NEW YORK. This most famous portior of the United States is the name both of state and of a city. In the state of New York maize, wheat, rye, barley, oats, buckwheat, po tatoes, turnips, peas, beans, and numerou; fruits, are generally cultivated. In some part; flax and hemp are grown, especially in the Lake Country. A considerable part of the state is still covered with forests, which con. sist of oak, ash, walnut, pine, maple, beech, chestnut, birch, poplar, elm, cedar, hemlock. and hickory. Several minerals occur in abun dance, but only iron, salt, limestone, and mar ble aro worked. Coal is imported from various places, especially from Nova Scotia. The canals and railroads are numerous; the former ex tend 600 to 700 miles ; while the railways are forming a complete network over the state. In 1840 there were 323 woollen manufactories, 890 fulling mills, 186 iron furnaces, 120 forges, 77 paper mills, 1216 tanneries, and a great variety of other works ; and in the subsequent eleven years these numbers must have vastly increased. The commerce greatly exceeds that of any other of the States.
But it is the city of New York which appeals most to our notice in respect to commercial and industrial features. The situation of New York as a commercial port is admirable. New York Bay, which is completely landlocked, is about 8 miles long and from 1 to' 5 miles wide, and affords a perfectly safe anchorage. It is easy of approach, and is very rarely closed by ice. The entrance between Long Island and Staten Island, by a channel called the Narrows, is protected by forts, while the ap proach to it is facilitated by lighthouses. The bay contains several small islands, on which fortifications have been constructed. There is sufficient depth of water, both in the Hud son and East River, for ships of large burden to load and unload at the wharfs. The com • mercial intercourse with the interior and with the western States of the Union is provided for by means of the Hudson, and the system of canals connected with it.
The most expensive and useful public work undertaken by the cit> is the aqueduct called the Croton Water-Works, noticed in a previous article. [Actunnucr.]
No fewer than 3,341 vessels, of 1,247,800 tons burden, and manned by 46,158 seamen, entered the port of New York in 1850 ; and the shipping which left the port presented s corresponding numbers. About one half of - the shipping was American, one-third British, ,. and the remainder belonging to various coun S tries. The tonnage of the arrivals at four s nearly equidistant periods presents the follow ing remarkable differences :— 1 1821 171,903 tons.
t , 1830 314,716 „ , 1840 527,594 „ 1850 1,247,860 „; The number of persons who arrive every ; year at New York by sea, chiefly from Europe, is immense. In the ten years, 1841 to 1850, ; the number averaged 123,784 yearly ; in 1849 . it reached the high figure of 221,799. A very , large proportion of these are emigrants, who , land at New York as a convenient point whence . to start farther westward. There is, perhaps, no other city in the world which, at the present time, equals New York as a centre of transit, or as a temporary abode for thousands who make it a mere resting point on a journey : this circumstance gives it a peculiar character both in its commercial and its social features. In the single month of September 1850, the exports from New York amounted to five mil lions and a half of dollars, considerably more than one million sterling. Very nearly one half of this value of commodities was sent to Great Britain. Half a million went to Panama, en route to California, with which an immense commerce is now conducted from New York. In the first nine months of 1850, no fewer than 37 ships were launched at New York, averaging 1150 tons each ; and at the end of September in that year there were 31 more building, of about the same average tonnage. Of the whole 68 vessels, 38 were steamers.
The mail steam ships which now run be tween England and New York are among the finest which the world has yet seen.