The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1876-02-19
Useful KNOULEDGE.

1here Is good prospect that Amer
lean firms will secure the monopoly of
supplying Russia with locomotives, those
already furnished giving great satisfac-
ton. They are constructed to burn coal,
of which large quantities have been
lately discovered in Russian territory.
For some time past the Goldfish sup
ply has been gradually falling off, both
in this country and England, owing to
the indiscriminate slaughter of the fish
of all sizes and ages, and the practice of
fishing inshore as well as at sea, which
has seriously interfered with spawning.
A committee has been formed at
Florence for the purpose of celebrating,
next May, the centenary of Cristofori,
the inventor of the piano. The principal
feature of the celebration will be Inter
national concerts on grand scale. The
Able List has promised to play.
In life of sixty years, an apple tree
removes from the soil 60 pounds of nitro
gen, equal to IL 800 pounds of farm-yard
dung. To maintain the soil in condition,
therefore, about 175 pounds of dung ought
to be annually given per tree during the
fifty years that it is in bearing.
English cooking stoves are inferior
to American ones; indeed, such re-
markably contrivances as are sold in the
English market under this name, would
throw an American housekeeper into
fits. They make very pretty CRATES and
fireplace heaters in England, but when
it comes to cook stoves, they have much
to learn from America
"A new compound for polishing and
cleaning metals is composed of one ounce
carbonate of ammonia dissolved in four
ounces of water; with this is mixed six
teen ounces Paris white. A moistened
sponge is dipped in the powder and
rubbed lightly over the surface of the
metal, after which the powder is busted
off, leaving fine brilliant luster.
A new alloy for bell metal is pro-
posed, which does not tarnish, is less
liable to crack, gives better sound, and
is much lighter in weight than the alloy
usually employed for the purpose. 1t is
prepared as follows: Nickel one pound
and copper six pounds are melted and
cooled. Add zinc two pounds, aluminium
half ounce; melt and cool. Melt again,
and finally add half ounce quicksilver
and six pounds melted copper.
The Belgian Moniteur Industriel
says that an engineer. having a piece of
very hard bronze of large diameter to
turn in the lathe. could not succeed in
cutting it with a tool of any kind or
temper. until he kept the tools constantly
moistened with petroleum, when they
cut with readiness. He says that by using
mixture of petroleum and spirits of
turpentine steel with a straw-colored
temper can be worked perfectly well.
The experiment certainly can be easily
tried, say in turning chilled car-wheels.
1t is familiar to most orchardists that
some apples of the same variety in the
cellar keep much longer than Others.
Some of the Baldwins, for instance. be-
gin to rot in December, even without
having been injured by bruising. Others
will remain fresh, solid and sound into
April or May. These different speci-
mems, with all grades between, are pro-
miscuously mixed together. 1t is worthy
of inquiry whether the long keepers do
not come from particular trees, which
from soil, culture, age, or other iEfu-
ence, ripen their specimens in such way
as to enable them to resist decay.
The average cost of producing
bushel of corn in Georgia is fifty eight
cents, or about one cent per pound. The
average cash market price for several
years has been about two cents per
pound. 1t costs the producer twenty
nine cents per bushel to grow oats, which
is less than one-third the usual selling
price. Cotton costs eleven cents per
pound to the producer, which is about
the average present selling price. Ninety
six per cent. of the reports say that cotton
GILL IiOI Ue Hiittlc DIT d pIoilt WHeH Su pplleS
are all purchased at the north; and 81
per cent. think it can if supplies are
raised at home. Only AZ per cent. of the
hog products consumed is produced in
Georgia.
Brooms were first manufactured, in
this country, by the Quakers at Water
vliet, New York, in, 1871, but it is only
within twenty-five years that much i'm
portance has been attached to the bust
ness The annual crop of brosm-corn
now raised in this country is estimated
at $1,000 tons, while twenty-five years
ago it was only 500 tons. Broom-corn is
4 native of India, and the honor of its
into the United States as
an agricultural product belongs to DIR.
Ben Franklin. While examining an i'm
ported whisk of corn he saw seed, which
ne planted, and from that small begin
hing sprang the enormous growth of
broom corn in this country.