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cotton. Then the cotton-gin was in the hands of the patentees, who endeavored to make a 'great East India concern of it' by establishing ginners at numerous points in the cotton region and coercing the planters to sell their cotton in the seed, by refusing to sell rights to use the gin. That scheme of monopoly, amounting almost to fraud, was defeated by the ingenuity of Nathan Lyons, who invented the saw gin. Now, all the elements for ginning, carding, and spinning exist in machinery of almost perfect construction, and its adaptation to the planter's wants is alone necessary to enable him to spin his own crop at his own homestead. The spinning of cotton-as was one time the ginning of it-is a distinct pursuit, employing a distinct capital, and creating a distinct and antagonizing interest to that of the planter. The same energy that enabled him to unite the ginning out of his crop with the production of it, will now unite, in his own hands, the production, ginning, carding, and spinning. And he will find that he will add proportionally more to the profits of his investment by carding and spinning than he has by ginning his crop, for the women and children may be readily taught to spin in winter what they have aided in cultivating and gathering."

THE AUSTRALIAN GOLD MINES.

By the recent arrivals at London, from Port Philip, accounts have been received with regard to the Victoria Gold Mines up to the 27th January, 1852. It appears that the excitement was rapidly increasing, and that about 20,000 people had already reached the place from the neighboring colonies. Special instances were mentioned in which parties had obtained gold valued at about £30 per day for several successive days, while even since the scarcity of water the average at the chief point of operation had been £3. These results were principally obtained from surface diggings on a slope of the range not a quarter of an acre in extent. It was estimated that since the discovery the general yield, including what had found its way into the banks, had been at least £1,000,000 sterling, and that already, up to the 18th of January, £660,000 had been exported to this country. When the winter rains should set in, it was anticipated that the most extraordinary consequences would be witnessed. In the meantime labor was fetching high rates; reapers were paid 28s. a day, besides a considerable allowance of spirits, and servants who previously obtained about £30 to £35 per annum were now readily engaged at £60. The retail business of the place had improved in proportion, the expenditure by the mining population being distinguished for its extravagance. The latest price of gold was £2 188. to £3 per ounce. The amount brought by the present vessel is understood to be £160,000. The Himalaya and Sarah Anne, which left previously with 26,547 and 14,004 ounces, have yet to arrive.

It appears that news had been received of the discovery of gold in New Zealand, in the island of Waiheki, about fifteen miles east of Auckland.

COMPARATIVE COST OF MINING IN CORNWALL AND LAKE SUPERIOR.

The following is a comparative estimate of the expenses of mining in Cornwall, England, and Lake Superior, which is derived from the Lake Superior Journal, published at Detroit, Michigan::

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THE COAL TRADE OF PENNSYLVANIA.

From an elaborate article in Poor's Railroad Journal for May 15, Mr. Leavitt, the working editor of the Independent, has prepared the following table, showing the growth of this trade at intervals of five years, indicating the three different coal regions and the different channels by which the coal is brought to market :

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Total in the year....... 365 34,893 174,734 560,758 841,584 1,975,163 4,383,667

Going back to 1835, as the time when the trade might be considered as established, we find the increase in the five years ending 1840 was 280,826 tons, or 50 per cent; in 1845 it was 1,133,529 tons, or 123 per cent; in 1851, six years, it was 2,408,554 tons, or 122 per cent. The average of the three periods gives 98 per cent as the rate of increase every five years, making an increase of 4,295,993 tons in 1856, or a total for that year of 8,679,660 tons.

The writer before us makes a calculation somewhat different, which leads to 117 per cent, which he reduces to 100 per cent as a ratio, or that the trade will continue to double in extent every five years for a long period to come. For convenience, call the crop of 1851 four millions, of 1856 eight millions, of 1861 sixteen millions, and that of 1871 thirty-two million tons. The writer says:—

"Is there any reason why this rate should be diminished? We think not. In the first place, population is increasing at the same rapid rate as heretofore. Secondly, coal is only just beginning to be used throughout New England, where, ultimately, it must displace all other means of heat for domestic purposes, as well as of mechanical power for manufacturing purposes. New England, as the oldest settled, and already the most bare of wood, must become, and at no distant day, the greatest consumer of Pennsylvania anthracite. Baltimore will probably supply herself, and to some extent the coast below her; but the great cities of Philadelphia and New York, and the bole Atlantic coast north and east of Philadelphia, must become every year more and more dependent upon the coal fields of the Schuylkill, the Lehigh, and the Lackawanna. This whole north-eastern region of the United States, at once the coldest, the most populous, and the most mechanical, and therefore, by all three reasons, requiring the greatest amount of fuel for domestic and mechanical purposes, has, as yet, only begun to use our Pennsylvania coal. So far from any decrease in the rate of consumption, there are the strongest reasons for believing that the rate will be increased."

If the duty on coal should continue to give the great land-proprietors the power to levy a quarter of a dollar per ton on all the coal that is dug there, it will yield them in 1871 the very pretty income of eight or nine millions per annum.

AMERICAN BOHEMIAN GLASS.

ALEXANDER CUMMINGS, the editor of the Philadelphia Bulletin, on a recent visit to Boston, took the opportunity of visiting the New England Glass Works, which, for the extent and variety of their operations, probably surpass all others in the country. The editor of the Bulletin says:

We were especially struck with the fact, new to us, that most of the exquisite, richly colored and decorated glass-ware, which is so much admired under the name of Bohemian Glass,' is manufactured at these works. The variety and beauty of the articles manufactured there would scarcely be credited by one not a visitor; but we

can assure our readers that we saw many works that could not be surpassed in Bohemia or anywhere else in Europe. The various processes by which the different colors and the rich gilding are produced we are not prepared to describe, but they are produced at these works in the utmost perfection. The company has the advantage of a charter and large capital, which enable them thus to compete successfully with foreign manufactures in this work; Massachusetts having none of that holy horror of corporations which has retarded so much the development of manufacturing industry in our own State."

DISCOVERY OF GOLD AT QUEEN CHARLOTTE'S ISLAND.

In reference to the golden wealth of Queen Charlotte's Island, in the Pacific, a letter in the New York Courier and Enquirer, mentioning the discovery by persons employed by the Hudson's Bay Company, says that "in less than one hour $13,000 worth of gold and quartz intermixed was discovered, and much more might have been se cured but for the imprudence of one of the party, who, in his eagerness to secure some of the large pieces, gave the Indians a silver dollar for each large piece of gold. The Indians, although ignorant of the value of the gold, were accustomed to the use of silver from trading with the Hudson Bay Company. After receiving a few dollars they attacked the white men and drove them off to their vessel, and they were obliged to get under way and leave the harbor. Several vessels with armed men have since left San Francisco for the island. The island is about two hundred and forty miles in length, and from twenty to one hundred in breadth, with a beautiful soil and climate. The coast abounds with excellent harbors and large quantities of fish. It has a population of from 7,000 to 10,000 Indians, who lead a roving life, always moving in large bodies from one part of the island to another. The island is nominally a British possession, but it is not inhabited by a single white man.

NORTH-WEST COPPER MINING COMPANY.

The North-West Mining Company have made a statement and exhibit of the operations and financial affairs of the company, from which it appears that the income realized from the sale of copper since the organization of the company, in 1849, amounts to the sum of £94,819 83, and the aggregate expenditures, for the same period, for mining, &c., real estate, live stock, improvements, and steam engines, amount to the sum of $172,183 96. The results, as will be seen below, for the past three years, are encouraging in the annually increasing quantity of copper raised; and it is reasonable to hope that such increase will continue for some time to come:

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DANIEL WEBSTER, in the India rubber case of GOODYEAR vs. Dar, describes minutely the invention claimed by Goodyear for vulcanizing India rubber, as follows :-

"It appears from the evidence in this case, that Chas. Goodyear, in the year 1884, came into the field of operations in the manufacture of India rubber.

"He turned his attention to this subject, not as a matter of business or trade, but by way of commencing and carrying on a series of experiments, by which he could bring to the test the question whether this very extraordinary substance was capable of rendering any benefit to society, to see whether there was any way, given among men skilled in the arts, by which this article could be cleared of its stickiness-its tendency to harden in the frost and soften in the heat; for it is well known that the arti

cles manufactured up to the year 1834 were entirely useless. If they were exposed to the sun, they became sticky, you could not separate them after their surfaces came in contact; and if exposed to the cold, they became hard and rigid.”

To remedy these defects, Mr. Goodyear continued his experiments for years, until be at last invented the vulcanizing process. The great peculiarity of this vulcanizing process is this: if you take a compound of sulphur and rubber in a dry state, and grind and mix them together, and apply heat, the consequence is, that the substance softens, and softens, and softens, as the degree of heat increases, until it reaches a certain hight in the thermometer, say 212° Fahrenheit, or along there, a little more or less.

Anybody who ever tried the effects to see what would be its operation upon this compound, and found that a great degree of heat, softened and rendered it more and more plastic as the degree of heat was augmented, would naturally be of opinion, that if that heat were carried still higher, the whole substance would melt. I say that everybody would be of that opinion, reasoning a priori, and founding his conclusions upon a general knowledge of the effect of heat. But Mr. Goodyear, as the result of untiring experiment, found out that although the application of heat produced a melting effect upon this compound, rendering it more and more plastic and soft as the degree of heat augmented, yet when that heat, going on, had got up to a certain much higher degree, its effect was the reverse of what it had been, and then the rubber composition commenced to vulcanize and harden-in fact, to make metallic the vegetable substance."

GOLD MINES IN VAN DIEMAN'S LAND.

The news from Van Dieman's land, in relation to the productiveness of the gold mines, is more flattering than any accounts before received. Labor and merchandise have advanced most rapidly.

In the Melbourne Argus, of January 19, we find the following statistics, relative to the gold obtained from the gold fields of Victoria.

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Making a total with that previously shipped, omitting fractions of an ounce, of 220.305 ounces, amounting, at £3 per ounce, to the sum of £680,915.

The article closes with the following announcement:

"We have hastily thrown these few facts together, by way of asking our English friends, what they think of the prospects of a little colony, which, in less than four months, has managed to export 9 tons, 3 cwt., 58 lbs., 9 oz., of gold, and has plenty more to follow {"

LIQUID LEATHER.

Dr. Beruland, of Larria, in Germany, is said to have discovered a method of making leather out of certain refuse and waste animal substances. He has established a manufactory near Vienna; no part of the process is explained; but it is stated that the substance is at one stage in a state of fluidity, and may then be cast into boots, shoes, &c. Such a discovery is not improbable.

THE VALUE OF AN ACRE OF COAL LAND.

The Pottsville (Pa.) Mining Register alluding to the cheapness of land in that quarter a few years ago, says now an acre of coal land is worth $18,000. Many set down a higher figure. In the South basin, (that is, from the Sharp Mountain to the Mine Hill,) where we have all the veins, (thirteen, including, red and white ash,) the whole thickness of the coal is ninety feet. Allowing one-half of this for fault and waste in mining, we have 45 feet, or 15 yards in thickness, of merchantable coal. There being 48,000 square yards to the acre, we have, by multiplying this number by the thickness, 72,000 square yards or tons of coal per acre; which at a rent of 25 cents per ton, brings $18,000. This is a fair estimate of the real value of an acre of our coal land, without exaggeration or embellishment. It is not strange, therefore, that our lands have, and are still increasing in value. In England, coal lands not possessing near the intrinsic value of ours, sell at from one to two thousand pounds sterling per

acre.

MERCANTILE MISCELLANIES.

AN OLD MERCHANT'S ADVICE.

Martin TakemthROUGH-who must be a son or grandson of old GoAhead PutemTHROUGH-through the medium of the Palmetto State Banner, gives the following advice to his nephew, JACK GOINGTHROUGH:

MY DEAR NEPHEW :—I am rejoiced to learn that you are in good health, and are just commencing business on your own account. I have heretofore remarked your shrewdness in commercial transactions in which you were engaged for the benefit of others, and I feel confident, that having launched upon your own boat, and started on your own hook, you will still maintain a character which weighs so greatly in my estimation. Being so nearly related to myself, it is of course my desire that you shall meet with the most complete success. You are intelligent and enterprising-two qualities, without which, little or nothing can be achieved.

Thirty years ago, I launched my bark upon the same tempestuous sea. I had nothing to begin with, it is true; but I did not despair-I know that others had succeeded in making the same voyage. I tried it, on the square, for some time, that is to say, I did not take any of the little advantages of which others availed themselves, for purposes of gain. But I soon found that, riches being the object in view, I must adopt their plan or I would never succeed in business. It is too late in the day for one to think of acting upon the principle that "honesty is the best policy "-it is an erroneous doctrine-it won't do in the 19th century. Men must suit their consciences to their interests have easy consciences. They must know and acknowledge but one rule for their guidance upon every occasion-that rule is short ano pointedembraced in one word-"SKIN!"

Occasionally you may find one, who, in his folly, strictly acts up to his vaunted principle, honesty. What is the consequence? He remains poking and groveling in the mud for a life-time, while every day he beholds his neighbors, who are not so squeamish as himself, rearing their palaces and reveling in luxuries to him unknown. He may be thought well of by a few poor fellows (dupes of honesty) like himself, but the majority having a different standard of excellence, will give him the cold shoulder and keep him jammed to the wall. Such a fate should never be mine, and if I am at all acquainted with your spirit it will never be yours. I got along gradually at first. Ten per cent satisfied me then, but I found it wouldn't do, so I commenced increasing and continued to increase. Twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, and sometimes one hundred per cent. Complaints, of course, I had almost any quantity-but what of that? Where I lost one customer I would gain two others. Some couldn't use my sugar; they said it was all sand, but this was a vile misrepresentation-only thirty per cent was sand, and that of the cleanest kind. Sand is wholesome: it is an invaluable aid to digestion. I was actually contributing to the health of the silly beings, by mixing sand with my sugar; but they knew it not, and the manufacturer had to bear the blame, of course, as I would not acknowledge my agency. They said my liquor was half water; well, so it was, and so much the better for it. All parties were benefited.

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