Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-06-15
INDUSTRIAL, STATISTICAL AND
TECHNICAL. g. "-.s'

II NEARLY 1000 buildings were erected in
San Francisco in 1875, and over /, 900 in
Oakland, while the number for the entire
State of California was not less than 1000,
exclusive of bridges and quartz mills. Of
the buildings put up in San Francisco
only forty-four were brick, the others be-
ing generally of wood. 3D.
A SPECIAL order, issued by the Erie
Railway Company, reduces the salaries
of the employees from the 1st OF June as
follows: In all cases where the salaries
are $4,000 and upward, twenty per cent.
over $4,000 and under $4,000, fifteen per
cent; over 81 900 and under $4,000, ten
per cent. Trackmen and laborers are
not reduced, their wages being very low
already.
lT has been noted and regarded as a
species of instinct in the Ampelopsas hede-
racea, our common Virginia Creeper, that
when the tendrils come near wall or
some other object capable of supporting
it, sucker-like discs appear on the ends.
In AmpeIopsts tr5cuspddata, however, the
discs appears when there is no foreign
body near. This precocity of this ana
logue of instinct in this species has not
been explained
THE farmers in some of the districts in
Great Britain have bitter enmity for
the rocks, estimating the damage they do
to the crops as being greater than the
benefit they confer by destroying wire
worms, grubs and other pests. A few
weeks ago a party of men waged war on
a rookery in sFifeshire, Scotland, de-
voting four Gays to the work of tearing
down nests and killing the birds, both
old and young. The result was the death
of 1886 rocks. AS there is no lsw in
the country TO protect the birds, it is prob
able that prosecution of such work will
soon drive them out of Great Britain
THE present mode of constructing boil
ers meets with some severe criticism from
Mr.. Adamson, an English engineer, well
known for his investigations and expert
ments in this direction. Mr.. Adamson
does not hesitate to utterly condemn the
practice of punching holes, now so much
in vogue. All rivet-holes, he says, should
be truly cylindrical, and. drilled through
with both plates IN stu, so as to insure
perfect accuracy in riyeting. Mr.. Adam
son is also of the opinion that if boil
ers were made by engineers of recognized
skill and care, with suitable tools for
drilling the rivet holes, and fitting the
various parts together, pressures of 100 to
$50 pounds might be used with less risk
than at present attaches to boilers car
rying only fifty pounds per square inch.
These conclusions have been reached by
him after many and most careful exam
nations of differently constructed boilers.
THE last report of the State Geologist
of Alabama contains an essay on the cot
ton army-worm by A. r. Grote, who has
resided several years in that State and had
good opportunities of studying the habits
of this insect. He feels convinced that it
is an imported insect, and not indigenous
4 to the Southern States. The appearance
of the worm is preceded by flights of the
moth, which in Central Alabama occur in
June or July. Previously he had always
heard of TIE appearance of the worm to
the southwark. Before it, he writes,
: the cotton in my vicinity had shown no
sign of worm, and had any existed in the
country it must have shown itself during
the preceding three months, while the
young cotton plants were growing. In IA
vorable seasons the broods were successive
until frost and the death of the cotton
plant. Where food failed on one planta-
ton the worms wandered to another, but
not till them