AUGUST 3S, 1839. 



LOOK OUT FOR ANOTHER PANIC. 

 The New York Times gives tlie following state- 

 ment of the amount of duties paid in the district of 

 New York during the first quarter of 1838 and the 

 first quarter of 1839 : 



18:58, $2,407,755 78 



1839, 4,309,500 21 



Difl'erence, $1,901, 744 43 



Now, if we assume this as a criterion for the 

 three coming quarters of the year, it will give an 

 aggregate of $7,006 972 72, as the amount of du- 

 ties upon foreign importations, paid ia the district 

 of Nev/ York, in 1839, over and above what was 

 paid upon the like importations in 1838. This im- 

 mense sum of seven and a half millions of dollars, 

 the reader will bear in mind, is not the cost of the 

 foreign articles we import, but merely the rfu/y 

 ■which is exacted by our laws on their introduction 

 into our country. And if we consider that almost 

 every foreign article not coming in competition 

 ■with our own manufactures, is imported duty free, 

 and that many other articles pay merely a nominal 

 <]uty, we may with safety assume that the duties 

 payable at the custom house do not amount to more 

 than one-tenth of the cost of the foreign merchan- 

 dize imported. We arrive, then, at this result, 

 that the foreign goods imported into New York 

 during the present year, will exceed in amount the 

 importations of 1838, SEVENTYSIX MILLIONS 

 OP DOLLARS!! 



And who is to foot the bill ? — who is to pay the 

 balance ? Here is an e.xtra charge against us in a 

 single port, of seventysix millions of dollars, in a 

 great measure for articles which we can either pro- 

 duce within ourselves, or do without. We may 

 least of this as an era of commercial prosperity — 

 -we may boast that it fills the coffers of our national 

 treasury — but we cannot conceal the apprehension 

 that it is pregnant with future and direful evils to 

 our country; that it is the prelude to another com- 

 mercial panic more dreadful in its effects than the 

 one from which we are just recovering. Really, 

 •we are getting commercially mad. Like the reck- 

 less spendthrift, we are cumbering our patrimonial 

 inheritance, entailing upon our posterity a ruinous 

 debt, and compromiting our independence as a na- 

 tion, from a vain ostentation of buying what we do 

 Dot want, or what at all events we are unable to 

 pay for. 



We repeat the {juestion — By whom and how is 

 this seventysix millions of dollars to be paid? Paid 

 it must be, if we v^ould sustain our character for 

 honesty and fair dealing. The total amount of our 

 exports is but a little over one hundred millions — 

 1 icme millions less than our imports of last year: 

 Bind according to the data we have assumed, they 

 ire likely to fall short of the imports of the current 

 fear from fifty to a hundred millions of dollars. 

 1 Our slate stocks have, to the amount of one hun- 

 <3red and seventy millions, been already sent abroad 

 Howards paying old balances ; some considerable 

 portion of our bank stock has been employed for a 

 like purpose ; and, abstracting the exports of cot- 

 ton, exclusively the production of the south, our 

 exportations will not pay a tithe of the rapidly ac- 

 cumulatijtg debt. 



What does this state of things augur to our man- 

 ufacturing and agricultural interests ? This seven- 

 tysix millions of foreign merchandize has and will 

 be spread over our country, and must and will be 

 sold, tliough at a sacrifice to the holders ; and sup- 



plant, in no small degree, the sales of domestic 

 goods. Our manufacturers will consequently be- 

 come cramped ; their business will be contracted ; 

 many mills be stopped, and many failures ensue. 

 The evils to the agriculturist will be, the loss of 

 the market ; to the manufacturer, of his provisions 

 and raw materials, a diminution in their price, and 

 a participation in the evils of another commercial 

 panic. ' 



Our anticipations may not be realized; yet the 

 facts upon which they are founded, are such as 

 should put every prudent man on his guard— as 

 should render him cautious of running in debt, par- 

 ticularly for foreign merchandize, and as should in- 

 duce him, in all cases \vhore it is practicable with- 

 out a great sacrifice, to give a preference to domes- 

 tic over foreign productions. The patriots of our 

 revolution could forego the use of foreign goods, 

 and their wives and daughters the use of their fa- 

 vorite beverage, tea, for their country's good. The 

 sons surely have not so degenerated, as to be un- 

 willing to adopt, in part, to maintain iheir indepen- 

 dence, that policy which their fathers employed to 

 achieve it. — Albany Cultivator. 



Gideon B. Smith estimates that the number of 

 Multicaulis trees throughout the country will not 

 be more than one-fifth the number of buds planted 

 out. There ia no doubt that the failure of the buds 

 to germinate has been general; and we think Mr. 

 Smith's means of forming a correct estimate are as 

 good as those of any other man in the United 

 Slates. Nor is he one of those who would lend 

 himself to the vile purpose of assisting to create 

 fictitious impressions in view of playing into the 

 pockets of humbuggers and speculators. IJut we 

 advise those who think of commencing the silk 

 business next year, not to make contracts for mul- 

 ticaulis trees till after they have ceased growing 

 the present season. Whoever buys trees yet to be 

 delivered, assists in sustaining the present humbug 

 prices. We are earnest advocates of silk culture, 

 but buying and selling trees merely, is not feeding 

 worms and making silk. There are three classes 

 of men in this country who style themselves silk 

 culturists — the humbuggers, the humbugged, and 

 the actual producers of silk. The two former are 

 displaying at present more zeal in their operat-ons; 

 but the latter is laboring more honestly, and will 

 in the end, we trust, be more successful. The gen- 

 uine friends of silk culture should discriminate be- 

 tween these classes. — Franklin Farmer. 



THE PROPERTIES AND USE OF SOIL AND 

 SUBSOIL. 



Although it has been shewn that there is an in- 

 timate connexion between the nature and proper- 

 tie's cf'the soil and those of the subsoil upon which 

 it resUs, yet we would wish it to be understood that 

 the nature and quality of the materials of which the 

 soil is composed, has not so mucli to do with its 

 productiveness, as the mere mechanical mixture of 

 its parts, by which it is brought into such a state of 

 friability as to enable it to retain moisture in dry 

 seasons, and give offby filtration its redundant mois- 

 ture during a continuance of wet weather. When 

 soils are not naturally in such a state of friability, 

 they might be made so artificially by a proper ad- 

 mixture of clay, if too light or sandy; and by an 

 admixture of sandy matter, when too strong and 

 adhesive. 



Silicious sandy soils sooii decompose the manure 



bestowed upon them, which is carried off by water 

 and evaporation. 



These are called hungry soils. 



Soils on a dry porous subsoil are more easily dried 

 by evaporation than when the subsoil is clay or 

 marl. 



A dry, light, sandy soil on a clay subsoil, is more 

 productive than on a sandy,' gravelly subsoil, and 

 it also supplies the means of its permanent impr ne- 

 ment by mixing some of the subsoil with the soil. 



The best constituted soil is tiiat in which the 

 earthy materials, the moisture and manure are 

 properly associated, and on which the decomposa- 

 ble vegetable or animal matter does not exceed 

 one-fourth of the weight of the earthy constituents., 



Putrefaction goes on very slowly in strong adhe- 

 sive clays, while in sand and gravel the process is 

 very rapid. In quick lime it is more so than in 

 sand, but carbonate of lime or effete lime retards 

 the process of putrefaction more than sand or clay. 

 All earths have an affinity for, or the power of, re- 

 taining the gas or effluvia from the fermentation of 

 animal and vegetable matter which takes place on 

 or near their surface. 



None of the primitive earths, when pure or un- 

 mixed with oihers, are capable of supporting vege- 

 table life ; they are neither convertible into the el- 

 ements of plants nor into any new substance by 



any piocess naturally taking place in the soil. 



When they are component parts of the soil, they 

 merely act as mechanical agents for the support of 

 the plant, and prepare a bed in which the roots 

 sink and extend themselves for the purpose of fix- 

 ing tlieir position, thus fimning a natural laborato- 

 ry in which the decomposition of organic matter is 

 carried on, and where it is reduced to its orio-inal 

 elements for the reproducing of plants. 



A soil that is fonned of nearly equal parts of the 

 three primitive earths, namely, sand, clay, and 

 lime, with a mixture of decomposing vegetable and 

 animal matter, imbibes moisture from, and gives it 

 out to the atmosphere, and has all the principles of 

 fertility which give life and vigor to the plants that 

 grow in it. 



The properties of a good soil should be so friable 

 and porous as to perhiit the roots of plants to strike 

 freely in every direction in search of nourishment, 

 and to allow the supe-fluous water readily to passi 

 off" through the subsoil, but to be sufficiently tena- 

 cious to retain moisture for the support of plants 

 when in full vigor. 



Fertile soils must be composed of silicious sand, 

 clay, and calcareous matter. "The proportion,"' 

 Kirwan says, " where rain to the depth of twenty- 

 six inches falls per annum, is fiftysix per cent, of 

 sand, fourteen of clay, and thirty ofcalcareous mat- 

 ter." But these proportions depend entirely on the 

 climate, the situation, the nature of the subsoil, and 

 other local circumstances. More silicious sand is 

 required in proportion as these circumstances tend 

 to make the soil wet ; and more clay, if they tend 

 to make it dry. 



The constituent parts of a fertile soil should 

 bear a certain relative proportion to each other ; 

 but if any of these prevail or fall short to a certain 

 degree, the soil becomes less productive. 



The proper proportion of the primitive earths tO' 

 form a productive soil under these circumstances, 

 may vary from 50 to 75 per cent., of silicious mat- 

 ter ; from 20 to 40 of clay or aluminous matters, 

 and from 10 to 20 of calcareous matter. 



According as the climate is moist, the soil should. 



