Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1879-03-11
TIMELY TOPICS.

Like the grapevine, the coffee tree
has It's phylloxera. which threatens to
destroy the coffee plantations Of Brazil.
In less than two years the disease has
extermlnated in the province Of Rio
Janeiro 450, 600 coffee plants, amounting
to gross loss of 100000.
The marvels Of mechanism are not vet
exhausted. John Richards, OF Phila-
delphia, after seventeen years of per-
slstent labor, has perfected a machine
that will measure the fourth-thousandth
OF an inch. It is an ingenious piece Of
mechanism, the object Of which is to
secure the incest accuracy 10 the manu-
facture OF watches, seWing-machines
firearms, lenses, etc.
A painting that is greatly admired at
Rome this season, 1.-The Revels of Mes
sallna, has a strange history. The
man who painted it lived in an attic,
and kept body and soul together on q
limited diet of bread and onions. When
it was done he gave it to another painter
IN pledge for $500, and finally killed
himself in utter despair. Now that he
is dead, his pictures are selling. The
artist to whom ssMessalina" was pledged
also killed himself.
Hannibal Hamlin, Of Maine, is the
Oldest United States Senator, being sew
enty years, and Stephen w. Dorsey, OF
Arkansas, is the youngest, being thirty
seven. There are nineteen Senators over
sixty years of age, thirty-four between
hfty and sixty, nineteen between forty
and fifty, and three between thirty and
forty. Fifty-four of the Senators are
over fifty. Nine were Union officers
during the late war, twelve were officers
III the Confederate army, fourteen have
been governors and one has been Vice.
President.
Perhaps the "Midgets" are as dimin-
utiye as any pair Of known mortals.
One Of them-a girl, said to be fifteen
years of age-is named Lucia Zarate,
and was born in Mexico. She weighs
four and three-quarter pounds, and is
about as large asa medium sized doll.
The boy is native of Chenango county,
New York, is fourteen years old, and
turns the scales at nine pounds. The
mother of this boy recently gave birth
to little girl in New York and the
newborn child weighed more at its
birth than her fourteen year old
brother.
A good deal OF attention has been re-
Gently directed to the buffalo, from the
fact that he is being rapidly extermin-
ated. Yearly thousands OF them are
slain merely for the sake of their hides
and tongues, and it is feared that this
valuable animal will soon disappear
from the Western plains. Col. Ezra
Miller Of Mahwah, New Jersey, has re-
Gently been making experiments with
buffaloes that seem to prove that these
are even more valuable than has
been supposed. He has found that
common COW can be crossed with buf-
falo bull, there being no physical obsta-
Gle to hersbearing buffalo calf, as has
hitherto been claimed. He has also
proved that the thoroughbred buffalo is
easily domesticated and easily kept; that
the cows yield milk that will compare
favorably with that of the best Alder
neys, both in quantity and quality; and
that buffalo fattened upon such food
as we give our cattle makes excellent
beef. All these facts he has demon.
strated at his farm in Mahwah. In his
opinion there is pro table business to
be done by establishing buffalo ranches
on the plains, where calves can be col
lected, domesticated and shipped to the
East.