Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1873-09-25

Abilene, in Kansas, once busy cat.
tie mart, is deserted by its stock men, and
its shipping yards have grown rank with
| weeds The herders now rendezvous at
Ellsworth, and have made this town, To-
| Gated far into the heart of the old 'des-
ert," the present headquarters OF the
Texas trade.
The Wilmington Delaware) Conanaer-
cial says that the wet weather has greatly
damaged the peach crop, preventing the
gathering Of the fruit, and causing heavy
loss TO fruit farmers Had it not been for
this, it thinks the shipments from the
neighborhood of Wilmington would have
been the largest made for years.
"A correspondent Of the Men England
Farmsr tells the boys that the way TO get
wood-chuck out Of stone wall without
tearing IL down is TO take piece Of wire
about three feet long, place both ends in
one hand, and put the curve at the crea-
lures nose. He will usually lay hold,
and being unable To let go when there is
steady pull, he is speedily brought TO day
light and destruction.
Professor Wood, of the Stevens 1nsti-
tutc Of Technology, is said 10 have invent
ed a rock.dril Of superior excellence. In
recent experiments at the Ninetysec0nd
street tunnel hole thirty-six inches in
depth was drilled in the roof of the head
ing, the time consumed, including the
setting in place and subsequent removal
of the machine, being but one hour. The
machine weighs but one hundred and
fifty pounds, and is driven by compressed
air.
The injurious effect Of artificial light
upon the eye is said TO be due to the pres.
cnce Of an excessive number of non-lumi.
nous heatrays. As proving this, it is said
that, while sunlight contains fifty per
cent. Of these rays, electric light has
eighty, gaslight ninety, and Kerosene.
light nincty-fo per cent In view OF
these facts, an eminent German chemist
proposes TO absorb these injurious rays by
interposing between the source of light
and the eye thin layer Of alum or mica.
The fruit Of the elm (Utmus Camper
tris) is a capsule, somewhat oval, very
fiat, and about as big as the thumb-nall.
The seed is contained near the center Of
this compressed and winged capsule or
samara, and the outer coat Of the seed is
the seat Of the crystals Every cell ofthis
part, says Unrd0iche's Science GOsstD, con
tains a short and brilliant crystal, cubi-
cal, lozenge-shaped or prismatic in form,
and presenting a long diameter of about
/ 1GG6th and short diameter Of 13555th
of an inch. They are beautiful micro
scopic objects, and perhaps may be found
well-adapted for experiments with polar.
lied light The crystals are composed
chiefly of oxalatc Of lime.
The scientist tells us that fully fifty
per cent Of our fuel is wasted; that is to
say that, as each kind Of fuel will, by
proper combustion, evolve a given amount
Of heat TO each one pound Of such fuel,
and as our machines for the conversion Of
fuel into heat as now constructed, do not
operate without loss Of one. half Of the
heat evolved, the waste is as above stated
Our country has a population Of about
100000. Ii can be put down as a low
estimate for each Individual consump-
ton Of fuel, either wood or mineral,
equal To at least one ton Of coal, with a
value of 80 per ton, equaliDg in the ag-
gregatc $500 900, 900, one.half of which
$3.50, 00O000) is lost If this be true, this
enormous waste should be seriously con-
sidered by the inventor, improver and
manufactures Of the stove, In view OF its
improvement, and saving Of at least a
portion Of this enormous waste, which, il
reduced to twenty or even five per cent,
would be Of great value to our country.