SIR: I have received, to-day, the circular you did me the honor to address to me, making certain inquiries relative to this portion of the country, and regret I had not had them earlier, for at this late hour, when your report, I presume, is about made up to be laid before Congress, it is not in my power to obtain all the information required in time to be embodied in your present report. Being, besides, but a temporary sojourner in this land, I am in possession of those facts only which I was led to obtain with, at the time, no other object but to gratify my curiosity as a traveller in a strange land. But I have seen enough of East Tennessee to satisfy me that it is a land abounding in rich agricultural soil, and in abundance of various minerals, such as iron, lead, zinc, emery, copper, copperas, coal, saltpetre, Epsom salts, marble, burstone, gypsum, &c., &c., in the mountains. The climate is represented to be excellent and healthful by the inhabitants of the lowlands and highlands. Not above one-quarter part of East Tennessee is under cultivation, the original forests covering yet, at least, three portions in four of the whole district. Indian corn is chiefly grown, of the white and flat kind; next, wheat, oats, and rye. The first of these cereals is gathered at an average of thirty-five bushels per acre, at a cost of ten cents per bushel. The second at an average of twenty seven bushels, and at a cost of thirty-three cents. The third at an average of twenty bushels per acre, at a cost of five cents. it is very uncertain. As to rye At least three quarters of the population are white, and as there is but little demand for labor, it is comparatively low, say one hundred dollars per annum, including finding of food and lodgings, for white men; and sixty-five dollars per annum, with food and clothing, for male slaves. Agriculture, generally, is at a very low ebb in this sequestered part of the Union. I can hear of no societies in existence for the promotion or improvement of that branch of industry. Rotation of crops, if at all known, is not practised; for in nine cases in ten a field is worked in Indian corn, without being once manured, until the richness of the soil is exhausted, when it is abandoned, and a new clearing is made which undergoes a like treatment. Very little attention has been paid to the rearing of horn and other cattle for grazing, although it may be done at scarcely any outlay of money or trouble, as the mountain ranges furnish abundance of food in the spring, summer, and autumn, and generally in winter, as but little snow falls, and it very seldom lies a whole week on the ground. The formation of the country, a succession of hills and mountains abounding in fine pasturage, and water everywhere, together with a mild climate, would make it one of the first for the breeding of sheep, were it not for the legions of dogs to be found in every farm-house, but principally in the log cabins of those who can less afford to feed them, who destroy them, and have ruined every one who has attempted to raise a flock of these valuable animals, and deters capitalists from coming here to embark in the raising of wool. The only manufactures consist of small cotton, woollen, and iron mills. The whole country affords water power to any extent. Fruit of almost all kinds are plentiful, and various varieties of grapes introduced here from other sections of the Union and Europe have realized every expectation. As the tea plant is attracting some notice at the present time, I should think the conformity of this country and its climate, to that of the best tea districts ia China, would admit of little doubt of its satisfactory cultivation in every part of East Tennessee. Owing to the absence of means of transportation over turnpikes, canals, or railroads, not one of which is to be found, the expense of carrying the produce of the country in wagons, for any distance, would more than absorb the value were it attempted to convey them in this mode to any of the great markets, and hence the cause of the low state of agriculture. Raising of cattle has a better chance as they may be driven off, at any time, to the northern or southern cities. With regard to that part of your inquiries respecting the proba ble average consumption of food per individual, I am informed that in a family consisting of six persons of all ages, it would be found. to be on the average, viz: forty bushels of Indian corn, twelve of wheat, thirty of Irish and sweet potatoes and turnips, twelve hundred pounds of pork, four hundred pounds of beef, and eight dozen of poultry, besides game and fish, per annum. I may be allowed the pleasure to add, that as far as I have had means of observation, I have found temperance the general rule, and departure from it the exception, in private life and at county meetings. Indeed no spirituous liquors, even cider, is kept on sale by the generality of country store keepers; certainly by none of the respectable ones. Except groceries, and some hard and crockery wares, the articles to be had at the country stores, for domestic use, consist almost wholly of American manufactures. There are three banking establishments in East Tennessee, and all these are branches of banks located at Nashville. As I have already, said I regret that I have neither time nor opportunity to give you the statistical details you require. I am here for the winter only, and my residence of two months in different sections of this portion of the State makes me but poorly competent to fill the task you have put on me without previous notice. But I have endeavored to answer your call as soon and as well as in my power, and I may say with every desire to add my mite of information to the great mass which you embody, annually, in your useful and valuable reports to Congress. I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient servant, Hon. EDMUND BURKE, Commissioner of Patents. BAGDAD, SMITH Co., TENN., DEAR SIR: Although unsolicited, and not at a time of making up of your report, I thought it probable that I might be able to give you some information, which might assist you in some small degree in making up your next report to Congress. Through the kindness of my representative in Congress, Mr. Hill, I have been favored with the use of your report for 1847. I believe that I should not have ventured to give you any of my weak opinions, and quite limited information, only that I notice in your report on tobacco that some person or persons have given you certain statements which I think calculated to mislead the mind of those who are unacquainted with the cultivation of that article. I see on page 168 of your report, where our journal, in speaking of the ravages of the tobacco worm in its vicinity, says: "That some of the fields were literally stripped by them, and the tobacco was hardly worth the housing." I suppose that he alludes to the common worm which we here call the horn worm, as I have never heard o' any other worm injuring the large tobacco. (I should first have informed you that tobacco is our chief produce for a foreign market.) We are beset with three sorts of worms: The cut worm in the spring of the year, and until hot weather sets in; these cut off the small plants; our remedy is replanting and killing them until hot weather, which finishes them. We have the bud worm, which eats out the bud of the half grown tobacco; and lastly, the horn worm, which eats and consumes the leaves; some of these grow as large as a man's little finger, and, if let alone, would eat it up before ripe. For the last five or six weeks before housing, we are compelled to pull them off and kill them as often as once a week. Industrious, good managers never lose much tobacco by them. We also worm the half grown plants for the bud worm, which is seated in the bud, and, if let alone, would top it too low. Also, on page 170, where your correspondent, speaking of an experiment between fire curing and air curing, says: "Then one parcel was put into the barn and fire cured; the other into a house where there was no fire, and suffered to remain about five days, when it was perfectly cured. Now, I will not dispute as to which is the heaviest, or seems preferable to the inspectors; but, in this country, tobacco will not cure in a house without fire in five days, nor will it be perfectly cured in one month without fire. I have never tried it without fire; but my opinion is, that it would not be sufficiently cured in three months. Tobacco, when cut, is nearly as green to look at as fodder or weeds, and will not bear fire until it wilts and turns yellow; then we put fire to it. If we should fire it before that time, it would cure up green like fodder or hay. I have housed some; and in warm weather, I have kept it in the house for two weeks before it was yellow enough for fire; then we fire i every day for two or three weeks before it is considered safe. We then quit the fire, except on wet days, for about a month, when it will do to strip; but we hang it up again after stripping, and let it hang near two months before we bulk it down for prizing. In cool weather, it takes longer to yellow, and longer to cure. To sure it at all without fire, it would require double the room that we give it, and that would be more expensive than the firing. To crowd it in the houses without fire, it would rot (which we call house burn) before it would cure. The tobacco has a large green stalk about one inch in diameter; also large green stems growing out of that stalk, which serves the leaves as a backbone; from these are smaller stems, as ribs. These large stems are as large as a man's finger; and of a wet season, it takes two or three months to cure them, and that with the help of fire. We commence cutting tobacco in August, and finish about the middle of October; and then there are very few planters that think their tobacco is sufficiently cured to hulk down for prizing until February, and some put down as late as April. At this time, I know of no man that has any put down. As to fire, all carpenters, or other workmen in wood, know that plank, seasoned without fire, will swell and shrink with the changes of dry and wet weather; but when cured by fire, it so kills the nature of it that wet weather will not swell it, if kept dry. So in corn or meal to be shipped, it will mould, unless dried by fire; and so with tobacco, if cured without fire, it will be more apt to mould and funk when put on water. We are in the habit of selling at New Orleans. I live in Jackson county, but on the Smith county line, near a post office called Bagdad, six miles north of Cumberland river. The south end of Jackson makes tobacco nearly to a man; the north end, grain and stock. I suppose we make, in this south end of Jackson, about six hundred hogsheads, of twelve or fifteen hundreds pounds each. We calculate on from one thousand to fifteen hundred pounds per acre. Every hand will make a hogshead of tobacco, besides other produce sufficient for the family. For the last few years, we got from $2 50 to $7 00 per hundred; average, about $3 50. At that rate, one acre of land will bring more money than in anything else we can cultivate. The county of Smith makes tobacco largely; I suppose at least double Jackson county. Our crop of 1848 is very good in quality, but not an average in quantity. Some of our large tobacco planters are turning their attention more to stock raising, particularly mules. We make no cotton for market, and not half enough for home use. I know some women, who have small families, who will plant a little patch of tobacco near the house, and make enough to bring $30 or $40, and buy their clothing out of the store. We cultivate largely of oats, which we cut and feed to our horses, mules, sheep, oxen, and milch cows. We make no hay, and but little corn fodder, by reason of being pushed with our tobacco. We cultivate considerable Irish potatoes and turnips; and of late years, begin to feed them to our milch cows, and fattening beeves; but, as to quantity, I cannot tell. I think not so good as the colder States. I have never noticed any of my potatoes diseased, as you relate of Europe, and some of our northern States; but my crop has sometimes been destroyed by small flies, somewhat like a lightning bug, only larger, of a yellow color, nearly as large in the body as an oat straw, and near ani nch long. They eat up the vines, and then the potatoe stops growing; but early planting will nearly make themselves before the fly comes. We make considerable wheat, but not for market, for want of good mills to manufacture it. We make no hemp, no buckwheat nor barley, and very little rye. Indian corn flourishes well; we make largely, and send it down the river Cumberland. Corn will produce from five to ten barrels per acre; wheat will average ten bushels; oats, I suppose, twenty bushels to the acre; turnips, I would think, three hundred bushels per acre; Irish potatoes, one hundred and fifty per acre. The article of geese feathers constitutes a very considerable item in the profits of small families here; many of them nearly defray their store expense with feathers. The merchants buy them at about 25 cents per pound; and one retail merchant will barter for fifteen hundred or two thousand pounds in a year. Beeswax and honey has heretofore been considerable; but of late years, the moth has so destroyed our bees that but few are left. The moth is a small white worm that kills the bees, and cuts up the comb and eats the honey. I have heard of many preventives, but nothing does much good. We sell considerable pork, and raise cattle, some horses and mules. We make a little flax for home use, but none for foreign market. We make considerable cabbages for family eating, but not for stock; but, for a few years last past, I notice that lice or bugs nearly destroy them every fall. We have declined the silk business. Some few years since, our legislature chartered a silk company, and the excitement was considerable. They had a loom or two in Nashville, but I hear nothing now-no inquiry for multicaulis, or worm eggs. When I get through the book containing your report, I may have something further to write. Very respectfully, your most obedient servant, Hon. EDMUND BURKE, JAMES YOUNG. PROSPECT HILL, Near Washington, Ky., January 4, 1849. DEAR SIR: I take the liberty of sending you one of my books on agriculture, and desire to call your attention particularly to a table of grasses, at page 234, given on the authority of Sir Humphrey Davy, and the remarks thereon in the two following pages. Number 1 in that table is supposed to be the common blue grass of Kentucky, by some called spear grass, (poa pratensis.) You will perceive that some of the other species of the poa greatly exceed the poa pratensis in the quantity of grass, hay, and nutritive matter. Numbers 3 and 8 (augustifolia and poa fertilis) would seem obe greatly superior (at least for meadow) to the poa pratensis.' t hould like very much to have an opportunity of testing the |