I append to these topics of local interest, a statement of the mileage allowed to members of Congress, at different periods, and in the aggregate: Aggregate mileage of members of Congress from the First to the Twenty-ninth Sessions, both inclusive, $19,100,445 48. The second volume embraces the receipts and expenditures on account of public lands, under which head are comprehended the purchases of Florida and Louisiana. The condition of every land office in the country is therein annually set forth, and from the accompanying table it will be seen that the opinion generally current as to our public land system, is very erroneous. The net profits exceed $39,000,000, as shown by the following table: RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES OF PUBLIC LANDS, FROM MARCH 4, 5,000,000 00 1,489,768 66 For interest of stock thereupon issued. Net proceeds..... 543,858 79-87,265,909 14 .$39,878,411 53 NEW ORLEANS CUSTOM-HOUSE. 381 The third volume embraces the receipts and expenditures of the Custom-houses, and exhibits their entire operation singly and collectively. As illustrations, I transmit two statements-one exhibiting the operations of the New Orleans Custom-house, in three different periods, viz.: the first year, the last year, and for the entire period of its existence up to the close of the fiscal year 1845-6. OPERATIONS OF THE N. o. CUSTOM-HOUSE DURING THE YEAR 1801. The other statement comprehends the entire revenue system, and presents in detail all the operations of the Custom-houses of the Union, and exhibits the true net revenue derived from them. Statement of the Receipts, Expenditures, Net Revenue, and excess of expenses of Col lection of all the Custom-houses in the Union, from March 4, 1798, to June 30, 1846. It is but justice to state that these important compilations were projected and commenced by the Hon. Ransom H. Gillett, during his administration as Register of the Treasury. He has since been transferred to the Bureau of the Solicitor of the Treasury, wherein he has already manifested his genius for order. His successor to the Registry of the Treasury, the Hon. Daniel SUGAR CULTURE, &C., OF LOUISIANA AND WEST INDIES. 383 Graham, is carrying out this great enterprise, and it will, it is expected, be published under the direction of the 30th Congress. The Secretary of the Treasury, Hon. Robert J. Walker, warmly approves the measure, and has found the volumes of essential service in his investigations on the subject of the public revenue. Heretofore much time was spent in ascertaining results which can, from these works, be ascertained in a few minutes; and calls of Congress requiring, formerly, weeks to answer, can be responded to in an hour. Hoping that these statistics may be an acceptable contribution to your excellent periodical, I am yours truly, SAMUEL YORKE AT LEE. Art. XII.—SUGAR CULTURE AND MANUFACTURE OF LOUISIANA AND WEST INDIES. In answer to a letter written by us, M. Valcour Aimé, an intelligent and enterprising planter of St. James, Louisiana, thus replies to our interrogatories. His experience and character as a sugar planter give great weight to his observations.-ED. SIR-Although I do not suppose that the information I can give you, on the culture and manufacture of sugar, can add much to the value of the work you are preparing, I cheerfully proceed to answer your queries. I do not know much more now about refining sugar than I did when I sent to the Agricultural Society the statement to which you allude; and I am even so much convinced that I have a good deal to learn on the subject, that I have sent to France in March last, a young man who had, under my tuition, become a pretty good boiler, to take farther lessons from a refiner living near St. Quentin. He has orders also to go to England, and to visit, before he returns, the refineries of our northern cities. This will cost me between $1500 and $2000. Whether it will be money profitably laid out time alone can show. I speak of this circumstance in order to show how much, in my opinion, the quality of the refined sugar depends on the manner in which it is boiled, and the quantity of bone-black used. The quantity, in the raw sugar employed, is of course to be taken into consideration; for with the same quantity of black, brown Havana, at 5 cannot be expected to make as fine a loaf as the Havana which is sold at 7 cts. ; but the Havana sugar of the latter quality makes rather too good an article for this market. I can sell a hundred pounds of sugar worth 9 to 10 cts. against ten pounds at 11 to 12 cts. I repeat my statement to the Agricultural Society, that every planter, with sufficient means, who feels that he can give to the apparatus of Derosne or Rillieux the close attention which they require, will find it to his advantage to have one put up. His additional trouble and expenses will be fully compensated by the economy in fuel, in the quality of his sugar and the augmentation of the quantity produced, which can, I think, be fairly valued at almost 15 per cent. as far as I can judge from my own experience; I would, however, advise no planter to refine the sugars obtained from these apparatus-any how, the first year. During my last crop, sugars boiled in my apparatus, drained in moulds without being liquored, and put up in hogsheads, when sufficiently dry, were sold at 74 cts., exclusive of molasses; while the balance of the crop, when refined, averaged about 74 cts., including the molasses. I am preparing for my ensuing crop a test for this experience, on a larger scale. I intend to boil about one-half of my crop into brown sugar, and to refine the balance. In filling up so many hundred moulds of the one, and so many of the other, I can easily ascertain which is the more profitable. But, be that as it may, it can certainly be said that the manufacture of brown sugar, worth 71⁄2cts., when the produce by the usual process was selling at 5 or 5 cts., ought to be considered as a grand business. As to the culture of the cane in the field, I have nothing new to notice. An actual progress has been made of late years in the management of our sugar plantations; but it is due to a series of small and gradual improvements, which would be tedious to detail. The most prominent one, however, consists in placing the cane-rows at a much greater distance from one another than was formerly done. By that means the planter can now do with the plow about threefourths of the weeding for which the hoe alone was heretofore put in requisition. The cane being allowed more sun and air, can ripen and produce pretty good sugar in new soils, when, if planted as in time past, it would yield nothing but molasses. For old fields, the distance of the rows also permits the burying, as manure, the top canes and leaves, the removal of which, when they could not be sufficiently burnt in the row, was sometimes a source of annoyance. Some planters have lately used sub-soil plowing, but this, to state frankly my opinion on the subject, I consider as a kind of humbug. Their principle is to break the underground, so as to offer a passage for water, and to loosen the soil, in order to permit the roots of the canes to spread. I have always found that our soil, which is not generally tenacious or retentive, can be easily made to carry off on the surface the rain-water, by an old way of hilling the canes, which necessarily leaves a very deep furrow, and regular cross ditches at every arpent, or arpent and a half, with additional ones, whenever the land is uneven, to carry the rain-water to the main in long ditches. In a canefield which has been in culture for a number of years, the ground, to the depth of 18 or 20 inches, is literally filled with cane-roots, as thick as the hair in the head. How can a plow, by going to the depth of twelve inches, procure new soil for these roots? It is certainly necessary to loosen the ground, even if it was only to prevent it being cracked, in very dry springs and summers; but I think loosening it to the depth of six or seven inches is all that is necessary for all useful purposes. The plant canes of this year seem as good as they were in 1844, which was a very productive year. But in '44, the ratoons produced as much as the plant-cane, if not more; it was so, at least, on my plantation; and they are not as promising this year. My experience in the last twenty-five years has, however, taught me that there is no telling what the cane will actually yield before it is brought to the mill. Prime canes will sometimes give, on an average, two hogsheads |