The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1879-10-09
INDUSTRIAL.

IHE gatherlng OF Iancl1ul sea shells
is one Of the industries of Key West.
The cotton crop in Northern Texas
was never known to be better than it is
this year. ..H
The manufacturers of Reading, Pa,
are acceding to the demands of their
men for higher wages.
The London Iron,nonger is authority
for the statement that nearly twenty
thousand tons of iron rails have been
purchased in South Wales for this coun-
try at prices up to $22.5O a ton for inn
mediate delivery. Scotch and hemaite
pig iron is also selling largely for
America.
AMERICAN "bob-tair' cars are to be
introduced into London. Eight of these
vehicles, manufactured in New York,
were ready for use a fortnight ago.
There are three excellent lights, one at
each end, and powerful reflector in
the center; there is an arrangement by
springs by which the cars can 60 round
curves almost as easily as on straight
lines, and passengers will be able to
stop the car by pulling line attached
to the bell-strap, the strap running
along the sides of the car instead of in
the center, out of reach. The "bob-
tails are to be run from Chaplain to
St. Georges borough at first, and the
fare will be threepence for any distance,
instead of twopence, desire having
been expressed that they should be kept
as select as possible. Another Ameri-
can idea is to be put in practice by the
tramway company-namely, the sale of
packages of tickets.
The toothpick market is agitated.
Those chiefly in use are of white-wood
and pointed at both ends. Apatent for
fourteen years was obtained for them in
1866, and the factory of the Boston
owners at Bucksfield, Me-, used from
three to five thousand cords of wood
yearly, and turned out incalculable
quantities. A box of two thousand five
hundred sold for twenty-five cents, and
the profit was large. A log six feet
long and about eighteen inches in diam
eter was placed in a machine, where
bevel knives cut it in each direction
and turned out the toothpicks ready
for market. About eighteen months
ago another Boston firm started fac
tory in the woods of Ohio, and used
similar machinery. The price then be.
gan tumbling, and fell to twenty cents
at retail, then to eighteen, fourteen
and twelve. Of late the original man
ufacturers have reduced the figure tt
ten cents, or eight cents at wholesale
and report their antagonists to be on the
verge of stoppage.
| A WASHINGTON correspondent writes
"There is a chance for Northern la
borers who are without work in Mis-.
sissippi. 1 hear from General Chal.
mers, who knows the country thorough.
ly, that the table-lands from Vicksbure
to the Louisiana line are capable o.
sustaining very large population, anC
that they are almost entirely deserted
General Chalmers says that it is the
most healthy section of the State, and
that before the war it was the most
fertile and prosperous. Many Of the
farm residences and buildings cost in
easy times from ten thousand dollars
upward, and the money to erect them
came from the farms. Now most OF
them can be rented for sums almost
nominal. The celebrated petit cotton
f1ourishes well there. 1t is not so pro-
life as swamp-grown cotton, and on
that account the negroes have deserted
the uplands for the swamps, but the
yield of other products more than COM
pensates for the deficit. General
Chalmers thinks that the table-lands
offer more advantages in every way to
the immigrants or white laborers than
do the lands in the West. Their ad.
vantages have not been advertised fol
ack of means to do So"