American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1875-09-25
INDUSTRIAL.

THE cultivation OF bananas and pine
apples in Los Angeles County, Cal, has
proved very successful.
THE people in the vicinity of Rockport,
Texas, gather their own salt from the flats
on the bay coast near. The hot, dry winds
have produced SO much evaporation that
tons of superior salt are lying on the flats.
To PREVENT condensation in steam
pipe laid under ground, place it inside
another larger pipe, filling the interven-
ing spaces with pulverized charcoal. The
outside pipe should be water-tight.
TEXAS papers estimate the total of the
wheat crop of that State this year at S,00O,-
600 bushels, of which there will be ex-
ported about 5000, 900 bushels. The prob
able increase of acreage in this falls SOW
ing over last will be 45 per cent
Brown bronze dip, for coating hat
hooks and similar small hardware articles,
is made of: Iron scales, 1 lb; arsenic,
o.; muriatic acid, 1 lib; zinc, solid, 10
ozs. The zinc should be kept in only
when the bath is used. The castings must
be perfectly free from sand and grease.
To MAKE handy paint break an egg
into dish and beat slightly. Use the white
only, if for white paint; then stir in color
ing matter to suit. Red lead makes a
good red paint. To thin it use little
SKINNED milk. Eggs that are little too
old to eat will do for this very well.-
Scientific american.
GOLD mining is still pursued to large
extent in California, but steadily the agri-
cultural interests are Overshadowing that
of mining on the coast. The towns de-
pending on mining communities have a
shabby aspect in comparison with those
having a manufacturing or farming coun-
try to back them.
TAR water may be employed for dyeing
silk or wool ashen gray. The stuff is first
mordanted with weak perchloride ofiron
by soaking in the solution some hours. 1t
is then drained and passed through the
bath of tar water. The oxyphenate of
iron, which is thus precipitated on the
fabric, gives very solid color.
A CHEAP fertilizer consists of sulphate
of ammonia, sixty pounds; nitrate of soda,
forty pounds; ground bone, $50 pounds !;
plaster, $50 pounds; salt, one-half bushel
wood ashes, three bushels stable manure,
twenty bushels. Apply the above amount
to six acres. Labor in preparing included,
ygie as good results as most of the com
mercial fertilizers costing fifty dollars per
ton.-Scientifc american.
THE discovery of large bodies of sheet
/. mica in certain parts of Colorado has at
tracted considerable attention to this new
branch of mining industry. The uses to
which mica are now put are almost num-
berless; first, in sheets for headlights in
vessels, fronts in stoves, and in other
places where it is exposed to severe heat,
or other agencies that would destroy
glass; second, it is pulverized, and used
largely in the manufacture of bronze,
paints and coatings for rejecting sur
faces, such as locomotive headlights, re-
Electors and mirrors.
THE utilization of jute material is now
an important industry -sgThe waste fiber
is made into paper, aud even the dust
from the mills is made available in the
production of "silk" hats; stair carpets,
painted in bright colors, arc actually made
of this substance for six cents per yard,
and coarse but serviceable bed-covers are
made proportionally cheap. 1t is this
cheapness that gives industrial importance
to the business in question, and which
has caused SO rapid an increase in the
manufacture. The produce of jute is said
to be five times as much as that of flax /;
the length of fiber is frequently twelve
feet, and, as it is now bleached to snowy
whiteness, its uses are greatly multiply
inp