interest in the trade and commerce of Boston; and we take pleasure in stating that Portsmouth, Newburyport, Gloucester, Salem, Marblehead, and other towns, are also profitably engaged in it.

It is our duty to refer to the importance of the Fishery interest, which is so interwoven with our history, and which has received a new impulse by the late treaty, and is extending its bounds with increased security and success.

It is a matter of congratulation in which the whole country can participate, that the restrictive barriers which have hindered the trade of different sections of this continent with a truly kindred people for half a century, are removed forever, that new channels of trade are opened, a new policy inaugurated, and especially that there need be no apprehension felt on the subject of our fisheries.

These, gentlemen, are some of the principal subjects which have engaged the attention of the Government of the Board during the past year. There are others, of equal importance, such as the extension of the Reciprocity Treaty, the St. Lawrence and Champlain Canal, the establishment of an inland Insurance Company, &c., which have received serious consideration, but upon which no specific action has been as yet taken, and they are not consequently brought into prominent notice at the present time.

We ought, however, to mention a mournful duty which has been performed. During the past year, we have been called upon to mourn the loss, by death, of several of the most respected members of our board. We have seen borne on the way to the silent_grave the earthly bodies of Lawrence and Brown and Lincoln, men eminent in the several paths they trod, and reflecting high honor on the character of the Boston merchants. One of them, whom we have ever delighted to honor, had been highly distinguished also in the paths of public life, and it seemed eminently proper that some special memorial should be preserved by the Board of Trade, of our appreciation of his distinguished character and services.

At a meeting of the Government called in consequence, immediately after the decease of the late Hon. Abbott Lawrence, the secretary was directed to call a meeting of the citizens at large to be held in Faneuil Hall for the purpose of consulting together, and to take such action as might be deemed proper. The meeting was held accordingly. This meeting took matters into their own hands, and the Agency of the Board of Trade in it disappeared from that date. The proceedings of the meeting were entirely suited to the occasion, and expressed no doubt the feelings of the members of this Board. Had they been in our name and spread upon our records, it would have been all we could desire as a testimonial of our respect and affection for our deceased associate and friend. But as the record of our action stood, we seemed wanting to the occasion and to the feelings which it inspired. It did not appear that anything was done by us, except to originate the call for the citizen's meeting. To remedy this defect, appropriate resolutions were reported by a committee appointed for the purpose, and placed in full upon our records.

STATISTICS OF TRADE AND COMMERCE OF BOSTON.

Having thus narrated, in a plain and unembellished manner, the story of their doings the past year, your Directors will proceed to give you a short account of a few of the different branches of business in which we are engaged here in Boston.

At a recent meeting of the Government of the Board, it was proposed that Committees should be appointed annually to do this; that we should have, for example, a Committee on the hard ware business, on the shoe and leather business, on the East India business, &c., each Committee, of course, being composed entirely of persons engaged in the particular department upon which it should report.

The object of doing this was stated to be, to put on record an authentic account, a statement of facts, which should

go to form a complete history of our various occupationsof their beginning, increase, and decline; of the causes of all these; of the particular causes which during any year might be regarded as having exercised a favorable or an unfavorable influence upon the different branches of industry; with such notices of new inventions, and such statistics of the amount of capital invested, number of persons employed, gross value of production or sales; range and average of prices for all well known and clearly described and staple articles of trade and commerce, as the Committees should think important and advisable to furnish and put on record. The interest of such a history of the various branches of industry would be very great, and it would moreover be very valuable.. Could we go back for thirty years and read over in detail, from year to year, the history of the manufacturing companies of New England-of the difficulties they encountered-of their struggles for existence—of the millions of dollars lost in the purchase of experience-of the prices at which certain staple articles of general consumption were sold before they were produced here, and of the gradual decrease of these prices as untiring effort, undaunted perseverance and inventive skill were crowned with success-it would be an instructive lesson, and perhaps convince many, who now doubt, that the whole subject of protective tariffs in the infancy of manufactures, is one which should be considered purely as an industrial and commercial one, and treated as such, and not intruded into the arena of sectional or political party strife.

The want of sufficient time for Committees to do justice to themselves and to their subjects, has prevented their appointment for the year 1855. The few statistics of business which we have been able to collect at short notice will render it quite impossible to give any detailed statement of the industry and commerce of Boston. The most that can be done will be to give a rapid sketch of a small number of the principal kinds of business, including the whole within a space which ought almost to be allotted to each separate one. The statistics are for the most part furnished by the

dealers themselves, and of course may be relied upon; or they are the estimates of some of the principal persons engaged in the various trades, and must be considered as approximating very nearly to the truth.

First on the alphabetical list of the Business Directory stands that which is included under the head of

Agricultural Tools.

Not longer than ten years ago, the total value of the production of axes, hatchets, other edged tools, shovels, spades, forks, ploughs, scythes and cotton-gins was only $650,723, in all Massachusetts.

There are now in the city of Boston five wholesale agricultural stores with a capital of $750,000, making sales, in 1855, to the amount of two and a half millions of dollars.

It is a business which has grown up entirely during the past twenty years, and is rapidly increasing.

The principal market for the manufactured articles, is our own country and the British Provinces, but there is a considerable amount exported to the West Indies, South and Central America, Australia and other countries; and it is very gratifying to note, that within a month past, orders from England have been received for goods to be exported to the East Indies.

The following are some of the principal articles manufactured and sold in Boston, in 1855:

36,950 ploughs, at prices varying from $3 to $18; 7,750 doz. shovels and spades, at $1,50 to $27; 5,815 cultivators, at $3 to $7; 11,900 hay cutters, at $4 to $20; 12,165 corn shellers, at $5 to $15; 5,000 dɔz. hay and manure forks, at $2,25 to $66; 1,000 doz. axes, at $9 to $12; 425 doz. grain cradles, at $25 to $60; 200 harrows, at $6 to $20; 250 grindstones, at $5 to $16; 700 reaping and mowing machines, at $80 to $150; 200 threshing machines, at $30 to $10; 5,050 doz. hoes, at $2,25 to $11; 2,800 doz. scythes, at $6 to $11; 3,600 doz. scythe snaths, at $3 to $14; 10,500 doz. hand hay-rakes, at $1,25 to $5,50; 1,050 doz. iron and steel rakes, at $3,50 to $10; 8,100

finished ox yokes, at $3,50 to $6; 6,750 wheelbarrows, at $2,25 to $6; 1,850 horse rakes, at $5 to $9; 800 doz. scythe rifles, at $30 to $42; 500 boxes scythe stones, at $2 to $5; 25 horse-power threshing machines, at $125 to $350; 50 winnowing mills, at $10 to $25.

The plough points of Boston are distinguished throughout the Union as the best made. Steel ploughs are manufactured here upon a large scale. Those of cast iron cannot be used to advantage on our Western prairies. There is not grit enough in the black soil to scour them. Hence the demand for the steel plough, which is polished as bright as a mirror.

Connected, in some instances, with the business of selling agricultural implements, is that of garden and field seeds, to the raising of which great care is bestowed in Massachusetts.

The moist climate of England is unfavorable to the ripening of certain kinds of garden seeds, as is the rank growth of vegetation on the rich soil of our Western States.

The climate of the Southern States is not favorable for the ripening of seeds of garden vegetables, and it is found that those grown in a northern latitude are less subject to early or late frosts, and the vegetables are earlier fit for use. There is consequently a large trade in these articles. One house alone sold, in 1855, 100 tons of clover seed, 10,000 bushels of Timothy seed, and 7,500 bushels of red-top.

Bags and Bagging.

The business of manufacturing bags is carried on to a very considerable extent among us.

They are made of our cotton manufactures; are sewed, and are also made without seam.

The seamless bags are produced by our large manufacturing companies; of various sizes holding from two to four bushels each; are packed in trusses of 400 to 600, and sold to go every where.

The sewed ones are made by various houses engaged exclusively in this business.

They are used for flour and grain, for hams, provisions, salt, and many other purposes.