months. The issue show a fair provision in all articles save overcoats and flannel jackets, and in some instances an extravagant consumption of supplies. The condition of the troops in connection with the issues made suggests either an imperfect distribution of supplies, or waste on the part of the individual soldiers, or it may be both. The latter is known to prevail to an extent that makes it a great abuse.

2. As to the future the greatest difficulty will be to provide the raw material-wool and leather-the former, especially. The manufacturing facilities are ample. Efforts are being made to supply the deficiency of wool from the trans-Mississippi region where it is abundant. Some deliveries have recently been made on this side. The wool is worked up as rapidly as had. By using cotton clothing during the summer and spring and reserving the woolen goods for fall and winter, it is hoped and believed that enough may be had to prevent suffering next winter. We will get through this season without much trouble. There is a fairs supply of leather, or hides in the vats, and a moderate supply of shoes on hand.

The blankets now in the hands of the soldiers must be turned in in the spring for reissue, as there is not in the entire Confederacy a single establishment that makes them. Machinery had been ordered abundant and is now ample. There will be no difficulty hereafter on this head, at least so long as the railroad connection can be relied on to make the raw material of one section available in another. It is now very hard to keep the factories in Virginia even partially supplied with cotton.

To accomplish anything, however, it is really indispensable that some relief be extended, and that promptly, as follows:

First. Money, or some equivalent, must be had to keep the machinery of the department going. Arrearage especially should be provided for. For instance, over $5,000,000 is now due to the factory interest alone for goods long since delivered and expended, and that, too, after a liberal use of all certificates, non-taxable bonds, and even the raw material-cotton. All the factories are under contract to deliver at fair rates to-thirds of their production. They all work under a uniform system; one built up with care and labor, and with a result perfectly satisfactory. The whole unfortunately is about to crumble in for the want of funds, the factories being without the means to meet current expenditures, even at times to pay taxes. Their only relief is to put their production upon the market, and the department is in no position to complain of the loss of material.

Second. If money can be supplied, then the system of barter now almost universal should be checked or at least placed under restrictions. The necessities of the Subsistence Bureau have compelled with it a free resort to barter. The Niter and Mining Bureau has also gone largely into it. In Virginia especially this has been done. Material needed for the manufacture of clothing for the Army has been diverted from its legitimate use. Thus cotton is expended here when the factories have stopped work for the want of same; cotton yarns are made way with, needed for army socks; and also shirtings and osnaburgs, needed for clothing and forage sacks. The Subsistence Bureau has now some 150 bales of osnaburgs stored here to be used in barter, and this department is without a single yard of material to make into shirts or drawers. General Lee represents his army to be in want of underclothing, and a call has recently been made for 12,000 shirts, which for the first time could not be sent forward promptly. That