Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 August 1883 — WONDERFUL THINGS. [ARTICLE]

WONDERFUL THINGS.

IN Bedford county, Va, there stands a. chestnut tree that Is twenty-seven feet around. In Jefferson county, Mo., a parsnip fiftyinches long and fifteen inches in circumference was grown. At the Tokay Vineyard, near Fayetteville, N. C., is a vine 25 years old which has bore over 103 bushels of grapea The Arctic raspberry is one of the smallest plants known. - A six-ounce vial will hold the whole plant, branches, leaves and all A watebmelon vine grown by the Beams Brothers, of Harris county, Ga, is 1,700 feet long, ana it has produced 400 pounds of melons. A jjaboe farm near Stockton, CaL, hasbeen completely cleaned of its crops by millions of little birds no larger than a man’s thumb. The famous Bidwell Bar brange tree, in California, Is twenty-five feet tall, and itstrunk is forty-five Inches in circumference. It bore last year 2,075 orangea In a garden at Bowling Green, Ky.,isa bush that bears a large deep red rose, with, two perfect small roses in the center which, are minature copies of the big one. The largest apple ever grown in America came from Nebraska, and weighed twentynine and a half ounces The Smithsonian Institution has a model of this apple. Another Blind Tom has come to astonish, and plague the American public. A colored boy, 0 years old, at Borne, Ga., is said toplay the piano like an educated performer. On the table-lands of Southwestern Arizona, at altitudes of 8,000 to 12,000 feet, a species of wild potato grows which is said to be superior m taste and flavor to the bestcultivated potatoes. John H. Parnell’s peach orchard at WestPoint, Ga, is the largest in the world. The trees are planted upon different slopes, so that when all are bearing a crop is certain in one place or another every year. There are 25,000 trees. A cave on the Colorado river, over one mile in length and in some places thirty feet in width, is attracting considerable attention at Lampasas, Texas This cave is about sixteen miles from town, and has two small streams running through it, which are about two feet deep. At Jonesville. Ind., Henry Prather went to an old, unused pump, ana while drinking from the spout, felt something go down his. throat. He soon turned deathly sick, and vomited up a small water-snake, four or five inches In length, after which the young man recovered. The snake came out alive and unhurt J. L Bkaslt, of Santa Rosa, CaL, has a hen with a progressive turn of mind. She has scratched around and laid for her master a pair of eggs of entirely new design. One egg contains the yelk, tqe other the white. Both are joined together T»y a ligamentous membrane, something after the style of the Siamese twins. A genuine whipsnake, six feet long, attacked D. B. Taylor, of Charlotte, Va.. and tried to jump into his wagon. With every jump it would crack its tail like a whip and with such force as to make the horses prance. Mr. Taylor finally succeeded in knocking it senseless, and one of his sons cut off its head- After the head was out ©fl it snapped at the boy.