Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1867-05-16
scientific ana statistical Items.
-Massachusetts this year makes s2o,-
900 by Its States prison.

One saw-mill In Kentucky has 200,-
900 feet of lumber going through,
There are 4l,579l75 feet OF logs
waiting to be sawed in Michigan.
There are 1887 miles Of railway in
Great Britain, according to the last esti-
mA -
- here is very considerable emf
grattO going on from Oil City, Pa, to
Monla.s.
1t calculated that this year In
Rome there have been q, 900 Americans
and 1000 English.
The Red Mountain ironworks at
Elyton, Virginia, will shortly COM
mence operations again on an extended
scale.
New and very rich gold mines have
been discovered in the Salmon river re-
gions, and trains have left Salt Lake
City for the scene OF excitement.
In report on the geology OF Ala
bama, Professor Tuomey computes that
there are $3.50 square miles OF coal
fields in the State of Alabama alone.
Several large and well-defned cir.
Giles, of rainbow hues, were seen around
the sun at Cleveland, Ohio, on the 26th
ult., and two beautiful mock suns on
the outer circle. The atmosphere was
slightly hazy at the time.
"A rich specimen of pure silver from
Montana Territory, weighing about
ninety pounds, and valued at 81 ,008, has
been received in New York. This is the
pioneer lump from that region.
Accounts from Montana give assur-
ance of the great richness of the gold
mines and success attending operations.
The shipments from st. Louis to the
mountain regions will fall considerably
below last year.
There are five hundred and flfty-one
post towns in England and Wales, Ala
OF which send one or more day mails to
London, and five hundred and thirteen
of which receive one or more day mails
from London.
The whole number of sewing ma
chimes manufactured in the United States
from the first invention of that ingen-
GUS machine down to the close Of 1866,
is estimated at 100000. At present the
rate of manufacture is about 200 900 q
year.
The Prussian, Bessemer, who only
. few years since advanced his simple,
cheap and short method of converting
pig iron directly into malleable steel, is
already enjoying from it an income of
five hundred thousand dollars per an
nun.
The American Artisan estimates
that the accumulated expansion of the
rails Ia a line of railroad 500 miles long
would amount, at the highest summer
temperature, to nearly one-fourth Of a
mile as compared with the length of the
same rails during the coolest weather of
winter.
The silk plant, the product OF which
is said to be superior to that OF the silk
worm, and is woven into cloth Of unus-
ual brilliancy and armness, has been
discovered in Peru. 1t is a wild peren-
NAL shrub, growing three or four feet
high, and each one bears large number
of pods containing the silky fibre.
Sir Charles LyelI, in the new edition
of his principles of Geology" notices
the discovery of live fish in some arte-
sian wells sunk in the Desert of Sahara.
They were brought up from depth of
one hundred and seventy-hve feet, and
were not, like those Of Adelsburg, blind,
but had perfect eyes.
A simple machine, patented by
Mr. Cabanes, consists in principle of
ru ia drat no ~ uyprfnl pnrrppt
of air through a case packed with
sponges, which may be saturated with
any purifying 0Zonizing, or freezing
mixture, and thus Il cool, pure, fresh, or
if you please, perfumed breeze may be
enjoyed in any situation and at any
season.
When board fences become old, and
the boards begin to come off, nail up
right facing strips upon them against
each post, and the boards will be held to
their place, and the fence will last sew
erat years longer,
-P.ni Brenngiesser Of Berlin, has,
Oy feeding poultry on certain prepare
tiOns, succeeded in making hens lay
eggs, the shells of which are Of any re.
quired thickness, and so strongly i'm
pregnated with iron as to seem as if
cast from that metal number are on
exhibition at the Paris Exposition.
California is exchanging plants with
tine Sandwich Islands. A few months
ago q collection Of California plants
were sent to Honolulu, and recently the
compliment was returned in the shape
Of variety of palms, maOgoes, banan-
mas, alligator pear, rattan and lilies aud
other flowers sent to San Francisco for
free distribution, This is a movement
OF the agricultural societies.
The late report of the Commissioner
of Agriculture states that there was on
the first of February, IN all the States, d
total of 5,40l ,563 horses, valued at $780,
271 ,SlS 1882, 386 mules, valued at &c.,
094 1854; l1,3l8,952 cattle and oxen, val
ued at s249, 35l ,682; 39,385,3 milch
cows ana sheep, valued at S132, ia $50 ,
and 24693,5 hogs, valued at 1874, ILL.,
424 These figures, as compared with
those of last year, reveal decided in
crease in the number of live stock.