Value of Total Imports in 1860 $362,166,254

Acres of public land appropriated to edu-
cational purposes in the aggregate
Number of persons who have received
instruction in the various educational
institutions in 1860

...

...

50,000,000

5,000,000

*Ths State of Maine takes the lead in ship-building; New York is second Massachusetts third; Pennsylvania fourth; and Connecticut fifth.

New Jersey.

183,762
211,949

245,555

EXTRACTS FROM THE PRELIMINARY REPORT OF THE EIGHTH DECENNIAL CENSUS, 1862

SIR,

"IN the collection of the details to be embodied in the Eighth Census there have been employed 64 marshals, under whose direction there have been employed 4,417 assistants. *

*

"There is no department of knowledge of more importance than that embraced in statistics of the movement of population and increase of wealth, agriculture, manufactures, and commerce- In these are seen the progress of nations from one period to another. The result of the Eighth Decennial Census of the United States, marks a progress of rapidity unexampled in the history of the world."

* *

"POPULATION.-The actual increase of the entire free and slave population from 1850 to 1860, omitting the Indian tribes, was 8,225,464, and * * the rate per cent. is set down at 35.

"No more striking evidence can be given of the rapid advancement of our country in the first element of national progress than that the increase of its inhabitants during the last ten years is greater by more than 1,000,000 of souls than the whole population in 1810, and nearly as great as the entire number of people in 1820." *

*

"PRODUCTS OF INDUSTRY.-The returns of manufactures exhibit a most gratifying increase, and present at the same time an imposing view of the magnitude to which this branch of the national industry has attained within the last decennium. * *

"The total value of domestic manufactures (including fisheries and the products of the mines) for the year ending June 1, 1860, will reach an aggregate value of $1,900,000,000 (£380,000,000). This result exhibits an increase of more than 86 per centum in ten years! The growth of this branch of American labour appears, therefore, to have been in much greater ratio than that of the population."

*

*

"PRINTING.-The increase of printing presses in the book and newspaper manufacture has been great beyond all precedent, and has exerted the most beneficent influence by cheapening and multiplying the vehicles of instruction. Its effects are everywhere apparent. * *

"The value of book, job, and newspaper printing is returned as $39,428,043, (£7,885,608,) of which eleven millions' worth consisted of books, being an increase on 1850 of $28,325,338 (£5,665,067). * * The manufacture of paper, especially printing paper, has increased in an equal ratio.

* *

"THE PUBLIC PRESS.-Among the elements which determine the characteristics of a people no branch of social statistics occupies a more important place than that which exhibits the number, variety and diffusion of newspapers and other periodicals. * *

The statement relating to this subject strikingly illustrates the fact that the people of the United States are peculiarly a newspaper-reading cation,' and serves to show how large a portion of their reading is politinal. Of 4,051 papers and periodicals published in the United States at the date of the census of 1860, 3,242 were political in their character

and 289 were devoted to literature, being an increase of nearly 100 per cent. since 1850. The total increase since 1850 is 1,489." *

*

"PROGRESS OF RAILWAYS.-The decade which terminated in 1860 was particularly distinguished by the progress of railways in the United States. At its commencement the total extent in operation was 8,588 miles, costing $296,260,128; at its close, 30,598 miles, costing $1,134,452,909 (£226,890,581); the increase in mileage having been 22,004 miles, and in cost of construction $838,192,781 (£167,638,556.) "While the increase in mileage was nearly 300 per cent., and the amount invested still greater, the consequences that have resulted from these works have been augmented in vastly greater ratio. Up to the commencement of the decade our railroads sustained only an unimportant relation to the internal commerce of the country. Nearly all the lines then in operation were local or isolated works, and neither in extent nor design had begun to be formed into that vast and connected system. which, like a web, now covers every portion of our wide domain, enabling each work to contribute to the traffic and value of all, and supplying means of locomotion and a market, almost at its own door, for nearly every citizen of the United States.

*

*

"The SEWING MACHINE has also been improved and introduced, in the last ten years, to an extent which has made it altogether a revolutionary instrument. It has opened avenues to profitable and healthful industry for thousands of industrious females to whom the labors of the needle had become wholly nnremunerative and injurious in their effects. Like all automatic powers, it has enhanced the comforts of every class by cheapening the process of manufacture of numerous articles of prime necessity, without permanently subtracting from the average means of support of any portion of the community. It has added a positive increment to the permanent wealth of the country by creating larger and more varied applications of capital and skill in the several branches of which it is auxiliary. The manufacture of the machines has itself become one of considerable magnitude and has received a remarkable impulse since 1850. The returns show an aggregate of 116,330 machines made in nine States in 1860, the value of which was $5,605,345, (£1,121,109). During the year 1861 sewing machines to the value of over $61,000 were exported, to foreign countries. It is already employed in a great variety of operations and upon different materials, and is rapidly becoming an indispensable and general appendage to the household.

* *

"The influence of improved machinery is also conspicuously exhibited in the manufacture of Sawed and Planned Timber. In which the United States stands altogether unrivalled, as well for the extent and perfection of the mechanism employed as the amount of the product. This reached in 1860, the value of $95,912,286, (£19,182,457) an increase of 64 per cent. in the last decade." * *

"REAL AND PERSONAL ESTATE.-The value of individual property in the states and territories exceeds the sum of $16,000,000,000, (£3,200,000,000) representing an increase of 126 per cent. in ten years in value in the aggregate and an increase of 68 per cent. per capita of the free population. The rate of increase has been immense in the western States, while the ab

solute gain in the older States has been no less remarkable. For example, the rate of increase in Iowa has been more than 900 per cent., while the absolute increase of wealth has been $247,000,000; while Pennsylvania has increased at the rate of 96 per cent., with an absolute gain in wealth of near $700,000,000, (£140,000,000)."

* *

"COTTON.-The rapidity with which the cultivation of cotton has increased in the United States is truly wonderful. In the beginning of the present century the annual exportation was less than 5,000 bales; in 1849 the quantity grown had reached 2,445,793 bales of ginned cotton of 400 pounds each; in 1859 it had further increased to 5,196,944 bales, or more than 110 per cent. in ten years. The value of this crop was $200,000,000, (£40,000,000)." *

*

"The figures which we have given make it appear that during the decade from 1850 to 1860 more than 50,000,000 of acres of land were brought into cultivation. The productions of agriculture multiplied in ratio greater than the population. The banking capital ran up from $227,469,074 in 1850 to $421,880,095 (£84,376,019) in 1860, while the circulating currency was augmented $52,089,560 (£10,417,912). The amount of insurances increased about $311,000,000. More than 22,000 miles of railroad were completed, and the capital involved increased from $296,640,148 in 1850, to $1,151.560,829, (£230,312,165) in 1860; while to indicate on the map of our country the lines of telegraph would be to represent the web of the spider over its entire surface. Our internal and foreign trade kept pace with our advance in production and increase of capital. Education, free to a great extent, has been made more accessible, and crime has rather diminished,

I have the honor to be your obedient servant,
JOS. C. G. KENNEDY,

Hon. CALEB B. SMITH,

Secretary of the Interior.

Superintendent, Census Department.

THE FEDERAL NAVY,

There are in the Federal navy 41 iron-clad ships, already built or to be completed early in 1863. Their aggregate tonnage is 47,281 tons, or an average of 1,153 tons. They are mostly turret ships, carrying in the aggregate 119 guns, as follows:—

1 carrying 10 guns

(the Dunderburg)
(the Roanoke and Galena)
in 2 turrets

2

6

in 1 in 1

Of these guns 33 are 11-inch bore, 24 are 13-inch and 62 are 15-inch -the latter throwing shot of 640 lbs. weight. In addition to the above are 9 iron-clad steamers for river service, carrying in the aggregate 108 guns, an average of 12 guns each, of smaller calibre.

The whole Federal naval force consists of 323 steamers and 104 sailing vessels, carrying in all 3268 guns.