The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-08-26 00:00:00

AMERICAN MANUFACTURES.

The Times (in a leader) remarks that the Centennial
Exhibition at Philadelphia has brought together such
an assemblage of the products of American industry
as to impress the visitor with a strong sense of the
manufacturing activity of the United States. In every
department of manufacture the United States are
creditably represented, and the practical result seems
to be that in the United States we have now
powerful competitors in all branches of industry,
and especially in that which we considered our
own—the iron trade. Such a state of affairs de-
serves the attention cf Englishmen. It presents to us
import Ant lessons, and in studying them we should
learn, not to resign ourselves to a permanent exclusion
from the markets in which the United States manu-
facturers compete with us, but to estimate more justly
the conditions on which business must be conducted in
the future. Had it not been for the shortsightedness
and extravagant demands of our own workmen, our
manufacturers would have been able to meet the policy
of protection on very different terms. Every addition
to wages, every conflict between labour and capital in
Cumberland, at Newcastle, or in North Wales, made
an addition to the prices at which we could place our
goods in the foreign market, and every such
increase stimulated the policy of those who
sad the true interest of their country is to
hava nothing to do with English goods. It may he that
the American manufacturers, who have to a great ex-
tent, with the aid of protective duties, shut us out of
their native markets will be found competing with us
in other countries. But English manufacturers are
not afraid of competition in an open market. If they
are not handicapped by their relations with their
own workmen, or by duties specially imposed to ex-
clude them, they court comparison of their goods with
those produ,ed in any other part of the world.

THE DROUGHT AND VEGETABLES.
The Garden says :—" Except in odd places where the
soil is more than ordinary deep and moist, this has
been one of the very worst summers experienced for a
considerage time fpr vegetables in general. The long
protracted sold weather inspring and early summer had
the effect of causing quantities of seeds early sown to
perish, or to come up so weakly as to be of
little use. Peas and everything else that slugs
will eat became, as they always do when not
able to make progress, a prey to these pests to an
extent seldom seen, and that even in well-managed
gardens not often troubled with them. Many
insects wiich in ordinary seasons are brought to life
by solar heat were this spring so much later than
usual that the birds that feed upon them were driven
by starvsjon to attack vegetable life. Everything
swarmed and continues to do so with aphides, green,
gray, an'! black, dwarf and runner beans in some
places being as badly affected with black fly as cherry
trees oftcn are. Cauliflowers, cabbages, and broccoli
for autumn, winter, and spring have all along been
affected with gray aphis, as closely packed on
the leaves as they could hang. In most gardens
there has been little chance of planting these
vegetables under conditions that enabled them to
make the desired headway; hence they are small, weak,
and so late that they cannot possibly produce more
than half a crop. Early peas were very late as well
as light. The successional crops hurried in by toe
Parching weather that ensued were over long before
their usual season. and the late ones do not promise
any better. Cauliflowers and lettuce have been worse
than ever I recollect aseing them. Carrots and onions
taaonrgedesttmhheaerlfliuttahunraade
ibothbseea are badly affected with grub. Al.nnyat anything butseasonb
rigfhort. ma2l:ikaentyg, rtooow,er
in
et sah
new
iwi
nl liandbteeecir
u.s ()a rtlee ya
amount
ioua
cut
net
tao
owt
fhhleeairrbeowwri
ri
at
tst
eo'
re
ani
spdpi
ntl
yo.
sppurr f floi vvcai dit seen tpf cr
r
to it the land will produce very little, and that little in-
different in quality."

The remit of sending out 6,250 circulars to members
of the British Medical Association, requesting an opinion ss
to admitting females to membership, was {that 3,972 were
'nuked "no," and 1,051 " yes.'

VENTILATION OF RAILWAY
CARRIAGES.
At this season of the year, when everybody is more
or less on the move, railway travellers would gladly
welcome some ventilating arrangement which, while
admitting a copious supply of freeh air into the
carriages, would exclude dust and smoke. Nor are
matters much better in winter, for then paezengers
are in many instances forced to choose between a
refrigerating draught and a suffocating atmosphere.
Now, in view of that attention bestowed in Ameria
upon the amenities of railway travelling which
has culminated in the organisation of trains almost
worthy to he characterised as flying hotels, it might
seem not unreascnable to expect some help from that
quarter, eepecially 118 there appears to be now a dispo-
sitioa to adopt Transatlantic improvements, to the ex-
tent, at least, of Pullman sleeping and drawing-room
carriages. But it is rather discouraging to find
that the ventilation of railway cars is still re-
garded in the Uuited States as an unsolved, if not
indeed an insoluble problem. At a recent conven-
tion of the American Master Car Builders' Association
a report was received from a committee which had been
specially appointed to investigate the subject, and the
result of their labours was so far unsatisfactory that the
Scientific American sees little prospect of "any imme-
diate relief from the poisonous atmosphere with which
the travelling public has to put up with as a rule." Pos-
sibly, indeed, the problem may present greater difficul-
ties in America in consequence of the peculiar construe-
don of the carriages, the idiosyncrasies of the passengers,
and the greater extremes of temperature which
have to be combated. But although several contri-
vances were submitted to the association, the mournful
verdict was that 'the past year has been quite barren
of real improvement in ventilating devices," and the
only consalatory aspect of the question seems to be
the assurance that "there is an increasing interest
in the matter among car builders." Here, then, is a
field in which inventors may advantageously exercise
their ingenuity. Success would doubtless prove as
profitable to them as it would be beneficial to railway
travellers.—Gtobe.