The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-11-05

uUU. as is Tile ease VI EuSldllO IO".
Even a dead dog can be put to a good
use, as has been shown in the case OF
the 5,40O CANNES that were drowned
by the New York city authorities last
summer. A shrewd contractor secured
and tanned the hides of the dogs, and
then sold the dressed skins to glove
makers, who will turn them into dog
skin gloves.
The defeat of the Zulus and capture OF
Cetewayo will open up all Catfre-land to
British power and control. Ere the at
tacks on this territory, it extended 600
miles along the coast, from the Great
Kei river to Delagoa bay, and included
what are now Natal and Zululand. The
new territory, just subjugated, has an
area of about l6, O square miles, with a
population of about $50, 1000. The climate
Is healthy, and a large portion of the
country is well watered and suitable for
grazing purposes.
A correspondent writing to the Chi
cago Tribune from New Mexico, re-
ports the discovery there of a new cereal
which he calls rice or Egyptian corn"
and which, it is claimed, will grow on
the arid desert lands of Western Kan
sas and Colorado. He planted forty
acres where there had not been a drop Of
rain for eight months, and it terminated
and grew, though there was no rain for
five weeks thereafter. 1t grows and
thrives where grass or any other green
thing is burnt up. Moreover, it is said
to be very toothsome and nourishing.
The year 1879 will pass into American
history rs q year of wonderful agrieul-
tural prosperity. The cotton crop is
larger BY half q million bales than ever
before, the tobacco crop 2,000,0 900
pounds greater; and the sugar crop ex-
ceeds by some 200, 900 hogsheads all pre-
vious Yields. These are crops which be-
lorg almost exclusively to the southern
half of the republic. In behalf of the
Northern States TIE excess of products
this year over the crops of any previous
year is, according to the Chicago Journal
of Commerce, 90, 900. 600 bushels of wheat
and from 80, 600, 900 to 100, OO0 900 bush
els of corn. The hog crop also is larger
this year than for q number of years
past--ifit be not the largest eve raised.
Reviewing the reports on the Madras
India) famine submitted by DR.. Cor
nish, sanitary commissioner Of that
presidency, the commission has arrived
| al the following conclusions: First, that
the same atmospheric conditions which
produce scarcity of food produce also
epidemic diseases; secondly, that q large
proportion of the mortality of n famine
season is due more to epidemic disease
than absolutely to want offood. although
the dcstructivcness of an epidemic is in
creased by the fact that people half
starving or i'll fed are less able to with
stand disease; thirdly, that q point in
the process of chronic starvation, when
nutriment no longer sustains life, is often
reached before people can obtain or will
seek relief at a distance from their
homes.
Some idea of the magnitude of the
telegraph business in the United States
may be gained from the annual reportof
the Western Union Telegraph Company,
which shows that the company has ut
present 80, 9S7 miles of line, oil ,566 miles
of wire, and 1854 offices. During the
year 25, 07O, l0e messages were sent. The
capital stock of the company is S4l,073,-
40, and of forty and q halt millions Of
net income in the last thirteen years, a
little less than twenty millions have been
paid in dividends to, stockholders; six
and a half millions paid for interest and
principle of bonded debt; more than
| thirteen millions added to the plant, in
the construction and purchase Of new
| lines and stocks in other companies and
real estate, all Of greater value for the
uses of the company than their cost;
and three-quarters Of q million remain rs
surplus IT, the treasury.
At the recent meeting at Montpelier
| of the French Agricultural Society the
majority of the proprietors whose vine
yards have been ravaged by the phyl-
loxera were of opinion that they must
look to the introduction of vine stocks
from America as the only means of
meeting the trouble they are in. FIX
periments have proved to the satistac-
ton of some Of the most experienced
members of the commission appointed
to investigate this subject that certain
American vines offer q vigorous resist
ance-more especially in respect to the
peculiar formation Of the root, the It's
sues of which are exceptionally thick
to the dreaded plague. On the other
hand, it is apprehended that these vines
will only be n success in certain portions
of France. The failure in the grape
crop is quite as severe as the failure IN
ordinary agricultural produce in Eng
land. The 800, 900 hectares under vines.
which represented in q great degree the
wealth of the department of Herault, are
gone. Fortunately, Frenchmen are not
in fat years unmindful that lean may
follow, or the condition OF things would
be very serious indeed.
In 1867 France had q very bad harvest,
and when bakers bread rose at Angou-
ieme to fifty centimes the kilogramme,
several leading townsmen organized, on
a capital of 81, 400, m economic bakery,
to furnish bread of the best quality and
lowest price to all cooperating. About
400 families, who paid up Sl.25 each,
Immediately joined. The first year the
promoters attempted nothing beyond re-
ducing the price of bread, which they
sold to subscribers twenty per cent.
lower than the bakers. When the hard
| times were over it became 4 question
whether the whole scheme should not be
dropped, but at the instance Of one very
energetic coadjutor, it was carried so
triumphantly forward that not only has
bread been furnished to the subscribers
Mt less than the bakers prices. but the
$4,000 subscribed in the hard times his
been repaid to the gentlemen who be-
nevolently advanced it, and u bakery
worth $4,000 has been erected. From a
thousand to eleven hundred families
now derive from this source their daily
supply of the very best bread, instead Of
paying a higher price for that of inferior
quality, or having the trouble and in
convenience of baking at home.
The subject of vivisection has not come
very prominently before the American
public, scientific investigators in the
United States having been less cruel or
more cautious or less %enterprising than
those of Europe; but in England and
Germany heated controversies have been
raging about it, and much strong feeling
has been called forth. A convention Of
the German associations for the preven-
ton of cruelty to animals that met sew
eral weeks ago in Gotha took up this
subject, and after long discussion adopted
a series of resolutions and recommended
tions that not even the stoutest advocate
of yiyisection can take lust exception