The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1880-10-14
FACTS AND FIGURES.

| "A swift train ran into an unwary
flock Of wild turkeys on Canada rail-
road, killing twelve.
From a single potato planted by
David Brown OF Pricetown, Pa, the
product was 5S7 fine potatoes.
The tobacco crop in North Carolina
is very fine. The area of the crop this
year is double the usual extent.
Near Hood River, Oregon. q human
skeleton was found recently in the fork
of tree, fifteen feet from the ground.
The St. Louis Cotton Exchange
offers premium of 5000 to the larg.
est shipper of cotton from Texas to that
market this season.
"A youth of nine years, arrested in
France lately for putting stones on the
railroad, explained that he did it for
fun and to see what would happen.
There is an orange tree in Calves
ton, Tex. planted twenty-six years ago,
that now has two thousand oranges on
1t. 1t has borne fruit for more than
twenty years.
"A good many Cinnamon in San
Francisco have gone into the manufact-
ure of brooms. There are now sixteen
broom factories managed by Chinese in
San Francisco.
There IS prospect of an abundant
yield of rice in Georgia this year. The
area devoted to the cultivation of this
grain will doubtless be largely increased
in the future.
The Southern Pacific track has been
going down at the rate of over $4,000
feet per day. and on one day no less
than 1880 feet, or 2 42-1O0 miles were
laid.
Two short-line railroads will soon
connect the twin cities of St. Paul and
Minneapolis with double steel tracks
and half-hourly trains, which are ex-
pected to cover the ten miles in fifteen
minutes.
The dependencies of the British
Empire, according to an article in the
London Economist, include an area of
1910, 059 square miles, population of
2O5, 264. 900, coast line of 80, 900 miles,
and total trade. exports and imports
together, of 81, $40, 100000.
The largest lathe in the world has
just been erected at the St. diamond
steel-works in the department of the
Loire, France, where it will be employed
in the turning of one hundred-ton guns.
The lathe was made at the Whitworth
Works, in England.
The New York Herald Irish relief
fund was cheaply distributed $3.50, 900
was distributed over large area at a
total cost of $1,000. This is about
three-quarters of one per cent. and
considering the small divisions made of
the money, and the great territory that
was covered, the cost is extraordinarily
small.
AT a recent anniversary celebration
of the battle of North Point, near Balti-
more, ten of the sixteen survivors
marched in the procession. Their ages
ranged from 80 to IS, and the eldest
carried the flag which they defended
the identical one which, on thai occa-
sion, melted Key to write 1.-The Star
Spangled Banner"
The needlegun is the invention of
John Nicholas Dreyse, Prussian lock-
smith. He was nineteen years old
when the battle of Jena was fought,
and picked up musket upon the field,
an examination of which convinced
him that his countrymen were the
worst-armed soldiers in Europe. Dreyse
made his way to Paris and entered the
employ of Swiss gunmaker, whom
Napoleon commissioned to make q
breech-loading musket. The young
apprentice took up the idea and worked
at it for many years until, in 1885, he
succeeded in making breech-loading
needlegun. The Prussian Government
tried and adopted the weapon, and sup
piled the inventor with means for car
rying on the manufacture of the gun
now used in Kaiser Wilhelm's army.