COLORS AS INDICATIVE OF BREED.

Some persons are inclined to give the preference to the darker colors, from the fact that among animals generally the lighter the skin the weaker the energy. Lord BACON seems to have entertained the same idea, when he asserted white to be the color of defect. In some respects white may be regarded as denoting debility. Renewed skin generally produces white hair, and grays become gradually lighter as they advance in years. The most esteemed as well as the most common colors are the bay, gray, brown, black, and chestnut. Some breeds maintain a peculiar and uniform tint. The Flanders horse is usually black.

AGRICULTURE IN KENTUCKY.

The Assesors of the State of Kentucky have made an interesting return of the agricultural industry of that State. The sums total of all the counties are as follows:

The aggregate values of these several articles, at the point of production, are

The increased production of leading staples of the State of Kentucky, in the year 1859, as compared with 1849, shows important changes, the article of hemp being the only one that shows lessened production, viz. :-

This return of the quantity of corn produced is amazing, if accurate. There is an apparent increase of seven-fold, and if the return is to be depended on, Kentucky alone produced last year two-thirds as much as the whole Union in 1849, and 6,000,000 bushels more than the whole Union produced in 1840.

STATISTICS OF POPULATION, &c.

STATISTICS OF LIFE.

Do you wish to know how long you are to live? Tables have been prepared with exceeding accuracy, showing the probable duration of human life, stating the chances from birth to the age of one hundred years. These tables are made by taking an average of authentic records of births and deaths, which records have been kept in different countries, elimates, and conditions.

Here follows a table, made in France about a hundred years ago, recording only to the age of eighty-five. The first column states the age, and the second the number of years which a person at that age will probably live :

Some interesting facts are deducible from these data. It will be seen that every human being at birth has a prospect of living eight years, while a child one year old has a prospect of living thirty-three years. This shows how important is maternal care during the first year. A man of twenty years may expect to live but thirty-three years and five months, while one at thirty years may expect to live twenty-eight years. By this table it appears that the age at which one may probably hope for the longest duration of life is that of seven. A child at that age may expect to live forty-two years and three months. This is the highest number in the table.

It further appears that at the age of twelve or thirteen a human being has lived one-quarter of his life, because he cannot legitimately expect to live but

about thirty-eight years more. He who has reached his twenty-eighth or ninth year has lived half his days, because he has but the same number remaining. He of fifty years has spent three-quarters of his life, because he has only sixteen or seventeen years to hope for.

Tables of longevity made in late years differ somewhat from the above, and are used by Life Insurance Companies in America and Europe with great confidence.

Here follows the table used now extensively in this country. If we compare it with the one made a hundred years ago in France, we shall find (to use the office phrase) that "life is better" in this country than in France :—

These tables are made by including all the inhabitants of a State or city. If they should be made by counting only the intemperate, licentious, and idle, then the chances of prolonging life would be at least thirty per cent less; and if they should be made by counting only the industrious, temperate, and good, then the chances would be thirty per cent more.

POPULATION OF VIRGINIA.

The report of the State Auditor of Virginia contains a summary of the population of the State in 1859, as follows, as compared with the previous re

The proportion of slaves in the State is now 31 per cent; in 1850 it was 33 per cent; in 1840 it was 36 per cent; in 1830 it was 39 per cent; in 1820 40 per cent; in 1810 41 per cent. Thus, although slaves have increased since 1810, 118,636 in number, the proportion they bear to the whole population has fallen 10 per cent.

The total population is probably larger than is shown above. In making his estimates the Auditor was governed by the returns of the Commissioners of Revenue, which are not generally to be relied upon for accuracy, as will be seen by an examination of the county tables. Take the city of Richmond as an

illustration. The number of white males over 21 years assessed by the State officer, is 1,674 less than by the city officer, for the same year; and so again the State officer finds 220 slaves less than the city officer in the same year. In passing, we may further remark that, to say the very least, gross carelessness is manifest in the returns made to the Auditor by many of the commissioners. We might point out a hundred or more instances, but will now name only one, as an illustration of the general omission of commissioners on subjects of taxation The increase of population in the whole State since 1850, is :—

:

The relative increase of the four districts is reported as follows :—

NATIVITIES-POPULATION OF BOSTON AND NEW YORK.

The United States census of 1850, and the State censuses of New York and of Massachusetts, gives the means of comparing the population of the two cities according to nativities, and the results are as follows:

In Boston, owing to the great facilities for "spreading" the population into the surrounding towns, there seems to have been a positive decrease in the numbers of native-born citizens, with a large increase in the Irish element. In New York, a similar cause has operated to reduce the per cent of native increase while the proportion of increase is by far the largest in the German element. The number of immigrants who arrived, in New York mostly, in the period mentioned, was 1,893,000 persons, showing how large a proportion pass into the interior.

MEN MONKEYS OF MALACCA-THEIR MODE OF LIFE, MARRIAGE, CUSTOMS, ETC. A correspondent of the Boston Traveller writes from Shanghae an interesting account of the habits of the Jakoons, a barbarous people who inhabit the interior of Malacca. Their language and features are unlike those of the Malays proper, of whom they are also politically independent. They have no history, having been found by the early Portuguese voyagers in the country in which they still reside. They are called the Orang-Benner, or "men of the great country;" the Orang-Hutang, or " men of the forests;" the Orang-Semang, or "black men ;" the Jakoons and the Kaiats. Oran is the Malay word for man; and Utan or Hutang

for forest, whence the word so common with us, Ourang-Outang, or wild men, if men they may be called, when common opinion has assigned them a rank hardly above monkeys and baboons.

They generally live in houses built of bamboo sticks, and suspended to the tops of lofty trees, to which they ascend by rude ladders. These cabins, suspended to the tree tops, are so narrow that a stranger cannot be admitted without annoyance to a member of the family, or his exclusion; for one must go down when a new one comes up. Others who have no taste for these aerial abodes-nests, not for birds, but for men-construct huts raised two or three feet above the ground. The first story serves for lodging, where they eat and sleep, by the side of a fire always kept brightly burning in order to frighten away the tigers and other wild beasts which fill the forests. In the second story they put their arms for safety, their provisions and kitchen utensils, all of which are comprised in pikes, in earthen pots, and one or two great China bowls.

They eat whatever comes to hand, as wild boars, apes, or birds, which last are taken either in snares or shot by arrows, and the roots and tubers which the earth produces in abundance. If they plant rice, it is only enough to meet their absolute wants. Instead of regular labor, they prefer the fatiguing adventures of the chase, and running among the woods. Their cuisine is of the lowest order, their favorite dish being slices of meat half cooked, and still reeking with blood.

Their weddings are preceded by a most singular and ludicrous ceremony. An old man presents the future husband and wife to a large assemblage of invited guests, whom he conducts, followed by their respective families, into a grand circle, around which the young lady, the bride, sets out running upon all fours, and the young man who is the bridegroom in the same style after her. If he succeeds in overtaking her she becomes his wife; if not, he forfeits all his rights, and "love's labor is lost." This often happens when the bridegroom fails of pleasing the young lady, who endeavors to escape from the embraces of a distasteful or odious husband by beating him in this queer trotting match.

Upon the death of one of their number they wrap his body in a white winding sheet, and then deposit it in a grave dug near his hut, sometimes in an erect position, sometimes sitting, and sometimes lying down. They are careful to put a lance at his side, a "parang," and a "sumpitan," their instruments of hunting, and of war, but never use any religious ceremony. Still, these weapons placed by the side of the corpse indicate a shadowy belief in a future existence.

Their religion is a confused mass of the grossest superstitions, propagated by the payans, a kind of priests, who are half physicians and half jugglers. Their magical sciences is in great esteem with the Malays. The singular kind of life. they lead, the peculiarity of their custom, and the long intervals of their appearance among the people, secure for them a certain prestige and respect. Seen from afar, and through a mysterious veil, they pass for beings endowed with superhuman power, to whom the plants and roots of the forests have revealed their most secret virtues. In a word, they are believed to hold in their hands the power of conferring health or inflicting death. In accordance with this belief, the Malays are careful not to provoke their ill-will.

Naturally, the Jakoons are of an open and ingenuous disposition, and withal inclined to gayety. To the appearance of timidity they join the independence