The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1880-12-08
OUIEN sABE.

The tomato is a native Of South America,
Peru being its original habitat.
A California inventor has devised a pro-
cess for pressing and drying potatoes so that
they will keep for years without loss of flavor
The company in Florida that has been
experimenting with the palmetto for making
paper has met with such gratifying success
that it will erect about twenty paper mills in
the State.
Electric bells have been placed at the
Mountain mine, Plumas county, California,
connecting both ends of the tramway, to be
used as signals tor dispatching cars Of ore
between the dump-house and the mill.
Horses nave been known to get blind
from standing in dark stables. The stables
should be SO lighted that the light will not
fall directly on the horses eyes. The win
doWs should be at the rear of the stalls.
"A beefsteak chopped up fine, and baked
with flour in the form of q meat bread-loaf,
is the latest dietetic sensation. It is asserted
that the meat thus treated entirely disappears
during the process of baking, the nutritive
principles becoming incorporated with the
bread.
The Moquis and Oribls of Arizona live
in houses fashioned after the manner of the
Zunis. cultivate the ground, own hocks and
herds, and are self-supporting. Their viii
lagos are built on a high plateau, about forty
miles north of the little Colorado river, which
rises in the midst of q sandy and apparently
sterile plain. Good crops of corn, pump
kins, onions and other vegetables, and fine
peaches, are raised around the base of this
plateau, on which copious showers fall every
year.
An old Ruby Hill miner, who has had
fifteen years experience underground, tells
the Eureka Sentinel that he has observed one
in the night, if there is a loose stone or bit
Of earth in The mine it is sure to fall. Said
he: 'About this time it seems that every
thing begins to stir, and Immediately after
IL, although the\mine has been as still as q
tomb before, you will hear little particles Of
rock and earth come 1umbling, and If there
is a caving piece of ground in the mine it is
sure to give way"
Arizona and New Mexico are the natural
home of the cacti, Of which there are said
to be over 800 varieties. The Cereus Gigan-
tus sometimes grow to the height of so feet,
and measure six feet in diameter. Some
have no limbs; others have from one to
three arms. They seem to stand on the top
Of the sand with scarcely any root, and must
receive their nutrition largely from the at
mosphere. They are capped with q beautiful
flower, and later with fruit. The Indians
remove the fruit with a long spiked pole and
use it in large quantities.
MILAN has a curiosity in a clock which is
made entirely Of bread. The maker is a
Peruvian, a native of India, and has devoted
three years Of his time to the construction of
this curiosity. He was very poor, and being
without means to purchase the necessary
metal, deprived himself regularly Of his daily
bread, which he devoted to the construction
Of this curiosity, eating the crust and saving
the soft part to do his work. He made use
Of certain salts to solidify his material, and
when the various pieces were dry they were
perfectly hard and insoluble to water. This
clock is of respectable size, and goes well.
The case, which is also of hardened bread,
displays great talent in design and execution.