Business Interests

The silk erop of Franco for tho present year, it is estimated, will be more than tliree times as great as that of last year. Ths straw and millinery trados of New York have suffered severely by depreciation in values, and scveral heavy failuros are announced. Texas will make this year 700,000 bales of cotton. From these ■will be obtained 840,000,000 pounds of seed; ibis converted into oil would bring over $14,000,000. Thk wheat erop in Great Britain is niuch below the average this year, and potatoes are generally threatened with disease; oats and winter beans are better, and thé hay erop is abundan! The crops in France and Germany are below rather than above the average, and, without much regard to the Eastern war, there must be a certain and largo market in Europe for our American productions tbis year. Tins New York Times has been interviewing businoss men of tko metropolis as to the prospecte of fall trade, and reports the outlook, on the whole, encouragiug. Nobody looks for largo business or great profits, but there is a general expectation of healthy activity and reasonable gains, which flnd justification in the improvement already shown by a companson with a year ago. The longcontinued hard times have fosteredmoro conservativo and healthy business habits, and there is a general preparedness to build up again on a sounder basis. It is stated from Washington that the administration is indisposed to take any steps looking to the representation of the United States at the Paris Exposition next year, exeept in response to a direct order from Congress. In explanation of this apparent want of official interest in this great international undertaking, it may be said that neither Üie action of the French Government nor the character of the Frenoh oxhibit at the Centennial last year -was sueh as the United States had a right to expect from a nation with which it had so long been on friendly torms. The great Germán capital, Berlín, is going through a terrible real-estate collapse. For the three or four years before 1873 it seemed impossiblo to build houses fast enough. to supply the increasing population, or to advance prices beyond the taiera. Bat the supply was pushed beyond tho demand, prices havo been so high that people went away, and now there are 20,000 vacant apartments in tho city. There is a great deal of real estáte that does not yield income enough to pay taxes, and a widespread distress and ruin among realestate men who have done business on borrowed capital. MUI, Shop and labor Notos. Tbjere are now in Philadelphia 450 cooperaíive and building loan associations, in wliioh: workingmeu have nearly $70 - 000,000 iüfèstól. ' Akrojt, Ohio, is a city of about 14,500 inhabitants, ánd has twenty-six manufacturing establishments, which turn out an annual aggregate vahro of $9,160,000. This is a product of over $600 for every man, woman and child in the city. Col. Scott says positively that the Pennsylvania Eailroad Company will rebuild as few of their btiildings as possible in Pittsburgh, but will remove all their shops and machine works to somo other point, as remote as possible from that neighborhood, or, in faot, from large cities, where the propertyof the company will not be under the inüuence and at the merey of mobs. Dürinq the past three months over 300 carpenters have left this country for England. They are under contract for three years each with building finns in Manchester at wages equal to $1.50 per day, eight hours to oonstitute a day's work, with a half-holiday on Saturdays. Their passage was paid by their employers, but it is to be deducted from their wages in small mstalhnents. The United States Consul at Liverpool warns all persons contemplating retuming to England for work that neither skilled nor unskilled workmen who have come from abroad can expect to find employment in England. The reason is very evident. Depression isfeltin every branch of industry, from the manufacture of silk to the building of ships, and this winter is looked forward to as likely to prove one of unusuai sufifering and want. Georoe C. Benham, of Louisiana, writes to the Cincionati Oazette that tb ere is land in tho South suffering for the want of labor, and urges workingmen to seek employment there. To reach the spot, he suggeststhatlaboiers geton planks and paddie their way down the Mississippi, stopping off atcornfields for supplies. Better. men than rioters have done it, and he guarantees that a good living will be found by any man who takes his advice. Harvest GleanlngB. The cotton erop is reported as panning out splendidly all over the South. The sweet-potato erop will be a fine one througliout the State of Texas. Tuk Solma Argus says the growing erop in Alabaina is the most promising eince the war. The pecan erop, which is a very important erop for Western Texas, promises to be enormous this year. The reports fi-om all parts of Indiana is tliat the crops are immense. From present appearances, the State will raise her greatêst corn erop this year. It is estünated tfoat Louisiana this year will make about 40, C00 bales of cotton, 200,000 hogsheada of sugar, 300,000 barrels of molasses, and 150,000 pounds of rice. Farmebs in Northwestern Kansas report a very heavy corn erop. Some expect as high as cigiity to one hundred bushels per acre; general average not less thau fifty. The Milwaxikee Wisconsin estimntes, from reliable data, that the wheat erop of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Kansas, for 1877, will be 56,000,000 bushels larger than it was in 1876. The quality is also super-excellent. A LETTEu from Winona, Minn., says: " The wheat erop is nearly all secured. More than half is in the granary. For twenty years we have liad no such time to secure the harvest. Not a bushei óf our more than 30,000,000 hns been injured by the rain or wet weather. The farmers are threshing, and the yield is the best, on the whole, we have ever had in this State. "