MASSACHUSETTS FACTORIES, PRODUCTS, ETC.

The returns of State Assessors, under the valuation law of the last Legislature, show the following factories and spindles in Massachusetts:—

FACTORIES, SPINDLES, AND LOOMS IN MASSACHUSETTS IN 1850.

The former returns, neither of the State nor Federal Government, gave the number of looms and spindles employed upon flax, but it appears from the Federal census of 1840, that the number of cotton spindles then in operation was 665,095, or rather more than half the number now running, while the number of mills has increased only from 278 to 337. The woolen factories have increased from 144 to 191, or 30 per cent, and almost all other mills have increased in a similar ratio, comparing the present assessors' returns with the census for 1840, gives the following increase in many works:—

This indicates a very considerable increase in the numbers of the active population and in most branches of manufacturing industry. It would, however, seem to be the case that the farming interests have by no means prospered to an extent which the trades have manifested. The number of bushels of grain produced, with the number of cattle raised, compare as follows:

The increased railroad facilities in that State have had the effect, it appears, of causing an increase of the manufactories, large and small, a fact also apparent in the increased travel and average shorter distances yearly shown in the railroad returns, while the increased competition of better western lands, facilitated by the improved transportation, has thrown Massachusetts' agricultural industry behind, notwithstanding that the foreign demand, and increased local works, have improved the prices of those articles. In the article of wool we were not prepared for so large a diminution in the number of sheep, although sensible that, to a considerable extent, that result must follow the causes we have pointed out. It appears that in 1840, there were 378,226 sheep in the State, and that these produced 941,906 pounds of wool, or an average of 24 pounds. The weight of wool for the present year is not given in the table before us, but at the same average it should be 448,842 pounds, or about half the product of

1840, notwithstanding that the price of wool has reached an extraordinary high figure in the present year under that large local demand indicated in the increase of 41 woolen factories more than in 1840. The ability of the West to grow wool is such as, with the aid of the prompt and cheap transportation now afforded to supplant wool growing in Massachusetts. That State, however, has no peculiar advantages over Kentucky and Indiana for mannfacturing. If she has cheap water power, they have cheap coal, materials, and food. Massachusetts is, however, becoming rapidly less agricultural and more manufacturing. According to the returns of 1820 and 1840, the occupations in Massachusetts were as follows:

It appears now, from the above returns, that the farm products of the State have not increased at all, on the other hand they have decreased, while all the factories and mills show a large increase. In 1840, there were employed 5,076 persons in woolen factories, an increase of 30 per cent in the number of mills would give 6,500 employees now; the number of cotton spindles has doubled, but by means of consolidating the work the number of hands has not increased more than 25 per cent, or from 21,000 to 28,000, and a considerable number in both these employments are now thrown out through the effort of the rise in the raw materials, with sharper competition in the interior. It is now obvious that so large an increase in cotton spindles, added to the known large increase in the South and West, as well as the immense extention of manufacturing facilities in Europe, that the power of production is in all countries vastly superior to the supply of the raw material, even with a good crop in the United States. With this fact before the world, it follows that a considerable number of all must remain idle for want of material, which is still advancing in price under the purchases of those who can afford to pay the most for it by means of superior advantages in other respects. Those mills alone will keep running. But it also appears that the price of the raw material is so high that cloth produced from it, according to expenses in other respects, is too dear to use and is supplanted with de laines and linens. Hence, the consumption is not greater than the quantity of raw material, but is checked by the high price of the latter, caused by the competition of the spinners, who struggle to retain the trade by outlay of capital.

PREPARATION OF FLAX ON The unsteeped PROCESS.

Various improvements have been made in the preparation of Flax in England and the United States. It is stated that the experiments now in process at Manchester (Eng.) to test the advantages of the new method for bleeching Flax, invented by Mr. Clausser, appear to afford incontestible proof that the material thus supplied will be of a nature to produce an important effect on our cotton manufactures :—

In the last report of the Royal Flax Society for the promotion and growth of flax in Ireland, it was stated that one cwt. of flax, dried and scutched upon the old plan, yielded 14 lbs. 5oz of fibre; while the same weight prepared upon Schenck's hot-water system yielded 17 lbs. 114 oz., the quality of the fibre being much superior. By the unsteeped process, however, 1 cwt. of flax, grown upon the estate of Mr. Macnamara, near Cork, yielded 36 lbs. 4 oz., and the fibre produced was far superior to that prepared by either of the other processes. The total produce of the fibre upon the 100,000 acres now proposed to be brought into cultivation would be, under each system, as follows:

The money value of the difference of produce obtained by each system, taking the fibre as worth £50 per ton, would be £440,250 in favor of Schenck's over the old mode of steeping, and of £2,434,400 in favor of the unsteeped process over Schenck's and of £2,874,650 over the old process.

A PATENT CORDAGE MACHINE, OR PORTABLE ROPE-WALK.

F. & J. W. SLAUGHTER, of Petersburgh, (Virginia,) have sent us a circular of their "Portable Rope-Walk and Cordage Machine,” which was patented in January, 1850. They state, that two years experience with their machines, on cotton waste, and recent experiments in Hemp and Flax, warrant the following statement, which we copy from the circular of the Patentees :

1. Each Machine occupying a space of about four feet square, will convert, at one operation, a sliver (of Cotton or Hemp,) from the Card or Drawing Head, into a perfectly laid rope, of any length, stretched and coiled. 2. The TWISTING, LAYING, STRETCHING AND COILING, IS DONE SIMULTANEOUSLY, by the Machine; and one hand can operate half-a-dozen with ease-each machine producing from one to 300 lbs. daily, according to the size. 3. MACHINES with any required number of stands, from 3 to 9, will be furnished. They are simple in their construction, liable to but little wear and tear, and require very little power. The quality of the rope has been proved to be superior to that made from similar stock by any other process. The estimate cost of making rope in this mode, varies from half to one cent per pound. 4. COTTON MANUFACTURERS are enabled, with this machine, to work up their waste cotton, such as card-flyings, strippings, sweepings and seed waste, at an immense profit. 5. HEMP AND FLAX CORDAGE MANUFACTURERS, with this machine, can supercede the necessity for long and costly rope-walks, and the expensive process of spinning and laying by hand, besides making a more perfect rope, at one-fourth of the cost by any other known mode.

THE PROCESS OF SUGAR MAKING.

The process of manufacturing sugar in the South is thus described by a correspondent of the Louisville Christian Advocate.

They had finished making sugar here, before my arrival, but Mr. H. took me all through the sugar mill this morning and explained the whole operation of sugar making. The building is of brick, with a good steam engine, the whole costing about $20,000. Behind the mill is a large shed, under which the cane is thrown, so that the mill can be run in all kinds of weather. The cane is here placed upon an endless chain, which conveys it into the mill and between the rollers, where it is crushed. When thus deprived of its juice it is conveyed into large vats or tubs, and from thence as it is needed, into the kettles, which occupy a separate room. There are five of them of different sizes; the first, the largest. When the juice comes to a boil in this, it is skimmed and dipped into the next, then into the third, &c.

By the time it is boiled in the fourth it is what is called cereau, or syrup. It is granulated in the fifth, and then conveyed into vats, where it soon forms a crust upon the top, which has to be broken and stirred three times. It now forms a wet mush, which is shovelled into hand-barrows, and thrown immediately into the hogsheads which are ranged in rows in another room. This room is very large and the whole of it underneath the hogsheads is one vast tub, made to hold the molasses which drips from the wet sugar in the hogsheads. A view of this dark"sea of sweet" with the thoughts of the dirt that must necessarily drop into it, and the flies, musquitoes, bugs, rats, and mice, which may, probably be drowned therein, I think would cure the fastidious, at least of all fondness for sugar-house molasses. It should always be boiled over before using, which greatly improves its taste as well as purifies it. The planters never use the molasses themselves, but use the cereau or golden syrup as we call it in Kentucky."

IMPROVED COTTON AND WOOL CARDS.

We learn from the American Cabinet that M. Eugene A. D. Boucher, of Paris, has patented an improvement in cards, for cotton and wool carding; it consists in coating the iron with a less oxidizable metal than the iron of the wire. The process is to coat the wire by simple immersion in a solution of one ounce of sulphate of copper and half an ounce of sulphuric acid, in five gallons of water heated to 86 degrees. When the solution is cold the wire is drawn through it, when it becomes coated with copper. The wire is then drawn through a plate, to make the wire even, and the copper adhere. It 8 thus dipped and drawn two or three times, until a good coat of copper is put on.

COPPER AND LEAD MINES OF PENNSYLVANIA.

The Philadelphia Bulletin gives the following account of some mineral discoveries recently made in Pennsylvania

We are gratified to learn that an extensive copper and lead formation has been discovered in this State, near the Schuylkill River, and only about twenty miles from the city and the extent of the mineral is, from present appearances, such as to warrant the expectation of a very large business arising out of it. Some of the veins have been successfully worked within the past year. The copper ore is said to bear a striking resemblance to that of the Cornwall and Cuba mines. The average yield of 2,000 tons has been 20 per cent of pure copper. The lead and silver ore, which is also abundant, has been assayed, and carries about 75 per cent of lead, and will yield of silver about $35 to the ton. The Perkiomen mine, which is near the newly discovered veins, has been worked to the depth of about 300 feet, and more than a quarter of a mile in length-$64,000 have already been received for ore, and about 400 tons more have been mined, but not yet sent to market. This, with the new veins, gives evidence of a field of mineral wealth which promise to add to the fame of Pennsylvania as the greatest mineral region in the world.

We congratulate the country upon these discoveries. Even with our Lake Superior mines, we are still importers of copper to a very large extent; but the fact that a rich bed of copper, of great extent and inexhaustible supply, exists within twenty miles of our metropolis, and close to a railroad and a canal, goes to show that we shall not be importers much longer. The English copper mines have for years yielded an annual product of $7,000,000. The Pennsylvania copper region, when properly developed, can exceed this, for its extent is greater, while the per centage of metal, which in England averages but 8 per cent, is in Pennsylvania 20 per cent. We shall look with interest to the further development of this new source of wealth in Pennsylvania.

BREWERIES AND DISTILLERIES.

Immense quantities of grain, hops, &c., are consumed in England and the United States in the production of beer, porter, and spirits. Few are aware of the magnitude of the business. For instance, the total number of bushels of grain consumed by the brewer's and distillers in Brooklyn, on Long Island, annually amount to 1,439,600 bushels; and the coal consumed, to 12,760 tons, besides 5,000 bushels of charcoal. The consumption of all articles connected with this branch of production in Brooklyn alone amounts to nearly $1,000,000.

It is estimated by an English writer that twice the quantity of porter already brewed in London in a year would be something like equivalent to the estuary of the Mersey opposite the Pierhead at spring tide. When one of Meux's vats burst, it swept away a whole street-houses, inhabitants, and all-like an overflow of the Scheldt; and that was in 1814, when vats were mere pipkins to what they are now. At Whitbread's, which ranks but third in the trade, there is one of such prodigious dimensions that its twenty-five hoops weigh from one to three tons each, and its contents 20,000 barrels, being some twenty times the capacity of the Tun of Heidelberg. Barclay's brewery is already half the size of Paxton's Plate-glass Palace, and covers upwards of ten acres; so if the produce of porter be regulated by superficial extent of premises, and that there is to be double produce next year, the building ought to be fully equal to the Aladdinlike structure in Hyde-park. The firm brew about half-a-million of barrels a year at present, being at the rate of some ten gallons per head, or per mouth, for every man, woman, and child in London, saying nothing of what the six other great houses

turn out.

MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR FROM THE COCOANUT.

A new method of obtaining sugar has been recently discovered in Ceylon. It is obtained by cutting off the cocoanut flower, attaching a vessel to it, and evaporating the fluid thus obtained, which is said to flow from the trees in quantities almost incredible. The sugar thus obtained, is described as equal to that furnished by the sugar-cane, and the milk or sap can be obtained in almost any quantity. How many years a tree thus tapped will last is not stated.

INVENTION IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR.

A new invention in the manufacture of sugar, has been purchased by Messrs. Howland & Woolsey, of New York, which is said to facilitate the operation of refining sugar to an astonishing degree. Two minutes, it is said, is a sufficient time for completely refining a quantity of sugar in its most impure state, which, according to the old plan would require three weeks time, with the employment of many hands, and the consumption of much fuel, all which the machine just invented dispenses with.

The power made use of is centrifugal motion, which is applied to this object in the following manner. The sugar is mixed with molasses until it possesses a semi-fluid consistency. It is then placed in a revolving sieve, the wires of which are so fine that nothing but the liquid part of the sugar is allowed to pass. This sieve, by means of steam power, is made to revolve with the tremendous velocity of two thousand revolu tions per minute. By this means a centrifugal force is obtained, sufficient to cause the liquid and impure portions of the sugar instantly to fly off, leaving the sugar itself behind, entirely purified and white, and singular as it may seem, perfectly dry, resembling powdered loaf-sugar. The entire machine is very little larger than an ordinary sized wash tub.

NEW WHITE ZINC PAINT.

We had occasion, says the London Mining Journal, some few weeks since, to notice the discovery of a means of making a first-class white paint from zinc, free from the very many objections of most other pigment of a white color. It certainly does appear a grievous fact that a paint should have been so long in use as that made from white lead, which is known to all to possess such extreme powers of ill. Firstly, the preparer is poisoned; secondly, the artizan is paralyzed; and, thirdly, the public health is injured by its use. If it can strike down the strong, and slay the natural career of the otherwise healthy, what amount of harm may not be placed to its charge when we find it spread over vast surfaces, and impregnating the air of the most crowded thoroughfares? We have hitherto gone to our door and invited death, in the name of cleanliness, to take up his abode at our very hearths; it is to be hoped we shall be wiser for the future, as there is no longer any excuse for so fatal an error. The French government have acted upon this suggestion for some months past; and everywhere within the influence of official reach, the noxious white lead has been banished; and the zinc similarly prepared, under Messrs. Hubbuck & Son's patent, is being used in its stead.

THE WORLDS INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, Dec. 7, 1850. THE INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION.-Parties intending to forward articles to the London Industrial Exhibition are notified that the Navy Department have instructed the Commanders at the Navy Yards of Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk, to receive and safely store, free of expense, any such articles as may be placed in their possession, and to retain the same to be delivered to the revenue cutters which will be sent in due time to convey them to the port of shipment on board the public vessel which may be designated to receive them.

It will be desirable that these articles should be delivered at the above points as soon as practicable, in order that there may be no unnecessary delay in concentrating them at the port of shipment.

THOMAS CORWIN, Secretary of the Treasury.

DISCOVERY OF PLUMBAGO IN VIRGINIA.

The Richmond Enquirer has seen a very rich and beautiful specimen of plumbago, turned by a plow on the land of John R. Edmonds, Esq., of Halifax county. There is a mine of substance running half a mile through a hill, and which appears to be inexhaustible. It lies in lamina, very similar to coal deposits. The bed lies about a half mile from Bannister River, navigable for batteaux as far as Weldon, whence the plumbago may be transported to Norfolk and other markets. The specimen referred to is used to advantage in converting into steel and in the finest and most delicate castings of iron. A piece of the metal, with specimens of other Virginia minerals, is to be sent to the World's Exhibition. The Barrondole plumbago mine, England, is the only one in that country, is exceedingly valuable, and as scrupulously guarded as if it were gold.