ble. The capital required for the purchase of the raw
materials is not large, and the manufactured article
will always meet with a ready sale; since the con-
sumption of so indispensable a part of dress is great,
and continually increasing, beyond the power of the
tradesmen of the city to supply.* * Large quantities of shoes have heretofore been brought from New
Jersey

and the Eastern States, and sold in New York. The manufacture
of nails, and other articles, has been carried on for
about two years. This required more capital; and
it was not until very lately that sufficient experience
was gained, in the purchase of stock and the use of
machinery, to enable the inspectors to manage this
branch of business with advantage. These circum-
stances, and many others that might be detailed,
which necessarily attend an infant establishment, and
which diminished the profits of the past years, will,
in future, cease to produce expense and embarrass-
ment. It is doubtful, whether the manufacture of
nails, and of several other articles, ought to be carried
on to a great extent, as they require too large a capi-
tal in advance. Experience will furnish, every year,
grounds for improvement in the mode of conducting
the branches of industry, or in the introduction of
more advantageous kinds of labour; and there is
every reason to believe, that, with a competent capi-
tal, the business may be rendered so productive as
to defray the expenses of conviction and maintenance
of the prisoners. Calculations, however, founded on
the statements of the past year, will not furnish ade-
quate means of judging with certainty of the future
profits which may be made to arise from the labour
of the convicts.

That the number of convicts has increased since
the erection of the State Prison, is evident. But to
infer from that fact, that the new and milder scheme
of punishment has been less efficacious in preventing
crimes than the old and sanguinary system, would be
a most partial and erroneous conclusion. The true