Sharp County record., 1878-10-31
Science and Industry.

The IallaSSoo COtCOn IdCtOry, Ill
Alabama, employs 600 operatives.
Fifteen acres of land near Brooks
vile, fernando County, Florida, have
produced $4,000 worth of tobacco.
The orange crop along the ST..
Johns, Ocklawaha, Halifax and Indian
Rivers, in Florida, will, owing to the
heavy gale and rainfall, be lighter than
it has been for 10 years.
Cotton mills are becoming numer-
GUS in India, more particularly in Bonn
bay, and it seems probable that with
improved machinery, cheap labor, and
the saving on freight they will be able
to compete successfully with English
goods.
"A new rope-making material has
been found in the fibrOus leaves OF a
New Zealand aloe The long, tough
threads are said to exceed iron wire Of
the same thickness in tenacity, and they
are not affected by immersion in salt
water.
OF cotton cloth the United States
exported last year 126,000,00O yards,
while the amount III 1874 was but 49,
100000. Employers claim that the
earnings of mill-operatives are higher
now than in 1860, in proportion to the
cost of living, and mills are supplying
goods at less cost than in that year.
Although supplies cost more and cotton
the same, greater skill and economy,
with improved machinery, produce these
results.
The New York Herald publishes a
statement showing that in 1865 there
were 10000 more shoemakers in Massa-
chusetts than there are to-day, although
the products of that branch of industry
in Mas sachusetts exceed by the enor-
nous amount of S71,000,00O the pro-
duction of 1856 This extraordinary in
crease of products, with so great a DIM
mutton in the number of hands employ
ed, is of course attributable to the in
PRODUCTION of the most approved labor
saving machinery, and by which Mas
sachusetts commands to great extent
the markets of the world in the shoe
trade.
Among the great variety of miner
ais found in this country there is one
which is fast becoming an important
article of commerce. The mineral re-
ferred to is hydrated silicate of mag
nesium known as tale. 1t occurs in
foliated masses, has soapy feeling, is
fbrous but not elastic. Large beds of
this mineral are found in various Sec
tiOns of the country. 1t is quarried,
broken into small pieces and ground by
means of attrition mills and bolted SIM
ilarly to flour. 1t is used in the manu-
facture of writing paper, so per centum
of the mineral with so per centum of
cotton making fine paper. Being,
like asbestos, fireproof, it is used largely
in the manufacture of roofing paper.
One of the cheap and simple devices
lately brought forward is paper egg
cup, which, besides being a really in
genious idea, is in fact based upon sound
theory, inasmuch as paper is non. con-
ductor of heat. The article is elastic,
so that one cup will hold securely an
egg of any size, and it is molded.in cor
rugated form, so that there is always
a circulation of air between the egg and
its vessel The same cups may be
cleaned and used over and over again,
or may be thrown away after using
their cheapness allowing of this latter
disposition. The material may not only
be paper, but muslin, or indeed almost
any fabric, and may also be tinted of
different colors, thus giving the cups a
really ornamental appearance.
Enraipn