PROPORTION OF TELEGRAMS TO LETTERS.
The proportion of telegrams to letters in the United States is difficult of determination, from the fact that our Post-Office Department furnishes no statistics of the number of letters sent through the mails, and has no means of ascertaining the number approximately, except by the number of stamps sold annually. This mode of estimation is very defective, because the stamps sold may not have been used, or if used, may have covered the postage on books, parcels, and other matter. The Postmaster-General states, in his report for 1867, that there were 283,762,300 three-cent stamps sold during the preceding year. Supposing each of these stamps to represent a letter, we have the following comparative result of the number of telegrams to letters in the various countries where the telegraph is most extensively used:—
| Proportion of telegrams to letters in the United Kingdom, | 1 to | 121 |
| Proportion of telegrams to letters in Switzerland, | 1 to | 69 |
| Proportion of telegrams to letters in Belgium, | 1 to | 37 |
| Proportion of telegrams to letters in United States, | 1 to | 22 |