Goods free of duty. Africa... The following statement is furnished of the importations into the United States during the last fiscal year: Bar iron, manufactured by rolling, 173,457 tons, valued at, Manufactures of iron, and iron, steel, cutlery and hardware, inclusive, $6,060,068 525,770 1,405,613 543,256 1,227,138 5,297,116 15,058,961 Molasses, 23,796,806 galls., valued at, 2,778,174 Sugar, sugar candy, and syrup, 259,326,584 lbs., valued at, 8,049,739 487,920 Saltpetre, 462,065 The whole quantity of iron, steel, castings, anchors, chains, cutlery, hardware, and all other manufactures of iron and iron and steel, amounted to about 345,000 tons. The weight of the hardware and some of the cutlery not being stated, the exact number of tons cannot be ascertained with any greater certainty than is above given. An extract is also given, for the purpose of showing the increase of our commerce with Asia and the Pacific. Number of clearances for the years 1848 and 1849. Number of clearances for the years 1848 and 1849—continued. For the following tables, we are indebted to the Evening Bulletin, as "compiled from treasury reports, parliamentary returns, &c." Trade of the United States and Great Britain with South America. $39,856,905 112,480 Add to the above Central America, Great Britain, it will be seen, supplies manufactures, &c., to the amount of $40,000,000, while the whole of our exports are computed, by official returns for 1849, at less than $8,000,000. Now, it is no less remarkable, that of this $40,0000,000, thirty millious are paid to our transatlantic rival for the growths and products of this country, being for fabrics from our own cotton, which were sent to British looms, and then returned for barter and exchange, past our ports, to those of South America. Appended will also be found the value of the exports to the Bermudas and the West Indies, including Cuba, which may be mentioned in this connection. These statistics show, if nothing else, the vast field still open to competition in our own waters: The population of Cuba, white and black, amounts to less than 2,000,000. It may be of interest to specify more particularly the trade of the island. According to the custom house returns of 1849, the transactions were as follows. I use round figures: A pretty fair commercial transaction for a white population of five or six hundred thousand. It only remains to add the commerce of Mexico, and we will have the relative value of the exports of this country and Great Britain to the ports on this continent, and those of the West Indies. The exports to Mexico on British account, are stated in value at, Value of exports from the United States, We therefore recapitulate as follows: $3,750,000 1,047,999 COTTON-ITS GROWTH, MANUFACTURE, &c. INTERESTING STATEMENTS FROM VARIOUS SOURCES. 1. Production of cotton. The Savannah Republican gives the following table of the extent of the cotton crops, with the dates of bloom and frosts, since 1836. A late bloom has been invariably followed by a short crop. The bloom of 1849 was one day later than any year on record, and although the frost held off until December, giving the planters one of the finest picking seasons on record, yet the yield was reduced 600,000 or 700,000 bales. All accounts agree that the crop is later than last year. In many sections immense tracts of rich cotton land, which last year were cultivated, are under water, and cannot be planted this season. In all sections the plant is small and sickly, and a plant cannot be expected earlier than 20th to 25th of June. The southern states produce more than three-fourths in quantity and value of the cotton of the world. It is stated, in a late speech of Governor Martin, of South Carolina, upon the authority of the report of the secretary of the treasury, that the whole value of Southern exports for 1849, including cotton, will be $99,500,000, being more than two-thirds of the whole domestic exports from the United States for that year, which was $131,710,081, and more than three times as much as the whole domestic export from the North for the same year, which was $32,210,081. The remarkable fact is also shown, that the domestic exports of the South, exclusive of cotton, her great staple, are $32,674,176, while all the exports of the North are $32,210,081, leaving the value of her cotton over and above." The cultivation of cotton in British India has become, of late years, a subject of deep anxiety to the government and people. Not long since a lecture was delivered by Mr. Warren, of Manchester, which attracted considerable attention, and in which he advanced the opinion, that British India was capable of affording to the country "a sufficient, steady, continuous, and cheap supply of raw cotton," and quoted in support of it the * Of which 200,000 were left over from preceding season. |