Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 May 1875 — Page 8

BREVITLES.

A Moving Tail—a hungry dog’#. Many editors ue of each » peaceful nature that they will not put a head on their editorials. l-x i.-' : Thoc divinity that shapes our ends doesn't seem to take hold very young—leastways, not until our mothers let up onus. When the evil one is going to apd fro and up and down over the earth, cah we doubt that he is imp-roving?-— Boston Advertiser. H6e’s new web press prints a continous roll or web of paper on both sides at the rate of 16,000 or 18,000 copies an hour. A gentleman observing the sign oi “Caswell” upon a business establishment remarked that it would be “ m-imII without the C.” “Consummton is an economical disease,” said John Henry, with a cold on his lungs — “you can furnish your own coughin’.” There’s not much grief when a fat man dies in Rhode Island, as it gives the survivors more room to stretch themselves. — Brooklyn Argus. Grandmother's Gwgerbread. —Cup nnd a half of molasses, cup of rich sour cream, teaspoonful of salcratus, teaspoon-, ful of ginger, mix a little stiff. A traveled correspondent tells the Min'or and Farmer that those New Englanders who protest most loudly that farming doesn’t pay are those who grow bushes on their best land. There’s a man in Philadelphia who belongs to fifty-two secret organizations. What a memory for ponderous “ secrets” he must have, and what a faculty for “grips.” A printer out West, whose office is two miles from any other building, and w ho hangs his sigh on the limb of a tree, advertises for a boy. lie says: “A boy from the country preferred.” There have been a great many ex cuses offered for suicide, but no person of tone, pride or courage would ever be caught running away from the battle of life.~

Prof. Wilder, of Cornell University, has a baby whale only two inches long, and he proudly claims that he can say of this baby what few parents can say of theirs, that “there’s no blubber in it.” —Brooklyn Argus. ‘ Two Irishmen traveling on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad track came to a mile-post, when one of them said: “ Tread aisy, Pat; here lies a man 108 years old; His name was Miles, from Baltimore." Fits hundred thousand brushes are manufactured at Reading. Pa., annually, of all kinds and grades, from the small artist’s brush up to cotton factory brushes, and ranging in price from a penny to forty dollars. Sugar Cake.— One pint dir flour, onehalf a pint of butler, one-half of sugar, mix the flour and sugar, rub in the butter, add an egg beaten with enough milk to moisten the whole; roll thin and bake in a quick oven. This recipe is for those who have few eggs or none. If women will insist upon transforming themselves into itransportation companies for drawing men up and down public halls and theater steps and clear out into the streets on silken trains, why iu the nameof all that is enterprising’ don’t they charge something for the service? White clouds can be easily washed by carefully basting them on to flannel or cotton cloth, then squeeze thoroughly. Rinse in lukewarm water, shake carefully and hang up to dry. They can be cleansed by rubbing them smartly in flour and afterward shaken or hung im. a brisk wind.

Goldfish should never be taken in the hand, but should be removed, when necessary, by means of a small net made of mosquito netting. They may be fed with anything they will eat, but what they do not eat should be taken out of the water. They generally die from handling, starvation or impure water. Puddixu-time is precious time: Mamma—“ Do you like this pudding, Frankey?” (No answer.) “You should say, ‘Yes. mamma, dear.’” Little Frankey (who is three years and a half old) —“But you told me -yes’day I shouldu.’t talk when eating; ’sides, dis is too good to lose time over.” The Washington Republican thus speaks of Treasurer New’s signature: it looks like a combination of tea-chest hieroglyphics struck by lightning and twisted into intermingling and confused circles, braided together and twisted up like the ringlets of a curly-headed school-girl who has succeeded in accomplishing an incomparable friz. Mat sits with chubby feet dangling From the porches of men once more; Now greeting the world with a coy, sunnv smile— Now with ft threat’ning tear, At twelve o’clock last night, all veiled, She knocked at Oid Time’s front door, And shyly lisping: “May I come?” came in, While April stepped out at the rear. The latest discovery in France is that the numerous gypsy bands scouring that country are entirely under marching ■orders and military discipline from Ber lin. They are wont to pick out their camping grounds fifty miles ahead, and know in advance the' name of the man owning that giound as well as he knows it himself. J ust as the Uhlans did. The Cologne Oaeette says that the "Russian nobility, and particularly the nobility of the Government of St. Petersburg recently declared spontaneously that they were ready, to pay taxes, an obligation which hitherto applied only to the bourgeois and the peasants. The Baltic nobility do not seem disposed to follow the example thus set them.

Fruit Pudding. —Chop six apples fine, grate six ounces of stale bread, add six ounces of brown sugar, six ounces of currants, washed carefully and floured, Mix all well together with six ounces of butter, a cup of milk and two cups of flour in which two teaspoonfuls of bakingSowder have been thoroughly mixed. pice to taste. If necessary add more milk in mixing. Put in a pudding-bag, tie loosely, ana boil three hours. To be eaten with cream sauce. A wood jin ship can now be built a 3 cheaply in the united States as in any ether country. It is stated that the cost of a spruce vessel built in any of the yards of the British provinces would reach $52 gold per ton, and in the yards of Maine S6O to $65 per ton, the material used being white oak and pitch pine, conceded by all shipping men to be vastly superior to sbruce. At Bremen or Hamburg, owing to the trouble with the workmen and the scarcity of timber, it would cost SIOO gold per ton to build a vessel. .> Ah eminent clergyman in Trenton, Jf.J., sat in his study sometime since.

busily engaged in preparing his Sunday sermon, when his little boy toddled into the room and holding up his finger said with an expression of suffering: “ Look, pop, how 1 hurt it ’ The father, interrupted in the middle of a sentence, glanced hastily at him, and with just the slightest tone of impatience said: “ I can’t help it, sonny.” The little fellow’s eyes grew’ bigger, and as he turned to go out he said in a low voice: “ Yes, you could; you might have said ‘ Oh!’” There was a seriuon in miniature. 4 When you are given a word to spell go through it at one jump. Don’t go feeling along as if you were on thin ice, or down you will go, sure. Tackle it in this style: I-n In, with an In, d i di, with a di, with an Indi, a-n an, with an an, with an Indi, with an Indian, a-p ap, with an ap, with an In, with an Indi, with an Indian, with an Indianap, o with an o, witn an In, with an Indi, with an Indian, with an Indianap, with an Indianapo, l-bs lis, with a lis, with an In, with an Indi, with an Indian, with an Indianap, with an Indimapo, with an ! Indianapolis. —Hartford Herald. Tiiex say that the Duke of Edinburgh has settled down into a model husband and father, having sown all his wild oats and showing no disposition to recommence that unprofitable act of husbandry. It is said that he passes hours in playing with his little son and.,in the company.of the As the royal family of England have refused to yield to the Grand Duchess in the matter of precedence and still insist on her yiehlin gflie step to the Princess Beatrice on all public occasions, Her Royal and Imperial Highness appears at court ceremonials and festivities as seldom as possible, and leads a life of much more quiet and domesticity than usually iails to the lot of married Princesses.

Horn baskets are among the hand sornest made. A nice, white horn should be selected and scraped with glass until a quautity of fine shavings have been obtained. Then make the foundation of the basket in pasteboard, and sew the shavings thereon in small clumps. The first or outer shavings are generally somewhat dark, but the remainder present a beautiful white appearance, much enhanced by the clustering arrangements given them. Baskets of this kind may be made either to sit flat or with standards; and when a well-shaped one Is once covered both inside and out with the fleecy shavings, it is quite an elegant ornament —Maine Farmer. Field Beans . —The bean crop is worthy of a place in a rotation, and not only for its profit, hut for its influence upon the soil. It takes little from the soil; is a cleaning crop; requires little outlay for seed, occupies the ground but a short time, and may follow a crop of clover the same season, if an early-ripening Aariety is chosen. The “ Medium” ripens early, is hardy, but sells at a lower price than the “ Marrow.” The “Marrow” is very productive on a good soil, and is a popular market variety. If properly harvested, the haulm is much relished by sheep, and is nutritious. The bean when ground with corn or oats is readily eaten, and, when cooked, pigs will accept it with avidity. No food is better for a growing animal, nor contains more flesh-forming elements than this bean. The idea, however, that beans may be grown with profit upon a soil too poor for any other crop is erroneous.— American Agriculturist. The Vienna correspondent of the London Standard writes, April 10, to that journal: For years Vienna has not been the scene of such a horrible crime as was committed last Sunday. A Czech, tailor (almost all the Vienna tailors are Czechs), who had fallen into pecuniary difficulties owing to the dissipated life he had led, sent his wife out of the house, bolted the door, and while playing with his five children, the youngest of whom is eight months old, enticed them into a darK room. There he strangled them and hung them up on nails, and when all were thus disposed of the wretched man hanged himself. The nail on which his eldest son hung fortunately gave way a little so that bis toes just touched a little box, and this saved him, but the other children and the father were all found dead. The criminal had had twenty children, eight of whom were by his present wife, but only these five were living, the other fifteen having been dead for some time.

Work for Women.

A writer in the Saturday Review says, in speaking of woman’s work: Nursing has long been talked of as a sphere of women’s work. The profession has not been at all developed in the way it might have been. It has infinite ramifications and new fields still to be conquered. Middle aged ladies might go out as monthly nurses, for which six months of proper training would fit them. Many ladies would prefer an attendant who could be an intellectual companion as well as a nurse. Dispensing medicine seems to have been tried with success, and there is no reason why women should not make good chemists. The Government telegraph offices and the Postoffice clerkships supply a good deal of work, but it is most suitable to the same class of young girls who w ould otherwise go behind tue counter. In America women are found very useful in banks, as they are invaluable detecters of forged notes'; their sense of touch and sight" seeming to be keener than that of the young men clerks. They have also been employed as Treasurj- clerks ever since the war. The profession of house decorating seems one likely to develop itself, and is apparently very well suited to ladies of taste and education. Here, however, an apprenticeship of several years is required, as a knowledge of architecture and drawing to scale is

absolutely indispensable. Good health, business faculties and energy would be necessary to insure success. With this occupation might be conibined art, needle-work and glass-painting. Chinapainting, too. comes under this head, as tiles and plaques are now so much used in house decoration. Of literature, the general refuge for the distressed, we need scarcely here speak, except to say that it might be made a remunerative profession even by women without the talent of a George Eliot, did they but learn to write their own language correctly, or were they willing to work up a subject in the way that an antiquary or historian is compelled to do. Nor is it necessary to speak of painting, wood-engraving, photography, printing, music-teaching or the other employments which are being resorted to with a fair measure of success; but a few modes of employment whose suitability has still to be tested by experiment are suggested in “ The Year-Book of Woman’s Work” which has been lately compiled by Miss Hubbard. Among other things, lady couriers are proposed. This seems sensible enough, as in an ordinary Continental tour the fine gentle-

man courier does nothing for the ladies whose pockets he bleeds so proAisely, in reward for his small attentions, which a lady could do quite as well, and more agreeably if she were well read and intelligent. She would Drobably travel in the same carriage with the people she was attending, and would be a pleasant and useful companion. Such companions would be invaluable to the rich young Americans who come to rush through Europe and cram all the inforunation they can in a hurried tour. It is 'also suggested that artificial-fly making and the preparation of microscopic objects is pleasant and remunerative work which can be done at home.

The Bursting of the Car.

An Italian correspondent of the Newark Advertiser writes: Of all the ceremonies of Holy Week the Scoppio del Carro (“bursting of the car”) is of most interest to the Tuscan peasant. On Saturday morning a tower-like car, trimmed with'gilt and colored paper, and drawn by four white oxen gayly decked with flowers, stands between the Duomo and the Baptistery. The great central doors of the cathedral are thrown wide open; in front of the altar under the dome is placed a pillar, from the top of which a rope passes down the nave and out to the great triumphal car in the piazza before the church. Ou this rope and close to the pillar is a white dove. At twelve o’clock the bell of the Campanile breaks the spell which for forty-eight hours has rested on every church bell in the city, and lollowing in its wake come peals fronr nil the tongues which have been keeping silent because Christ is dead. (There is a law’ which imposes a fine ot ten scudi— ten dollars in gold—upon any church whose bell strikes before that of the cathedral tower.) At the first stroke the dove—an ingenious piece of fireworks—comes whizzing down the rope and out to the Carro , where it ignites the hidden trains of powder, and again w’hizzes back into the church. Explosions from the car follow’ each other in rapid succession, the air- is full of flying bits of paper and the smell of powder, and thousands of people are looking on with breath less interest, because, as the dove flies on Holy Saturday, so shall be the olive, the vine and the chestnut harvests for the coming autumn. But this year the cpntadino will dig and plant with little faith, for the dove, returning through the church, fell about midway, *and, although the fireworks in the car exploded most satisfactorily, the omen will rest heavily on the hearts of the credulous peasantry. The oxen, the car and the crowd passed down the Via Proconsolo and halted on a corner. Another dove wms sent from the palace of the Pazzi family—with whom this custom originated—down to the car, and the whole ceremony was repeated.

An Accident at Dubuque.

It does seem as though a little reflection must convince any reasoning person that Dubuque newspapers are sometimes guilty of exaggeration. Not that the journals mentioned willfully construct outrageous tales, but that journalism there is sufficiently peculiar to allow of temporary aberrations of mind in regard to one of the commandments. Take, for instance, the account of a recent nitroglycerine explosion near the city named. The substance of the story is as follows: “Some miners near the town who had been using nitro glycerine set some of the liquid in an open crock where the sun w T ould fall upon it in order that it might thaw out. An old, motherly sow, with- a piggish progeny of six, came nosing about, and,stumbling upon the crock, upset it. Then the sow r and her litter ate up the nitro-glycerine. Continuing their explorations the family of porkers went into a neighboring barnyard where a three-year-old colt w T as feeding. The sow, rooting about, approached the colt and touched her snout against its heels. The colt instantly kicked out fiercely and accurately and struck the porker squarely on the ribs. As the hoofs rattled against the side of the hpgvthere came a thundering explosion which shook the entire neigh borliood: The colt sailed over the barn and landed in a neighboring field, a total wreck. The sow and pigs were lost at once in space, but since the aflair people have gathered sausage-meat in dooryards and along the roadside.” That is all there is of the recent account of a nitroglycerine explosion at Dubuque? and while it is out of place, of course, to be hypercritical about such little things, it does seem as if some portions of Die story might be incorrect. Tnere appears to be, as it w T ere, a modest garb of fancy delicately covering the naked truth from leering lookers-on.— St. Louis Republican.

The Trade in Hair.

A writer says: The immense expansion of the trade in hair during recent vears is scarcely conceivable. At the beginning of the present century it was considered a disgrace to wear false hair. To-day the detestable fashion has extended even to the most paltry village. As late as the year 1850 one pound of h air cost four francs. Scarcely had the Empress Eugenie attained the imperial dignity than the price rose to eight francs and ten francs per pound. In the year 1865 the fashion grew into an epidemic, and spread beyond the boundaries of France. The German young ladies forsook the national custom of long and beautiful plaits in order, like their French sisters, to burden their heads wit! steeples of hair. In 1866 the price rose to twenty francs, in 1867 to thirty-five francs, in 1868 to forty-five francs and in 1870 to fifty-five francs per pound. This last is the price of “ unprepared” hair; “ prepared” costs double and treble as much. The finest hair comes from the heads of the dead women of Brittany and Auvergne. When, in either of these places, a girl or woman of middle age dies the. hair is cut off and turned into money. The hair of the living, however, fetches a better price, and sometimes blonde maidens receive as much as 1,500 or 2,000 francs for their tresses. Since the war the ladies have moderated their demands and regarded with less favor this hateful fashion, to which the physicians attribute so many nervous disorders and brain fevers. Herb Ttscher says that if one volume of castor oil be dissolved in two or three volumes of spirits of wine, it will render paper transparent, and, the spirit rapidly evaporating, the paper in a few minutes becomes fit for use. A tracing in pencil can then be made, and if the paper is placed in spirits of wine, the oil. is dissolved out* restoring the paper to its original condition. The drawing may then be comnleted in Indian ink or in colors.

What This Cold Means.

The science of meteorology is making at least as remarkable progress as any other. The wonderfully-verified predictions of the Signal Service have already become so familiar that they excite no surprise. Prof. Tice, whose very interesting contributions we have published, has demonstrated the possibility of predicting periods of atmospheric disturbance months or even years before they occur. And now comes Dr. Hopper, of the St. Petersburg Physidal Observatory, pointing to the fact that early in the summer of 1874 he predicted, after a series of, most comprehensive observations, taken in various parts of the globe, that there was every reason to expect in 1875 a phenomenally cold year. That his prediction was not a blunder all of us are ready to bear testimony; but the theory upon which it was based is the more interesting because it seems, in some sense, to supplement, and on a broad scale to sustain, the theory of Prof. Tice, that electrical qurrents control to a great extent the atmospheric phenomena. It is not a new idea that certain changes in the spots of the sun, which occur periodically, are associated with periodic maxima in the range of the magnetic needle. Prof. Loomis, in his work published in 1868, paints out the fact that observations “ extending back nearly a century indicate a maximum in the range of the magnetic needle every ten or twelve years,” which corresponds with the relative frequency of solar spots, and of auroras, and that these maxima themselves exhibit a further periodicity, with intervals of fifty-eight to sixty years, at which the greatest variations of the needle and the most frequent auroras occur. The first of these periods corresponds to our revolution of Jupiter, and the second to five revolutions of Jupiter and two of Saturn. Prof. Loomis supposes that electric currents around the sun are affected by the position of the planets, and in turn afiect and disturb the electric currents around the earth. Now, Dr. Kopper finds ttiat in the mean annual temperatures of each zone there are indeed eleven-year periods of maximum and minimum; that under the tropics the maximum heat occurs about a year before the maximum of sun spots, but north of the tropics about two or three years after the maximum of spots. Alsq, he finds that the period of time between the minimumand succeeding maximum of spots is shorter than the period between the maximum and succeeding minimum, and that the extremes of heat and cold follow a similar law. This, indeed, is shown by Loomis’ elaborate tables. The ancients were not so far wrong, then, in gazing at the stars and trying to foretell future events from their motions. If the periods of Jupiter and Saturn affect the electric condition of the sun, and if the sun’s condition governs the electric currents of the earth, and thus produces, according to Dr. Kopper, extremes of temperature, and according to Prof. Tice vast maelstroms of polar air and violent atmospheric and electric perturbations, it may not be long before science will snatch their secrets from the starry heavens and foretell the weather with the same minuteness and certainty with which it now predicts eclipses and the movements of comets. — St. Louis Democrat.

How the Women Organized.

It is a sad thing to see ten or twelve women get together and attempt to orfanize a “ Society to Aid the Deserving oor.” They tried in Ninth avenue the other afternoon, after having talked up the matter for three or four weeks. Thirteen or fourteen of them met by appointment, and after some skirmishing one of the number called theine&tmg to order and said that the first duty‘would be to elect a President. A sharp-faced woman got up and said that she didn’t want the position, but if it was the wish of the meeting that she should take it, why, she would. There was a painful pause, and a fat woman arose and said that she had had considerable experience with such societies, and that she thought she could render greater personal aid if made President. There was another painful pause, and a little woman rose up and squeaked: “ I move to lay the subject on the table!” The other women looked at her im a freezing way, and it was suggested that a ballot be taken. All readily agreed to this, and ballots were prepared and a bonnet passed around. When the votes were counted it was found that each woman had put in at least one for herself and three of them had put in two or three. The President pro fern, looked very grave as she stood up and remarked : “ Ladies, I trust that this error may not occur again.” It did, however, or at least each one cast a vote for herself, but on the third ballot a choice was made and the lucky woman took her seat, smoothed out the folds of her dress and remarked:

“ The next thing in,prder is the—the next thing!" A woman with a wart on her nose then made a speech, saying that she had been Treasurer of several similar associations, and that if it was the wish of the convention she would accept the office. Ij, didn’t seem to be the wish, however. “I move to adjourn;” solemnly exclaimed a woman with a large back-comb, “ The motion is not in order,” replied a woman across the room. “Amlin the chair or are you?”demanded the President. “ I move to reconsider the motion!” squeaked the little woman. “Isupport the question!” put in the fat woman. The President wiped her spectacles, rapped on the stove-pipe and replied: “Ladies and gentlemen, there is no motion before the house and the question to adjourn is out of order.” “Not much!” exclaimed a woman nearly six feet high, drawing herself up. “ I’ve seen more meetings of this kind than the President ever heard of, and I know that an order to adjourn is always in motion!” “ So is your tongue!” said some one on the lounge, and the President knocked on the stove-pipe and said: “The Chair believes she knows her business as well as any woman wearing plated jewelry, or as well as if she had a wart on her nose! We will now proceed to elect a Secretary and Treasurer. How shall they be elected?” 'fV “ Viver voioer!” cried one. “ I motion by ballot!” added a second. By exclamation!” shouted a third. “You nran acclamation. explained the PresyUfit, looking at the last speaker. “ Ladfert wear an Alaska diamond,” was the reply, “ but I know as much as some folks that do!” “Less Journ!” shouted a female who was born in 1810.

“ I move the previous motion,” pot in the fat woman. “Will some one nominate a candidate?” asked the President. A painful silence ensued. The fall of a hair-pin would have sounded like a crow-bar falling over onto a stove-boiler. Each hoped to have some one else nominate her, and all, therefore, breathed hard and kept silence. “ I nominate Mrs.—+,” finally said the President, seeing there was a dfWPWtk. “ You can’t nominate and put the motion too!” squeaked an old lady with beau-catchers. “ I order the previous motion,” said a woman with a red shawl. “And I’m going hum!” added the fat woman. “Soam I!” “Soam I!” “Soam I!” And they stalked out, leaving the President tying up her left shoe and her eyes flashing wild-cats. And all this is why Detroit hasn’t another “ Society to Aid v , the Deserving Poor.” —Detroit Free Press.

A Plague of Rats.

A Rangoon correspondent of the London Times writes to that journal as follows: “While Bengal has lately struggled through a famine crisis the Karens country, lying on the confines of Burmah proper, has narrowly escaped a crisis of the same kind, but in this instance rats, and not drought, were the cause of the scarcity* It appears that certain parts of Burmah are periodcally visited by a plague of rats. Hosts of them march across the country and attack the roots of the crops and the grain in the villages, and actually drive out the populace, and c ause whole villages to be deserted by •their depredations. Such a plague had appeared near Tounghoo and some suffering had arisen in consequence, but the Government appear to have provided food for those in want of it, and all fear of famine is now averted. A forester, but a few weeks since, as he was going to visit the teak forests rented by a large firm in Bombay, witnessed the passage of a large army of rats as they crossed the Sittang. He was at the time gliding jjown stream in his boat, and the boatmen called his attention to a large black mass swarming down the high banks. These turned out to be rats, and as they swam across the river they kept up a kind of military formation. He represented their numbers to have been myriads. They passed close to the boat and were observed to be large field rats. The late Dr. Mason, in his book on Burmah, mentions the plague they were to the country, but until their depredations had spread to such a large extent their presence were ignored. It appears that they generally keep near hilly countries, and scour tbo plains at times when the nuts or fruits on the. hills fail them.”

The Pie-Plant.

The pie plant is a luxurious weed that is cultivated in the garden, and the more it is cut off the better it grows. It looks not unlike the wild burdock and grows just about as high, and has a leaf on it like tobacco. The leaf of the pie-plant is about the size of an elephant’s ear, and the stalk on which the leaf grows is a delicate wine color. Out of the stalk the pie is made, and it is the first pie out of green sass that you can get in the spring. The pie plant is as sour as a country school-ma’am, and one pound of plant takes four pounds of sugar to soothe it. There is some folks think that this pie can beat the pumpkin pie, but right here is where they err. They dare not bet on it. Whefi any man tells me that such and such a pie can beat the pumpkin 1 consider that man may have sense enough to sit on a jury or perhaps assist in tending a toll gate, but for all the important duties of life he is of no more nse than an ax without any handle. But pie-plant pie is better than no pie, but it does take in the sugar the mightiest. If I was a going into the pie-plant pie speculation I should want a partner and I should let him furnish the sugar, and I would put up the roots, and we would divide the profits equal. I should say that this would be a smart thing for me to do. —Josh Billings , in N. T. Weekly.

Oranges in Florida.

One side of a story is good until you have heard the other side. We denied the statement of a correspondent ol our morning contemporary who—that is, the correspondent—declared that oranges in Florida remained on the trees for a year, fresh and delicious at the end of the year as when they first ripen. And now comes an entirely reliable gentleman who says: “You doubt the statement of a Florida correspondent about ripe oranges hanging on the tree without decay for a year. As I have spent three winters in Florida allow me to say that correspondent is right. I, mysel'f, have eaten sweet oranges that have hung on the tree the year round, and have eaten sour oranges that have hung on a tree for two summers. These oranges that so hung are good, sound, juicy fruit. This was on Dunn’s Lake. Florida oranges that hang after the new crop starts lose their juice, which returns to the tree, and in the fall fill up with the juice like the new crop." —Cleveland (Ohio) Herald.

Progress of American Agriculture in One Hundred Years.

Secretary Fint, of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, has republished in pamphlet form, under the title of “ A Hundred Years’ Progress of American Agriculture,” a portion of his twentyfirst annual report, giving the following interesting facts and statistics: During the Revolution and for some years after farm production was in a state of extreme depression. The first organized effort toward improvement was the formation of the South Carolina Agricultural Society, in 1784, followed by the Philadelphia Society, organized in 1785; the New York, in Society 1791; and the Massachusetts Society, in 1792. These societies were regarded with distrust, and met with considerable opposition, as the farmers were strongly imbued with the spirit of conservatism and exceedingly reluctant to embrace pew ideas. It was not until 1810 that any agricultural exhibition was held. In May of that year the Columbian Agricultural Society had an exhibition at Georgetown, D. C., with liberal premiums for the encouragement of sheepr&ising, etc. In October of the same year Elkanah Watson exhibited three merino sheep in Pittsfield, Mass. —the exibition being the occasion of much ridi-

cule and contempt of the farmers of the day. The next year, however, the Berkshire County Agricultural Society was formed, and its exhibitions have'been held regularly at Pittsfield ever since—being the first county exhibitions ever instituted in this country. Improvements in the plow began toward the close of the last century. A patent for a cast-iron plow gpvas granted in 1797, but farmers were very slow to accept the innovation, many of them clinging to their wooden plows on the ground that cast-iron poisoned the ground and spoiled the crops. During the last half-century great improvements have been made in the manufacture of plows. There are some factories make from ten to twelve hundred different patterns, adapted to every variety of soil and circumstance, and there is one large factory at Pittsburgh which, as early as 1836, was manufacturing as many as 100 plows a day. The recent application of steam to the operation of plowing, and the success of the steam plow where it has been tried, point to a development of the agricultural resources of the West hardly dreamed of as yet In the harrow, and in the smaller farm tools, there have hem very great improvements, but the most important of modern agricultural inventions are the grain-harvesters, the reapers, the mowers, the threshers and the horse-rakes. The number of two-horse reapers in operation in 1861 performed an amount of work equal to about a million of men; and the result of the extended use of farm machinery was that our capacity for farm production was not materially disturbed by the fact that one or two million able-bodied men were withdrawn from the industrial pursuits. The first trial of reapers and mowers was held at Buffalo in 1848. The machines were imperfect and the results of the trial were not considered important among farmers. Every year, however, added to the list of improvements. At the Paris Exposition in 1855 three machines were entered —one American, one English and One Algerian. The first did its work in twenty-two minutes, the second in sixty-six and the third in sev-enty-two. By the year 1864 there were 187 establishments in this country devoted to the manufacture of reapers and mowers, the value of their annual product exceeding $15,000,000, and the number of machines amounting to 100,000. The . horse hay-rake was an earlier invention than the mowing-machine, and is only second to that in . value. It performs the labor of eight or ten men, and from ten to thirty acres a day can be gathered by a single horse and driver without over-exertion. The tedder, corn-sheller, hay-cutter and a multitude of leaser farm implements might be mentioned in which marked improvements have been made. At the Paris Exposition already referred to an Amer-, ican threshing machine carried off the prize, its work being found by actual experiment to be equal to that of 120 men. The total value of farm implements and machinery, as reported by the census of 1870, was $336,878,429, a gain of $185,270,791 in twenty years. As proof that the mechanical genius of the country is still actively at the fact is cited that over 1,000 for improvements in agricultural implements were granted in a single year, 1872; and the annual manufacture of agricultural implements amounts to over $52,000,000. The general diffusion of intelligence; the improvements introduced in implements and methods of farming; and the construction of railroads to afford a market to the inland farmer have had

their natural effect in bringing about a wonderful development ot agriculture and a rapid increase in the volume of crops and the acreage under cultivation. In 1770 the total amount of corn exported from all the colonies was 578,349 bushels. In iB6O the crop amounted to 838,792,742 bushels. The production of wheat has increased from bushels in 1840 to 287,745,626 bushels in 1870. Of the smaller grains, the rye crop in 1870 amounted to about 17,000,000 bushels; barley, 30,000,000; buckwheat, 10,000,000; oats, 282,000,000. The production of potatoes in 1870 was 165,047,297 bushels. In 1860 the aggregate yield of tobacco was 434,200,461 pounds. The cotton crop has grown up entirely within the last 100 years. Very little cotton was raised in the Southern States previous to Whitney’s invention of the cotton-gin in 1793. tJp to that time it had required an entire day for a man to clear a pound of cotton from the seed. Whitney’s invention, with other improvements and the introduction of steam as a motive power, enabled one man to do the work of 2,200 men by the old methods. The quantity produced in 1860 was 2,079,230,800 pounds, of which 1,765,115,735 pounds were exported. The hay crop also has grown up almost entirely in the last 100 years, and the yield has increased from 10,250,000 tons in 1840 to 27,316,048 tons in 1870. The money value of the crop is not less than $300,000,000, to which is to be added an equal amount for the value of grass for summer pasturage, making an aggregate of $600,000,000 for the grass and hay crop of the country. This progress has had an effect on the number and quality of our jcattle. During the last quarter of a century especially, the importations of choice breeds of cattle have been numerous. In this State, for example, there were less than seventy-five Jerseys in 1853; now they number several thousands, and the same is tru!te of the Ayrshires. In 1840 the aggregate number of neat cattle was 14,971,586; while in 1870 the number was 23,820,608, and the total value of live stock reported was $1,525,276,457. As to dairy products, according to the last census, 235,500,599 gallons of milk were sold, while the annual butter product is fully 600,000,000 pounds, and the cheese exceeds 200,000,000 pounds. The value of the annual dairy product is over $400,000,000. The value of animals sold for slaughter amounts to about the same sum, or twice what it was ten years ago. In swine, sheep and horses there have been many improvements in breed, and a large increase in numbers. In 1870, 28,477,951 sheep were reported, and the quantity of wool raised 100,000,000 pounds. The niftnber of horses reported at the same time was 8,690,219, of which 7,142,846 were on farms. Further interesting facts might be given in regard to the use of fertilizers* the diffusion of agricultural literature, and the contributions of science to agriculture, but 4 the limitations of a single article are too contracted to embrace all the statistics of an industry which yields annually the vast income of $2,448,000,000. We have given enough to indicate the wonderful progress which agriculture has made daring the past centary, and to show that it is second to no industry in the extent and rapidity of its development. So far is it from exhibiting any signs of exhaustion that the next Century promises to witness changes even more marvelous than that which is just closing.