The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-12-18
ITEMS AT LARGE.

Rat killing is popular pastime In
Dallas Texas.
Selma, Ala, receives over 1000 bales
of cotton daily.
The central Illinois farmers have
nearly all their corn husked.
Brownsville, Tenn, is shipping several
hundred bales of cotton daily.
Some Kansas farmers are going ex
tensively into the peanut culture.
Nat. Collins, of Greenup County
KY, gathered this fall from a thirty-fve
acre orchard $40 barrels Of apples.
California salmon are being exten-
sively distributed in the streams of West
Virginia by the Fish Commissioner Of
that State.
Gerster gets $500 a night for singing
two hours in opera, but that baby can
make her travel up and down room all
night and sing for just nothing at all.
An Iowa paper says: A consignment
of three car loads of choice wheat, for
seed, is en- route to Southern California
at cost of 5000 per car for transporta-
tion.
Union Springs (Ala.) Herald: Not
less than a million choice fruit trees,
shrubs and plants have been sold and
delivered in Pike County within the past
eight years, and fruit of every kind
grows to perfection and is produced in
satisfactory salts quantities to make it profit
Dallas (Texas) Herald: The farmers
of this county have already marketed
twice the amount of cotton they expected
to gather at the commencement Of the
picking season, and received much bet
ter prices than anticipated, and as a re-
suit they are nearer out of debt and in
better condition than for many years.
Nearly one million pounds of leaf to-
baceo was seized in New Orleans a few
days since by revenue officials for an
alleged violation of the law, in convert
ing leaf tobacco by hydraulic pressure
into form which is believed by the Of
ficials to be manufactured tobacco, and
therefore liable to a tax of sixteen cents
per pound.
Frankfort KY, Yeoman: A popularity
about the fine samples of corn sent to
the. Agricultural Department from Ma
son County is that each ear contains
from one to d3zen purple grains. We
Go not observe this in any of the samples
sent from other counties. There is also
marked uniformity in the size Of the
ear, showing that the corn is of distinct
type.
A recent inventor, says the American
Agriculturst, claims to be able to make
hardwood lumber from wheat straw. The
straw is first made into a pulp, and then
into ordinary pasteboard. As many of
these sheets are taken as required to
make the thickness of lumber desired,
and then are passed through a chemical
solution, the composition of which is not
stated, and afterwards the sheets are
passed through rollers, and the hard lum-
Der, impervious to water, comes out
ready for use.
Mr.. j. Noone, Government Photog-
rapher, Victoria, referring to an article
on large trees, sends us English Me-
chanic) a couple of photographs Of the
"Gant of the Forest" mentioned. The
total length of the tree-for it is felled-
was, allowing "a feet for small branches
disappeared" $50 feet; the circumfer-
ence l foot above ground was 50 feet;
diameter IL feet above ground, ia feet;
and at 210 feet as much as 5 feet.
The tree grew in the Dandenong State
Forest, and was white gum (Eucalyp-
tus Amygdalina).
The Trustees of the Maine State Agri-
cultural College lately held their annual
meeting, and there were present Wingate
of Bangor, Oak of Garland, Hincks Of
Buckspott, Bean of Kennebec, Goodale of
Saco, and Moore of Limerick. The term
of Abner Coburn as President and mem
Der of the Board of Trustees expired
some months ago. VIM. P. Wingate was
chosen President of the Board. Lyndon
Oak is Secretary, and Col. Eben Webster
is Treasurer. The College is making
very good progress. The farm this sea-
son paid all its expenses.
The grape-growers of California have
learned what varieties of grapes will best
bear transportation, says the Agricul-
turist, and keep in fine condition. By
the box they retail for about 20 cents
per pound. Still, when one can get
thoroughly ripe Catawbas, from Keuka
Lake and thereabouts, for 5 cents per
pound, one who knows grapes has little
temptation to buy any others, however
attractive they may be to the eye. There
is no grape, nat We or exotic, to our no.
ton, superior to thoroughly ripened
Catawba, except the Iona. in the same
Condition, but that is becoming more
and more scarce.
In storing potatoes several methods are
adopted, which are practically the same,
the object being to protect them against
freezing, whether buried in pits or stored
in cellars. The first consideration is to
keep them in perfect darkness; the next
is, the bins should not be too deep-not
over three feet-to produce warmth and
cause them to sprout. If in cellars,
barns or otherwise, the bins should be
covered with rugs, old carpetings, OF
straw. Those intended to be kept for