283 

 THE CEOPS IN GEEiMANY. 



W. Prentiss Webster, United States consul general at Frankfort, 

 writes to the Department under date of June 20, as follows, in reference 

 to tbe crops in Germany: 



The season lias now tar enongli advanced not only to indicate, but to sadly demon- 

 strate, that the grain crop will not prohahly exceed one-third, and cannot eqnal one- 

 half of its average amount. There has been no rain in anj^ of the German States for 

 the last four or five months. The lands are dry and parched. The crops are harden- 

 ing, and will scarcely mature at all. The hay crop will be useless, and not worth cut- 

 ting. The prices of all kinds of breadstutls are daily and almost hourly rising. 



At Meutz, the principal grain market of western and southern Germany, the deal- 

 ers hardly know at what price to sell. They describe the prospect as discouraging in 

 the extreme, and expect a great rise in jjrices. Every day adds to the gloom and des- 

 ])ondency of this community, who begin to believe that great sulfering awaits the poor 

 and laboring classes. In some parts of Prussia, farmers are beginning to sell their cat- 

 tle on account of the already-pressing costs and prices uf keeping, so that poo beef 

 is very cheap at the present time, and good fat beef is not to be found. I believe that 

 the prospects are worse for Germany than for France or Eugland. 



In Hungary and Bohemia, and other parts of Austria, and perhaps all eastern Eu- 

 rope, they had much rain early in the season, and the crops there are said to be look- 

 ing well, and to promise about an average yield. These countries, however, can do 

 but little toward supplying others. There are but few railroads, and the trans- 

 portation from remote parts of the country must be too difficult and expensive. 



At the Bourse the xirices of all Austrian railroads have advanced greatly on account 

 of the jjrospective receipts from the transportation of grain during the coming season. 



Of course there must be great exportations from America, and much larger than at 

 any previous period. Indeed, the question will not be how nuich can be sold in Eu- 

 rope, but how much can the United States supply. 



I think that it is generally believed that no change oi weather or any possible con- 

 tingency of events can materially alter the prospects of European harvests. The stock 

 on hand of breadstuti's is not lai-ge, and we must soon look abroad for supplies. 



ST. DOMINGO. 



Mr. F. Scliumacker, in transmitting a package of textile and other 

 plants of St. Doniiugo to this Department, writes as follows : 



I had the pleasure, by the mail a month since, of advising you of my intention to for- 

 ward by this steamer the lace bark tree. It is at Neyba, west coast of the Bay of" 

 Ocoa. President Baez sent for it, but it is so little known no one coiild be found to 

 select it. The President's brother, the governor of Azua. is now here, but will return 

 in a few days, and will obtain a specimen ; also, the " Palo del Cruz." Mr. Baez him- 

 self knows the lace bark well, and has frequently seen it at Xeyba. I hope to furnish 

 it by the steamship Tybee, of July. Mr. Baez has kindly furnished me, for your De- 

 partment, the " guarantey," a textile, in which I feel a great interest. You have some 

 of these plants in the package ; also, specimens of the iarl; to which I call your special 

 attention. The jilant is abundant, (propagated by layers or cuttings,) of great 

 strength, and, I imagine, is well adapted to linen fobrics. The leaf is so tenacious it 

 can scarcely be rui)tured, and would pulp admirably for paper stock. The plants I 

 send have been out of the ground now two weeks, and have lost the leaves, which I 

 regret. They were sent to the President from the Bay of Ocoa. This island could 

 furnish the world with textiles. 



I have sent an agent to the States to get a machine to strip the cabaya and prepare 

 it for market, if such can be found. The maji and other plants also furnish textile ma- 

 terial, but the cabaya and the guarantey are at the head of the list. In dye and cabi- 

 net woods no country is richer. 



You have no conception of the resources of this favored land. Under Spanish rule it 

 has exported one hundred millions annually. Under American enterprise this might 

 be increased ten-fold. Coifee, cocoa, tobaeco, cotton, sugar, fruit, dye and cabinet 

 woods, annatto, tumeric, and indigo, (of which it supplied Europe at one period with 

 more than half its consumption,) are here in the greatest abundance, and without sea- 

 son. Four crops of corn are produced annually. Almost every vegetable has a marketa- 

 ble value as a medicinal plant, or otherwise. Nearly every stream flows over sands of 

 gold, and every hillock contains metallic wealth and magnetic irons. Cinnabar, cop- 



