. War had made such extraordinary destruction of horses and mules, and the great armies had consumed and destroyed such quantities of beef and pork, that the census of 1860 afforded but a poor

SHEEP.

NUMBER OF LIVE STOCK IN THE UNITED STATES FOR THE YEARS 1860 AND 1866.

HORSES.

MULES.

CATTLE.

SWINE.

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guide to the speculations on this topic in which the agricultural papers indulged. It was not difficult to approximate nearly to the numbers of live stock in the Northern States east of the Rocky Mountains, and this was attempted from year to year; but the data in regard to the Pacific States were small, and for estimates of the numbers in the Southern States, entirely wanting.

During the summer and autumn of 1866, however, sufficient returns were obtained from the Southern States to enable us to make a very close estimate for the whole country. We give in the foregoing table the numbers of live stock for each of the States and Territories this side the Rocky Mountains, and the estimates

of the Agricultural Department for the whole country, premising that the latter may be too large in horses and mules.

It is a matter of interest to compare these returns with those of the principal countries of Europe at a recent date: We have no very recent statistics of the number of horses in the European states, and the war of 1866 would render them inaccurate, if we had. About 300,000 is to be deducted from the number of cattle reported in the United Kingdom, and 75,000 from those in Holland for loss from cattle plague. The following table gives the number of cattle, sheep, and swine, at the dates mentioned, in the several nationalities of Europe:

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United Kingdom..
Russia..

Denmark, Schleswig, and

Sweden

1865-266.. 29,070,932 3,286,308 5,030,652, 8,316,960 25,795,708 3,802,399 1859-'63.. 74,139,394

Holstein..

1861..

1860.

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Hanover, Saxony, Wurtem

Holland

Belgium.

France

1854.

1856.

1862.

1865.

25,244,000 45,130,800 10,097,000

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3,618,459

berg, and Grand Duchies.. 1852 to '63 9,395,738 1,728,224 1,273,029 4,170,275 5,323,223 1,855,114 943,214 390,073 1,333,887 930,138 294,636 4,529,461 1,257,649 583,485 458,419 37,386,313 5,781,465 8,415,895 14,197,360 33,281,592 5,246,403 15,658,531 2,904,598 22,054,967 4,264,817 36,267,648 6,353,086 7,904,030 14,257,116 16,964,236 8,151,608 4,807,440 1,530,625 1,655,356 3,185,882 2,058,639 926,522

Spain Austria Bavaria

1863. 1863.

ALABAMA. The recess taken by the Legislature of Alabama, in December, 1865, closed on January 15, 1866. Upon the reassembling of this body, the Governor laid before the members a brief message congratulating them that, during their recess, the Provisional Governor had been relieved, and his authority was exercised by the Governor elect. He recapitulated the condition of the State debt, urged the importance of a law staying judicial proceedings in the collection of debts, the necessity of making the system of education uniform by allowing the proceeds of land-sales to be used in any county without regard to the location of the land sold, called their attention to the great destitution of the people in the northern part of the State, and the immediate necessity of an efficient military organization. He also returned, without his signature, a bill to regulate contracts with freedmen, on the ground that the general laws on contracts were adequate. The Legislature passed a large number of bills chiefly devoted to local affairs; also one to provide for the payment of the land-tax levied by Congress in August, 1861; another, requiring the State banks to resume payment on April 1, 1868. In the Senate, on February 8th, the following resolution was adopted:

Whereas, There is reason to apprehend that unfriendly representations at Washington and in the

Northern States of the Union, of the disposition of the people of Alabama toward the Government at Washington, will operate injuriously upon the condition of our people, and postpone a restoration of the State, in consequence of a misapprehension, upon the part of the Federal authorities, of the disposition of the people for the full and complete establishment of order: Therefore,

ring), That a committee of five be appointed by the Resolved (the House of Representatives concurpresiding officers of cach House to inquire, so far as may be, into the dispositions of the people of the different counties in the matter referred to, and report the result of their investigations by resolution or

otherwise.

An act was passed authorizing the issue of twenty-year bonds for the payment of arrears of interest on the State debt; also another, to provide, at the State expense, artificial limbs for every maimed indigent person, a citizen or resident of the State in 1861.

The views of the Legislature on the relation of the State to the Federal Union were expressed by the unanimous adoption, on February 22d, by both Houses, of the following report and resolution, presented by a joint committee:

When the cause, for which the people of Alabama have endured sacrifices without parallel in history, was lost by the surrender of her heroic armies, the result was accepted as final and conclusive. Although compelled, by the verdict of the sword, to abandon an institution which was so thoroughly in terwoven with every thread of her social fabric, tha

it could not be suddenly torn asunder without leaving everywhere deep and painful wounds, the surrender has been made without a murmur. Alabama turned once more to the Government against which she had been arrayed in arms, and in solemn convention obliterated from her records the ordinance of secession, and, as far as in her power, retraced her steps to the point of her departure. Additional guaranties of sincerity were required at her hands, and the General Assembly responded to the call of the President of the United States, by ratifying the Constitutional Amendment prohibiting slavery within her borders forever, and, by legislative enactment, securing protection to the freedman in all his personal rights, and opening the courts of the State in his behalf. Having thus cheerfully complied with all the conditions demanded as a prerequisite for restoration to her rights as a State in the Union, the people of Alabama waited anxiously, yet happily, for the meeting of Congress, and the admission of her Representatives.

Prostrated and impoverished, as she has been, by the war-with her fields devastated and her homes laid waste-and with her relations to a large class of her population radically changed-the people came up manfully to the duties of the hour, and with implicit reliance upon the magnanimity and good faith of the Northern people and the General Government -endeavored to adapt themselves as best they could to this new condition, and were rapidly advancing in the pursuits of peace. But it became, ere long, painfully evident that unknown persons were busily disseminating reports prejudicial to the honor and welfare of our people.

Kindly sympathy is manifested by the whites, with few exceptions, toward the freedmen, and their new relations to each other are being gradually adjusted in a manner satisfactory to both. Contracts have been made for labor, upon just and equitable terms, and the freedmen are generally at work. Nothing more is apparently now required for the restoration of law and order in our midst than the withdrawal

of Federal bayonets from the State.

Believing, then, as your committee must, from the evidences before them, that the falsehoods propagated in the North and in Congress are the offspring of deliberate malice and design, and circulated only for the basest political purposes, it remains only for us, as the representatives of the people, to denounce the authors as wilful culumniators and slanderers, and to solemnly protest against their statements being received and accepted as the truth.

In conclusion, your committee feel this to be the proper occasion for a renewed expression of the sentiments which pervade the public heart toward the President of the United States and his policy. The following resolutions, similar in language and purport to those recently passed by the Legislature of the old Commonwealth of Virginia, are respectfully submitted, with the recommendation that they be adopted, and that a copy be transmitted to his excellency President Johnson, with the accompanying report. W. GARRET,

Chairman of Com. on the part of the Senate. JOSHUA MORSE, Chairman on the part of the House. Joint Resolutions of the General Assembly of the State of Alabama on the state of the Union.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Alabama, in General Assembly convened, That the people of Alabama, and their representatives here assembled, cordially approve the policy pursued by Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, in the reorganization of the Union. We accept the result of the late contest, and do not desire to renew what has been so conclusively determined; nor do we mean to permit any one subject to our control to attempt its renewal, or to violate any of our obligations to the United States Government. We mean to cooperate in the wise, firm, and just

policy adopted by the President, with all the energy and power we can devote to that object.

2. That the above declaration expresses the sentiments and purposes of our people, and we denounce the efforts of those who represent our views and intentions to be different, as cruel and criminal assaults on our character and our interests. It is one of the misfortunes of our present political condition that we have among us persons whose interests are temporarily promoted by such false representations; but we rely on the intelligence and integrity of those who wield the power of the United States Government for our safeguard against such. malign influences.

3. That involuntary servitude, except for crime, is abolished, and ought not to be reestablished, and that the negro race among us should be treated with justice, humanity, and good faith, and every means that the wisdom of the Legislature can devise should be used to make them useful and intelligent members of society.

4. That Alabama will not voluntarily consent to change the adjustment of political power, as fixed by the Constitution of the United States, and to constrain her to do so in her present prostrate and helpless condition, with no voice in the councils of the nation, would be an unjustifiable breach of faith; and that her earnest thanks are due to the President for the firm stand he has taken against amendments of the Constitution, forced through in the present condition of affairs.

A stay law was also passed at this session, applicable to suits brought since May 1, 1865, to mortgages and deeds of trust, with power of sale when the mortgagor or trustee is in possession. Its operation was so to delay proceedings as to postpone execution, except on debts due the State, for two years, and then to give the party one year longer in which to pay off the debt in three equal instalments. A new penal code was also adopted at this session, making no distinction on account of color, abolishing whipping and branding, and substituting "hard labor." Under the authority of the Legislature, the Governor, on February 12, 1866, issued a proclamation, granting pardon and amnesty to all persons who had been, or were liable to be, indicted for offences against the State, committed between April. 13, 1861, and July 20, 1865, the crimes of rape and murder excepted. The session closed about February 20th, by an adjournment to the annual session. This commenced on November 12th ensuing. The measures previously devised to improve the finances of the State had been very successful. Temporary loans had been contracted and paid, and State bonds had been hypothecated, instead of being sold below par, and ample funds thus secured. This, however, added to the debt $363,572, making, on November 12th, as follows:

Original bonded debt, partly extended
Amount of funded interest on the 5

and 6 per cent. bonds...
Eight per cent. bonds sold for supplies
and transportation....
Eight per cent. bonds advanced to In-
sane Hospital.......

Total present bonded debt..... To which add amount of loan due, including interest and commission...

Total......

$3,445,000

687,990

48,500

5,000 $4,186,490 $363,572 22

$4,550,062 22

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