The bee., 1882-12-23

exported during that year being eight
bales.
A peculiar fungus has carried ruin
into the numerous coffee plantations
of Ceylon, tie Bui islands and Java,
and dismay into the bosoms of their
owners. II is even feared that the
plant is doomed, like the grape, to
gradual extinction unless some means
of extinguishing its mortal enemy is
discovered.
The wealth of the United States now
exceeds that of either Great Britain or
France, but the average wealth per
capita is less here than in those coun-
tries. The wealth of the United States
is $49,800,000,0O0, or 1895 per eapita
Of Great Britain, $44.100,000,0 900,
which is 81 200 per head; France, S37,,
100000, 900 or s1,045 per capita. In
lS40 Great Britain's wealth was five
times as great as that of the United
States.
over sixty cora cannerieS in the
State Of Maine annually put up IL, 2,000,-
600 cans. An exchange has made an
estimate of the cost at which corn is
so prepared for the market. The far
mer is said to receive three cents for
the corn contained in the can, the tin
and solder cost three cents, and the re-
mainder, four or five cents, goes to the
manufacturer for putting up and mar
keting. The cans contain twenty-siX
ounces Of corn, SO that farmers raise
from 1000 to 5000 cans per acre, the
average being about 1900, giving
cash value of $45. There are several
factories i'll Massachusetts, but Maine
is said TO put up one-third Of the corn
canned in the country.
The FinoRcieF, a new paper pub
ished in the City of Mexico, devotes
considerable space to an earnest plea
Tor settlement Of the national debt.
1t says that Mexico is Justly bound to
pay its creditors about $125,000,0Qo.
The $200,000,000 of debt contracted
under Napoleon and Maximilian, when
those worthless were striving to con-
quer Mexico, it believes, should not be
paid, but be repudiated in toto. The
ftRdIcicr understands that the eX-
chequer Of the republic is in splendid
condition, and it has no doubt that the
country is on the straight road to an
unprecedented prosperity. With her
present resources, it sees no reason
why Mexico cannot refund her entire
debt at favorable rates. If new bonds
at five per cent. were issued, the
Ftnancier would expect to see them
taken up
The extent of the lighthouse service
is not generally known even in mari |
time circles. According to the latest
report of the lighthouse board we have
in all 723 lighthouses, thirty-eight |
Gghtships; siXty-four fog signals.
operated by steam or hot air 10 fog |
bells, operated by machinery; $50 |
beacon lights on Western rivers, 345
unlightcd OF day bcacons, thirty-three |
automatic whiStlinS buoys, fourteen
automatic bell buoyS and 1877 buoys
of other descriptions. To maintain
and attend to all these lighthouses,
lights and buOys requires the service
Of twenty-five steam tenders, four |
steam launches, two sailing tenders,
1,709 light keepers, "including laborers
in charge of Western river lights"
and 6S6 "other employees, including
crews of lightships and tenders" The
total annual expense of the light
house establishment and log signals is
S2,749,000.
So many shocking disasters occur in
this mu h-travcling ase that people
are in some danger of forgetting the
fact, long since established, that the
risk of .eatl, whether 10y land or
water, is much less than generation
ago. The system of national inspcc-
ton Of steam vessels WIS established
in 1851, in which year 39,000,000 pas
sengers were carried, and 700 lives
were lost by reason of accidents to
steam boilers and hulls. During the
past year the number of passengers
transported was over nine times us
great, or 354,000,000. and yet the
number of lives lost was not one-third
so many, the list footing up only 2O5,
which was siXty-three less than in the
previous year. 1t remains true, how
ever, that milny disasters occur to
steam vessels which are inexcusable,
and more careful inspection and super
vision should still further reduce the
proportion of fatality.
Astronomy is steadily enlarging the
field of human knowledge regarding
the different bodies in the solar uni
verse, and the influence which t.ey
exert upon the atmospheric and cleo
trical conditions of our earth. An
discovery, which may now
be accepted as conclusivelv established,
is the fact that great electrical storms
are coincident with the appearance of
immense spots on the suns surface. !
Exactly what these sun-spots are no
body knows, but astronomers lave
now made sufficient study of their de-
velopment and effect to determine
their great influence upon our planet,
and they should soon be able to pre-
dict, from the growth of a large spot
on the sun, the probability of a great
storm on the earth. Every
such discovery is not only important
in itself, but still more SO for the
promise it affords of still moro valu- .
able conclusions in the future.