Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-02-24
INDUSTRIAL, STATISTICAL AND
TECHNICAL.

IRELAND has decreased IN population
within the last twenty-five years 8, 600, 900
THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FIvE brick
buildings worth SS,3OS, 700, and 772
wooden buildings worth So, 237, $50, have
been erected in Boston, the past year,
while $1,410,51S have been laid out in
alterations.
PROF. HALL, of Hartford, Conn, the
State chemist, has recently analysed
several specimens of fermented liquors, in
order to determine the amount of alcohol
IN each, with the following results: Fer
mented cider, 5.63 per cent =" Bay State
beer" 6.23 per cent. lager beer, 1924 per
cent; English ale, 1919 per cent. Lon
don porter, II. 90 per cent.
THE Los Angeles California; Herald
says that at the present rate of increase it
is estimated there will be in four years
1000, 900 stands of bees in Los Angeles,
Santa Barbara and San Bernardino
counties, which will produce annually
one hundred million pounds of honey,
worth SEC, 0O0,006, which is more than the
value of the sugar and molasses crop of
Louisiana, Texas, and Florida combined
THE western tannin plant (polygonuna
onaphibiuna), which grows luxuriantly in
the Missouri River Valley, seems destined
to replace oak bark in tanning. 1t con-
talns eighteen per cent. of tannin, while
the best bark contains but twelve per cent. ,
and large establishments employing it in
Chicago find that one-third more leather
can be obtained with it than with like
quantity of bark. The process of tanning
with it is Identical with that with bark,
but the leather is said to be tougher, finer
and more durable, and receives a finer
finish. The plant is an annual, and can
be moved, dried and stacked like hay.
The following SYSTEMATICALLY inter
estlng if true-is now being circulated on
the basis of "a letter just received from
Greece" The original Laurium Com
pany which almost provoked an interna-
honal conflict, while working the surface
at Laurium purchased the subsoil CORE
spending to that surface. The subsoil was
not (avowedly, at leasO explored, and re-
manned unworked and unknown. Re-
Gently, however, the company, having
solo the surface only to their successors,
employed an engineer to examine this sub
soil. His research was rewarded by the
discovery of a number of wells, now filled
up, which had served in ancient times for
the working Of the mines. In one of
+l,oca - 4
the tract, and which appeared as though
abandoned for ages, he found the miners
tools and heaps Of ore about them-the
mine, in short, in the very state the Greeks,
surprised, doubtless, by some unexpected
attack, had left it. Encouraged by this
unexpected discovery, excavations were
made, which are affirmed to have brought
to light deposits Of silver, lead and Gala
mine Of incalculable richness. Presum-
ing the foregoing to be true, it would dis
prove the current belief that these mines
had been abandoned on account of their
exhaustion.-Harper's Weekly.
AMONG the various abnormal methods
Of incubation none are more curious than
the habits of certain fishes of the catfish
family Of keeping the eggs in the mouth
until the young are Matched, this act be-
ing generally performed by the male
Quite recently nj. Lortet has added to
the list the chr0m5s paterfam5ltas, as OBJ
served in a stream near the borders of
the Sea of Tiberias, and not far from the
ancient Capernaum. In this case the
female deposits her eggs in sandy de-
preston in the bed of the stream, and
the male sucks them into his mouth, and
by some peculiar action causes them to
be interpolated between the plates of the
gills, where they are held without dis
turbance The period of incubation is
not mentioned, but the young, when
Matched, leaving the gills, pass forward
into the cavity Of the mouth, where they
remain closely packed, heads forward,
the cheeks of the parent swelling out as
the young increase in size, and present
ing most singular appearance. A few
OF the young sometimes remain between
the bronchial plates but most of them
pass forward as stated. NJ Lortet did not
ascertain at what period the young left
the mouth of the parent, but presumed
that they remained there considerable
time. Whether, after they once leave,
they re-enter for protection, is not stated
1t is very remarkable that the young are
not swallowed by the parent while in their
receptacle