27,000 in Egypt, 30,000 in Abyssinia, 10,000 in Tunis and Tripolis.

Protestantism prevails in Liberia, in the Cape Colony, and other English possessions. In Madagascar, where the missionaries have been able to gather again the dispersed native congregations, the number of Protestants is supposed to reach fully 10,000. Altogether the number of the population connected with or at least under the influence of Protestant denominations is estimated at about 730,000.

Of other Christian bodies, there are in Africa the Abyssinian Church with a population of 3,000,000; the Copts in Egypt, whose number is estimated by some at 150,000, by others at 250,000; Syrian Christians (in Egypt), 5,000; Greeks (in Egypt), 5,000; Armenians, 2,000. The negro tribes in the interior of Africa have, since the beginning of the present century, adopted to a large extent the Mohammedan creed. More recently it has been reported that Islamism is making some inroads in regions which have been hitherto regarded as secured to Christianity. On the west coast of Africa it has proselyted many of the liberated Africans, and is now extending southerly on the coast. In the Cape Colony the Mohammedan working people are accounted among the most orderly part of the population, and many of them find wives among the English girls, who do not scruple to adopt the religion of their husbands.

AGRICULTURE. The crops of the year 1863 were not generally equal to those of 1862. The wheat crop exceeded that of 1862, in the quantity produced, about one million of bushels; but this was owing to the considerably greater breadth sown, and not to the number of bushels grown to the acre. The quality of the grain was somewhat inferior. The amount of rye produced was nearly half a million of bushels less than in 1862, and of barley about a million bushels less; while the production of oats (though the grain itself was lighter) was about two and one third million bushels more. The great falling off, however, was in the fall crops corn, buckwheat, and potatoes, and was due to two severe frosts: one occurring on the 28th, 29th, and 30th of August; the other on the 18th of September. These frosts were most severe in a tract extending from Lake Superior southward as far as Tennessee, and, perhaps, five hundred miles in width. In the northeast, the second frost did not appear till the 22d of September, and in New York not until the 24th, and was much less severe than in the Mississippi valley. The corn, at the time of the first frost, was not sufficiently forward to have formed much of its starch principle, and as the sap flowed but little after the first frost, and not at all after the second, it was prevented from any complete development, and dried up in a shrivelled condition. The falling off in the amount of the crop, notwithstanding the much greater breadth planted, was over 134 millions of bushels, about one fourth

of the crop of the previous year, and the quality of much of that gathered was very poor, possessing no fattening properties. As a result of this, the number of hogs fattened was very much smaller than the previous year, and the larger part of those slaughtered were not in such condition as to furnish the best grades of mess pork. The same frost materially diminished the potato crop, which, in consequence, was 13 millions of bushels less than the previous year, and the buckwheat crop, which fell off nearly three millions of bushels, or about one sixth of the crop.

The grain crops of England and France were much better than they had been for two years previous, and hence the export demand was not as heavy; but the large demand for the army and navy, and the short crop of corn, enhanced the price of all descriptions of bread stuff, and at the close of the year, they were from twenty to twenty-five per cent. higher than in 1862. Provisions of the higher grades had advanced, mainly from the falling off of the corn crop, about 30 per cent.; but the exports of these, owing in part, perhaps, to the higher rates of exchange, had increased during the year over any previous year. The accompanying tables will exhibit the estimated amount of the principal crops in each of the Northern States in 1862 and 1863, and the exports of agricultural produce.

The following crops and products are estimated in the aggregate by the Agricultural Department from the monthly returns of their correspondents, as follows, in 1862 and 1863:

The culture of the grape, both as a table fruit and for the purpose of producing wine, has received a new impulse the past year. The comparative merits of different varieties have been very thoroughly ascertained. For table purposes it seems to be settled that, in the northern tier of States, the Delaware, Concord, and Hartford Prolific are the most desirable, ripening earlier than others, and producing fruit of a good quality. For the region_lying south of 40° N. latitude, the Catawba, Diana, Union Village, Isabella, and Allen's Hybrid are re

ty, and Town, throughout the Northern States during the autumn of 1863, were largely attended, and gave, to some extent, an additional stimulus to the development of agriculture. The grants of land, by the Government, under the Agricultural College Act of 1862, have been accepted by all the Northern States, and arrangements made by most of them either to organize Agricultural Colleges, or to add an Agricultural Department to colleges already established. In New Hampshire, Dartmouth College receives the endowment, and is to organize an Agricultural School in connection with the Chandler Scientific School; in Massachusetts there is a vigorous competition between the prominent towns of the commonwealth, for the location of the Agricultural College; Rhode Island bestows the lands upon Brown University, which is to have an Agricultural Department; Connecticut donates them to the Agricultural Department of Yale College, connected with the Sheffield Scientific School; New York divides hers between the Agricultural College at Ovid, New York, and the People's College, at Havana. Pennsylvania bas handed over her share to her excellent Agricultural College in Central County, the most efficient institution of its class in the United States, and which, by this grant, will be placed in a condition of still greater efficiency. In most of the Western States, where Agricultural Colleges have been already chartered, the grant has been bestowed upon them, and will, in most instances, secure their speedy organization, or if already organized, aid in their rapid development.

Foreign agriculture offers but little of special interest at the present time. The crops of cereals in 1863, in Great Britain and on the continent, were generally good, and were for the most part successfully harvested. The price of wheat, in England, which, in September, 1860, had been $1.62 per American bushel, in 1861, $1.45, and, in 1862, $1.40, was in September, 1863, $1.16-a very marked reduction; and the potato crop was generally good in Great Britain, though almost a failure in Ireland. In France, the crop, though injured in some quarters by the drought, was on the whole a fair average. The practice of holding regional agricultural expositions in the different departments of France, annually, is coming rapidly into favor. For the most part these have been confined thus far to the exhibition

of horses, cattle and sheep, and agricultural implements, but in some, lately, fruits have been exhibited with advantage. A few particulars concerning the agricultural products of Sweden, a country which has furnished so large a body of farmers to the Northwestern States, may be of interest to the readers of the Cyclopædia. They were collected by the United States consul at Gottenburg.

The crop of 1863, which at one time promised to be unusually large, was damaged by rainy weather during harvest time, and thus reduced to an average amount, of which the figures in the table below may be taken as a fair statement.

About 1,500,000 Swedish acres, equal to 48,600,000 English acres, are devoted to growing grain, and 100,000 Swedish acres, or 3,200,000 English acres, to potatoes; yet the yield of potatoes is so large, that it stands in the ratio of 3 to 5. The potato can be raised in the short summer of these high latitudes, when no grain, save barley, can live, and thus becomes the "staff of life" to the Swedish peasants. Fine crops of potatoes, and occasionally of barley, are raised far within the arctic circle, and even above 70° north latitude, the highest cultivated land in the world.

The Alsike clover is the most productive clover in Sweden; cuts about five tons to the Swedish acre, can be made to yield two crops in the short Swedish summer, and has been introduced into Scotland to great advantage.

There is a kind of egg plant called "Gula Plummon," which is produced in the middle and southern districts of Sweden in considerable quantities. This plant is of a light straw color, firm, juicy, and of a peachy flavor. It is thought it would flourish in the northern counties of New England and New York.

This table is the average yearly product of Sweden, taking the figures for five years to 1861:

ALABAMA.-The details of the Census of 1860, additional to these published in previous volumes, have not yet been issued by the Gov

ernment.

The changes which took place in the State of Alabama during 1863 present no new aspect. Immediately after the occupation of the peninsula, opposite Vicksburg, by General Grant's army, in January, measures were taken to cut off the communication between the inhabitants in the east and west sides of the Mississippi through Red River. From that stream the inhabitants on the east side of the Mississippi had access to vast supplies, particularly of salt, sugar, and molasses. A large portion of the Confederate army was supplied from the same source. This communication was destroyed by the gunboats of Admiral Porter, which were below the batteries at Vicksburg, and by vessels of Admiral Farragut's fleet at New Orleans. In April a scarcity of provisions prevailed in the southern part of the State, which created an advance in prices. This was attended with a depreciation of the currency, and food soon advanced almost beyond the reach of the poor. About the 15th of April a scene occurred in Mobile, which was thus described :

"A number of ladies, perhaps a dozen, composed of the wives and daughters of soldiers' families, who represented themselves and their families to have been deprived of anything to eat in the last few days, save a small portion of corn bread, were seen perambulating our streets until they came up to a provision store on Whitehall street. They all entered it, being preceded by a tall lady, on whose countenance rested care and determination. She asked the merchant the price of bacon. He replied, stating that it was $1.10 per pound. She remonstrated with him as to the impossibility of females in their condition paying such prices for the necessaries of life. He remaining inexorable in his demand, the tall lady proceeded to draw from her bosom a long navy repeater, and at the same time ordered the others in the

6,478

crowd to help themselves to what they liked, which they did accordingly, giving preference to the bacon, until they had taken about $200 worth. They went out, and on being questioned by some gentlemen as to what they meant, they related their suffering condition.

"Seeing what was going on, and feeling a deep sympathy for these ladies, a number of gentlemen, of very moderate means, who themselves have families to support, set to work to raise a subscription in their behalf."

This was one of several instances of distress which occurred at Mobile. The famine existed chiefly in the families of absent soldiers.

The scarcity of provisions was such as to induce all the authorities to wisely prepare for the ensuing winter. The Confederate Congress urged the people to plant less cotton and more corn; and the Governors of the States repeated the request.

Governor Shorter issued an appeal to the planters of the State at this time, urging the importance of raising articles necessary to keep the people from starving. He said:-"Failing to accomplish our subjugation by the force of arms and the power of numbers, the enemy has called to his aid the terrible appliances of want and starvation, and is carrying out this savage and inhuman policy by the wholesale larceny of slaves, the seizure of provisions, and even the destruction of agricultural implements. Are you, the planters of Alabama, prepared to aid in this policy by pursuing a course which may tend to its accomplishment? Look around you this moment, when the crop upon which the poor must mainly depend is not yet planted, and behold the want and destitution which, notwithstanding the munificent provision made by public and private benevolence, are to be found at the hearthstones of many whose legitimate protectors have fallen in battle, or are now fighting in defence of your homes and property. Let us not deceive ourselves. The failure to raise the largest possible quantity of supplies in the present year may bring disaster