Mr. Davis to the chair. In accepting the position, he declared that he could not have done so if the manner in which he was chosen had not left him free from party obligations. He accepted the honor as a recognition of the independent position he had long occupied in the politics of the country.

The session, which was interrupted for a few days by the centennial celebration of the battle of Yorktown, came to an end on the 25th of October, having been devoted exclusively to executive business. Among the important nominations confirmed, was that of Charles J. Folger, of New York, for Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Windom having insisted on resigning, and ex-Governor E. D. Morgan, of New York, having declined the position after his appointment had been made and confirmed. A contest was begun over the appointment of a postmaster at Lynchburg, Virginia, at the instance and in the supposed interest of General Mahone, but as it threatened to prolong the session it was dropped without action. The appointment was opposed by the Democrats, on the ground that it was intended to have an influence in the political canvass then pending in Virginia. An unwonted incident of this contest was a resolution adopted during an all-night sitting, directing the Sergeantat-Arms to compel the attendance of certain absent members, in order to produce a quorum. The execution of this order led to a vigorous protest, signed by several Senators, which was entered on the journal.

CONNECTICUT. The members-elect of the Connecticut Legislature met at the Capitol and were organized for the session of 1881 on January 5th. Lyman W. Coe was elected President pro tempore of the Senate, and William C. Case Speaker of the House of Representatives; both were Republicans, and both elected by great majorities on a party vote.

On January 5th, also, the new Governor, Hobart B. Bigelow, was inaugurated. His message to the Legislature upon the condition of public affairs in the Commonwealth he sent in at once to the two Houses.

The constitutional amendment changing the manner of appointing the judges of the Supreme and Superior Courts, which was passed at the last session and submitted to the people for sanction or rejection at the town elections on October 5th, was ratified by their vote, and "thus became a part of the State Constitution." The sanitary condition of the people of the State, owing apparently to want of caution and other causes, suffered in 1880; although there have been no serious epidemics, the general average of health has not been so good as during the two years preceding. The sanitary conditions of life, however, as regards drainage, ventilation, and water-supply, are receiving constantly increased attention.

The affairs of the Commonwealth are in a satisfactory state, and there is every sign of a healthy and progressing commercial condition.

With regard to manufacturing industries, which are of comparatively vast magnitude in Connecticut, and other matters relating to which directly or indirectly the General Assembly would be called upon to legislate, the Governor in his message deprecated the enactment of any law that might, even remotely, tend to affect them injuriously, saying: "In every county are flourishing towns and villages which have sprung up, each about some thrifty manufacturing establishment. These establishments now number nearly twenty-two hundred, employing, and as a rule profitably employing, over $60,000,000 of capital, and giving work to upward of sixty-six thousand persons. The value of their annual product is reckoned at $120,000,000, and their market is the world. Interests so important, and affecting such large classes of our people, should be sedulously protected from any legislation that would embarrass or contract the energy of invention or of capital. Every enactment which could possibly affect them should be carefully scrutinized, to the end that it works no injury."

The finances continue in a satisfactory condition. The conservative method which has been steadily used heretofore is still continued. During the year ended November 30, 1880, the aggregate receipts of the State from all sources, including $12,146.95 brought over as cash balance from the previous year, were $2,506,971.18; the aggregate expenditures for all purposes (including $286,197 interest paid on the State debt) were $1,600,383.36; leaving in the Treasury, on December 1st, an available surplus of $906,587.82 to meet current expenses of the year 1881.

The amount drawn from the Treasury on account of the new State House in 1880 was $118,131.36. This sum includes the $15,000 appropriated by the last General Assembly as a compensation to the members of the Capitol Commission, who had in charge the building while in course of erection.

The receipts for the year ending November 30, 1881, including the above-noted balance of $906,587.82, were estimated at $2,501,461.82; and the expenditures at $1,459,005.32.

The State debt continues to be as it was at the end of 1879-$4,967,600. Nearly three fourths of this sum bears interest at the rate of 6 per cent per annum; the remainder at 5 per centum.

Outstanding bonds to the amount of $887,000 will become due on January 1, 1883, the State having it then in her power either to pay and cancel them, or to continue them, in whole or in part, by a new issue.

The total valuation of taxable property in Connecticut the grand list shows to be $327,182,435, an increase of $2,293,412 over the preceding year.

The number of savings banks in the State continues the same-85; but the number of depositors has grown up to 231,913, which is 9,692 greater than it was at the close of the

previous year. Of this increase, 9,408 are depositors of less than $500. These depositors, compared with the whole population of the State, are in the proportion of more than one in every three of her inhabitants. The present amount of all their deposits is $76,518,570.91, an increase of $3,676,127.52 over that of the year last past. The average amount for each depositor is $357.50, and for every inhabitant in the State it is above $100. The dividends annually paid by the banks have been withdrawn by depositors to a much less extent this year than in the preceding."

The 28th annual report of the Railroad Commissioners shows the railways operating in Connecticut to have had a prosperous year in 1880, their business having considerably increased in freight as well as passenger transportation. The total of their gross earnings amounted to $12,290,878.51, which is $1,378,627.34, or 12 per cent, above that of 1879. They exceed the gross earnings of all previous years—even of 1873, when the earnings were the largest as compared with those of any preceding or succeeding year till 1880. A noteworthy fact in the mutual relations between the yearly amounts of earnings from passenger and freight transportation in these roads for 1880 was, that the freight earnings, instead or being less than the passenger, as they had always been, exceeded them by more than one million dollars. This change has occurred especially in the business of two among the roads, namely: The New York, New Haven, and Hartford, and the New York and New England. The proportion of expenses to earn ings was 62 per cent, a little more than 1 per cent over the previous year's.

Nine companies have paid in dividends last year $2,539,295.70, or nearly as much as they had paid in 1879.

The aggregate length of all the railway lines in Connecticut measures 953.96 miles; double tracks, 108.78 miles; sidings, 185.94 milesmaking a total of 1,248.68 miles of single track. The collective amount of State tax paid by the roads into the Treasury during the year was $357,000. In 1879 it was $346,000.

The education of youth continues satisfactory, with a fair prospect of forward progress in efficiency and thoroughness. The cost to the State for supporting the common schools in 1880 was $213,420.50, the largest amount among the items of public expenditure after that belonging to the judiciary system, which was $256,598.93. The results of this large expenditure have for many years been most gratifying; and the reports of the State Board of Education, and of their Secretary, show the combined efficiency and thoroughness of the system of free popular education. The "Compulsory Law," so called, by which children of proper age are made to attend the public schools, has been more efficiently and perfectly enforced this year than ever before. This law seems to be of comparatively easy execu

tion in Connecticut, meeting with no such marked opposition or complaint, on the part of parents, as experience shows to have been the case in some other States. For this difference between the States concerned, Governor Bigelow accounts as follows: "This shows not only the temper of our people toward education, but also that there does not exist with us that necessity for the earnings of children of school age which supports the defiance of similar laws in other communities."

For the support of the State Normal School, where teachers are trained to give instruction in the common schools, the amount paid from the Treasury in 1880 was $12,700. A good increase in the number of trained teachers is now promised by the building of a Normal School in New Britain, for the erection of which the General Assembly appropriated $75,000, the said town having pledged itself to contribute $25,000 more, of its own money, for the same purpose.

In the Hospital for the Insane, at Middletown, there were 610 patients at the beginning of last year, and 528 at the end of it. The whole number of patients treated during the year was 654, which shows a permanent overcrowding in the hospital, the capacity of which is sufficient to give accommodations for 450 patients only. The additional new buildings, for which the General Assembly at the previous session appropriated a large sum of money, and which, when completed, will probably double the present capacity of the hospital, have been already planned, and their erection has begun. Of the 528 patients remaining in this institution at the close of 1880, two only were paying patients; the Governor stating "that 526 were entirely supported by the State, or by the towns from which they were

sent."

The School for Imbeciles, at Lakeville, seems worthy of continuance for its usefulness. The pupils cared for in it during the year numbered 93, of whom 47 were beneficiaries of the State. The total expenditure of the institution for the year amounted to $15,799.91, of which $5,960.87 were paid from the public Treasury for the 47 State beneficiaries, and the remainder was paid by the friends of the other pupils. A department connected with this school takes care of several harmless lunatics, some among whom also were supported last year by the State at a cost of $534.

In the State Reform School for Boys there were, at the close of 1880, 307 inmates; received during the year, 148; discharged, 109. This school is considered to have never been in a better condition than at present. The family system, so called, has been successfully introduced in its management since last year.

The Industrial School for Girls, at Middletown, during the year 1880, received 71 girls; placed in positions of usefulness, or discharged, 53; remaining in the school on December 1st, 160. The whole number of inmates at this

school in the 11 years of its existence is reckoned at 430. Of the girls sent out from it, three fourths are stated to have given evidence of permanent reformation. An additional building is now in process of erection for the older inmates.

In the State Prison there were 261 convicts in confinement on December 1, 1880. At the same date in 1879 they numbered 251; committed during the year, 134; released, 124. Eight among the prisoners were sent from the Penitentiary to the Hospital for the Insane. The prison's management has been for some time progressing from good to better, especially in regard to discipline among the convicts.

The militia of Connecticut, under the name of "National Guard," consists of 2,731 enlisted men and 183 commissioned officers, making a total of 2,914 as the active military force of the State. Last year's expenditures for this force amounted to $88,609.67. There are also some independent companies, and the Governor's Guard; for both of which a further sum of $15,021.28 was expended, the aggregate military expenses for the year having been $103,630.75.

The First Regiment of the Connecticut National Guard, under the lead of its colonel, and the second company of the Governor's Foot Guard, with a military band attached, were detailed to take part at the celebration of the centennial anniversary of the surrender of the English army at Yorktown, Virginia, on October 19th. The Governor himself, accompanied by his staff and the principal military and civic officers of the State, besides other prominent men of Connecticut, attended the ceremonies of the occasion. The Legislature appropriated $7,000 to meet the expenses of the excursion. The Legislature was urged to reapportion the senatorial districts of the State without further delay, if the people of Connecticut are to live under what is more than a semblance of a representative form of government. The argument presented to the Legislature was as follows: These districts remain now the same as they were when first formed fifty years ago, although the changes in their respective populations during the lapse of this half century have been so numerous, and so remarkably great, as to render the continuance of the old districts not only unjust, but manifestly contrary to the intention expressed and embodied in their original formation. Among the reasons set forth to evince the imperative necessity of a new apportionment, and some practical instances showing the injustice of the division then existing, were the following: "In the plan of government designed by the Constitution the Senate was intended to be the body of popular representation. The lower and larger House was, for historical reasons, founded upon the existence of townships. It was provided that the basis of representation in the Senate should be adjusted from time to time, as the population of the State changed,

“The population of the State by the census of 1880 is 622,683, as against 287,675 in 1830, the census on which the present apportionment is based. . . . The whole character of the population, and of the occupations in which they are engaged, has during this time undergone an entire revolution. Consequently, the centers of population have shifted, and the density of population has altogether changed. Districts which were substantially equal fifty years ago, to-day show a difference of 4 to 1; others have grown so as to present differences of a less degree, yet quite enough to make equality of representation absurd. Six districts, with a combined population of 83,000, balance in the present Senate six other districts having a population of 281,800; while ten districts with a population of 411,700 can be outvoted by eleven districts which have a population of 199,000."

The Legislature subsequently passed an act reapportioning these senatorial districts, and defining their respective limits. The provisions of this act have also been carried into practical execution, the districts numbering now twenty-four, instead of twenty-one, as heretofore. The Democratic papers in the State denounce the manner and character of the new apportionment in the strongest terms, noting it "as the most glaringly dishonest partisan work ever attempted in the United States"; and to make this partisan injustice more clearly apparent, they have published a map of Connecticut representing the dividing lines as well as the different configurations and sizes of the several districts. The Republican papers seem to admit that by the new arrangement of the districts their party secures seventeen, and may possibly get two or three more, out of the twenty-four Senators. The relative populations of the new districts vary from 12,098the least in the twenty-third-to 62,882-the largest in the eighth. Ten among the districts have populations ranging between twenty and thirty thousand.

The January session of the Connecticut Legislature in 1881 was closed in its fifty-second day, April 14th, when the Governor adjourned the General Assembly sine die with the usual formalities. Among the more important acts passed at this session are the following: A new law relating to elections; it is intended for the principal cities in the State, to prevent fraudulent registration. An act reducing the tax on mutual life insurance companies; this

items, as against any results from these sources I should have to put the expenses of maintenance. These brief details may, however, serve to show my fellow bondholders that, in the railway of Costa Rica, there is a basis on which to found some hope for improvement in the value of the bonds they hold; and, as I am informed that President Guardia will be in London in the course of a few days, and that he holds full powers not only to negotiate, but to accept an arrangement, subject only to the confirmation of Congress, I am strongly of opinion that the bondholders should not lose the present opportunity, but should at once take energetic action. I do not fear that any negotiation can be concluded irrespective of the bondholders, for in Paris and Amsterdam there are also many persons who have invested in the loans, and who would not permit any new advances to the Government of Costa Rica unless their prior claims were recognized.

In the article COLOMBIA, in the present volume, will be found mention of a treaty between that republic and Costa Rica, to procure European arbitration upon the question of the ownership of the disputed territory on the isthmus.

COTTON. The extraordinary increase which has taken place in the yield of cotton in the United States (see statistics in COMMERCE AND FINANCE, AMERICAN, IN 1881) is insignificant in comparison to the capabilities of the country for expanding the production of this staple. The United States produces now just about four fifths of the cotton grown in the world, and the product of the other countries, notably of India and Egypt, the largest producers, is rather diminishing than increasing at present. For the last six years the average cotton crop has been 5,000,000 bales; in 1880'81 it exceeded 6,500,000 bales. Yet, out of every hundred acres capable of producing cotton not more than two or three have been under cultivation; and the yield per acre is not half as great in quantity, and very much inferior in quality, to what it might be made. In 1879-'80 the cotton acreage was 14,441,993 acres; the yield was 5,737,257 baies, or an average of four bales of 475 pounds to ten acres. Under careful cultivation a bale an acre is commonly obtained, and two bales are often grown. The fertile Yazoo bottom in Mississippi yields, with the present imperfect cultivation and incomplete picking, three bales to every four acres. There are 3,000,000 acres of land in the same district which could be reclaimed by simply excluding the Mississippi overflows. This would increase the product of the Yazoo flats to 2,250,000 bales, which might be more than doubled by improved cultivation, and the State of Mississippi could produce on this tract and on the uplands as much as the entire crop of the United States. Texas is capable, when its entire cotton area is utilized to the best advantage, of producing ten times the present crop of the whole country.

A slight lowering of the cost has always the effect of increasing the consumptive demand for this universally desired commodity in an extraordinary degree. The consumptive ca

pacity of the world could at a reasonable calculation be many times multiplied through the economies in production which can be obtained from improved methods and appliances that are already known. As a means of calling the attention of cotton-growers to improved methods in the cultivation and handling of cotton, Edward Atkinson, a statistician and expert associated with manufacturing industries in New England, suggested, through the medium of the press in 1880, the plan of holding a special Cotton Exhibition, in which all the products and materials of the cotton industry, and all the mechanical appliances employed from the planting of the seed to the turning out of the finished web at the mill, could be inspected and compared. Atkinson had primarily in mind the demonstration to the Southern growers of the advantage of more thoroughly cleaning the raw fiber before packing it for sale to the manufacturers and exporters, and proposed that the exhibition should be held in Atlanta in 1881. The business men of Georgia and other Southern States caught at the suggestion, wishing to show the advantages of the South as a cotton-manufacturing locality, which had been proved by the success of recently established factories, and to attract the attention of capitalists to the manifold other industrial capabilities of their section. (See EXPOSITION at Atlanta.)

The need of some efficient mechanical device for the rapid gathering of cotton is urgently felt. The crop is nearly every year in danger, and frequently seriously damaged, while there is a constant waste of enormous aggregate amount, through lack of good harvesting machinery. The various cotton-pickers which have been invented may none of them be superior to hand-picking, since none has yet supplanted the primitive method. For the assistance of the laborer in sustaining the awkward position while picking, a pair of staves, fastened to the legs and holding a belt under the body, is a patented device which is sometimes used. A mechanical hand-picker has been invented, consisting of a rotating spindle which is kept moist, and winds the lint out of the boll, the spindle being turned by means of a crank. Another device is an endless toothed chain, driven by a sprocket-wheel and crank, with an appliance for stripping the cotton off the barbs into a basket. A simple hand-picker which has been lately patented consists of gloves with wire hooks, worn on both hands, and a brush at the waist to rub off the cotton into a bag below. An older and more complex device is a reciprocating tongue provided with barbs which detaches the cotton from the boll, the agitation of the tongue moving the cotton gradually up through an oblong box by the aid of an elastic plate provided with spines, depositing it at the end in a bag. A pneumatic tube connected with an exhaust pump or fan has been tried, the hose being applied to the bolls by hand. An electric cotton-picker was