The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1876-12-30

wastes. A little thinking often saves
much labor. After accomplishing amy
niece of work the most of us can look
back and see how much we could have
improved on it if we had but thought
As we review our crops of this year, We
see how they could have been easily in
creased. had we only thought The
ditch we dug through our meadows was
not done i'll the most economical way.
We dug too deeply at first. and did not
allow for the settling of the land; hence
a waste of labor We omitted buying
an implement that would have saved
nearly its cost in this one years use.
until we have spent much in trying to
accomplish our work without it. Here
was another waste. We carry n water
pipe too near the surface to save the eX-
pense of digging a trench of safe depth,
and the winters frost necessitates Il re
placement of the pipe and an additional
digging. Certainly waste here We
allowed the weeds to grow ON one piece
of land. not thinking to what proportion
they would grow by the time the crops
were too far advanced to admit the hoe.
\ waste here which might have been
obviated. And so on. wastes little and
big everywhere, all arising from our no.
thinking sufficiently - waste. because
not necessary and easily obviated. We
omit the ordinary wastes from neglect.
from laziness, from W mt of appreciation
Of cleanliness and tlloroughncss the
wastes from our stock from our manure
heap, from our household. Verify. II
little thought will save to the farmer
much; and the saving through this
means. even on small farm. will repro
sent the interest on a considerable capt
tai. The wastes arising from ignorance
can very readily be diminished, and are
in large part incxcusablc: those arising
from carclcssncss are not deserving Of
sympathy. The farmer us we'll us The
business man must use business princi-
pies to secure the largest success, and
the one should be as careful of the out
goes rs the other. Scientific Farmer.
ORiGIN OF TIE PoLkA-Thc Allge-
meinc F'mi(icn /eifuDg gives an inter
csting account of the origin OF the
polka. About 1880, u peasant girl. be-
ing in service in a tralesman's familyat
Elbetcinitz. in Bohemia, beguilcd her
self. one Sunday afternoon, III der
kitchen, by endcavoring to invent II new
step, which she tried to adapt 10 a vii
lagc song. While thus disporting her
self, she was surprised by her employer.
who. quite interested. made her repeat
the experiment the same evening III the
parlor. where Joseph Neruda, an emil
nent musician, happened to be present.
who noted the air and step. Not long
afterwarl, the new dance was danced ut
citizens ball in the town. and in 1888
came into fashion at Prague, where, in
consequence of the half step which oc-
ours in it, was called the pulhu. which
means, in Tchequc, half. -Four years
later, band of Prague musicians
brought the dance to Vienna, where it
had great success; and in 1910, Il dane
ing master of Prague. named Raab.
danced it for the first time in Paris
Music Trode Reriew.
The AGE OF THE EARTH.-Sir William
Thompson has concluded, from different
lines of argument, that the age of the
earth, as body cool enough for habita-
ton cannot be much greater than 100,
COG. 900 years. Professor TAFT, however,
in his work on tho "Recent Advance in
Physical Science" comes toa somewhat
different conclusion, and put the limits
of the worlds age ut 1O,OOO,0O years.
When doctors disagree who shall de-
cides AS for other worlds than ours,
some are said to be SO far away that the
light from them has not even yet reach
ed our planet. A writer in the Duop'ier
IL Rerier says that 'thc telescope has
rendered visible stars SO amazingly re-
mote that light, leapinS over $4,000
miles in a single second, would take
500, 600 years to travel from them to the
earth" Astronomers and biologists
have way of tossing millions of years
about as if they were mere grains on
the sands of time. 1t makes the few
score allotted to man appear amazingly
insignificant.
Thirty DAYS FROM CHINA TO LIVER
pooL.-The remarkable voyage of the
steamship City of Picking, from Yoko-
hama to San Francisco, by which it was
shown that Il cargo of tea can be carried
from Japan to New York city. by the
aid of the trans-continental railway, in
twenty-five days, illustrates the advance
made since few years ago. when this
transportation was Il voyage OF months.
The passage referred to was made in iif
teen DAYS, the distance being about five
thousand miles. an average of 337 miles
4 dav, or fourteen knots an hour. At
this rate, Liverpool is within thirty days
of China. Raii~oy AJe.
BUFFALoEs GUARDING BoY.-Ihcrc
vo. A. NJ,l,v hoy mar Sinronovp who