The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1883-07-19


els. which is about half the size of last
years crop. 1t seems as if the short crop
must cause wheat to advance in price.
The manufacture OF barbed wire. and
of machinery used in making it, is now, by
Il decision of the United States Circuit
Court, open to everybody without royalty.
A Baltimore and Philadelphia Syndicate
is said to have purchased a tract of $4,000
acres of coal land in Kanawha county,
West Virginia, and will proceed to devel-
OPP the same.
An authefity.in iron matters says that
not less than $5,0O0,0O0 has been di-
verified from Pennsylvania within the past
two years and invested in the mineral de-
posits of Southwest Virginia.
Reports at the.otfi of the State Agri-
cultural Bureau are very favorable, and
indicate a better prospect for a corn crop
than last season. The fruits in the east
ern part of Virginia are inferior.
The principal iron-makers of Pennsyl-
vania are beginning to migrate to Virginia
and Alabama, where iron can be made
from $40 to $13a ton, against ST. to $40
in Pennsylvania. So says the Chicago
Tribune.
Gen. Chalmers independent State Con-
yention asssembled, at jackson, Miss, on
the 4th. Fifteen counties were repre-
sented. 1t adopted a platform of princi-
pies, but adjourned without adopting any
party name OF making nominations.
Analysis made by DR.. Henry Froehling,
analytical chemist of Richmond, shows
that the coke made at Low Moor furnace,
in Allegheny county. from New river
coal has 1884 parts of carbon, while a
typical coke'' from. Connellsville coal
contains only s7.46 parts.
We learn from the Allegheny Tribune,
COvingtoH, that Gen. VIM. Skeen, of that
town, has effected the sale.of his interest
in several large tracts of land in Pocahon-
tas county. The purchasers are West
Virginians. One of the tracts contains
eighteen thousand and another seventeen
thousand acres.
lane, Orange county, Florida, arrived in
Waynesboro, Thursday, says the Messen-
ger, having but recently recovered from a
severe spell of fever. Her health is such
as encourages her friends to hope that a
new lease of life has been granted her.
Stock of the Richmond and Allegheny
road are now quoted at g.. 1t generally
requires about eighteen months to get a
railway in the hands of receiver in a
condition to sell it, and it is supposed that
the Chesapeake and Ohio company will
buy the Allegheny line when it shall be
sold. 49, ga 3 - =
A convention to nominate a candidate
for the State Senate in the Shenandoah and
Page District has been called to meet in
New Market on the 23d of August The
call is signed by L. S. Walker and A. K.
Grim. chairmen respectively of the Shen-
andoah and Page counties Coalition Com
mittees.
Tom Thumb, the famous dwarf, who
has amused more children within the past
thirty years than perhaps any other single
individual, died at his home in Middle
boro, Mass, on Sunday last. He was born
in Bridgeport, Conn.,, and was fOrty-five
years OF age. AT IA he entered the service
of P. 7. Barnum and has been before the
public ever since. He leaves widow
who is as diminutive as her lord. His real
name was Charles Haygood Stratton.
The system of propelling street cars by
means of an endless cable. now in success
full operation in Philadelphia Chicago and
San Francisco, is to be introduced in New
York, the Third Avenue Railroad Com
pany having determined to be the pioneer
with the cable system in that city. The
cars will be run through Tenth avenue,
from l25th street to High Bridge. After
the public have become accustomed to it
the company will introduce the system on
Third avenue.
The Daisy Coal Mining Company, of
Naslyille.s Tenfr., capital stock $3.50, 900, in
shares of 500 each,' owns in fee about
5000 acres of coal lands, containing five
veins of coal, when has been fully tested
and developed. The mines are located in
Walden's Ridge, Melville. Tenn, on the
line of the Cincinnati and Southern rail-
way, II miles north of Chattanooga. The
Company have issued. in pamphlet form, a
report made by Prof I'll. f. Cotton, late
geOlogist and inspector of mines for the
state of Tennessee.
With pressed bricks, cement pavements
and fire-roof inventions, the age of raw
material for building is fast passing away.
At the West they are now making boards
and beams out of straw. It's toughness,
it's firmness lin holding, nails and screws.
the ease witIifWhich it can be cut, the fact
that it can be bent by heat and shaped in
dies. all recommend it to carpenters and
builders. 1t seems to be Il nOn-cOnductor of
heat and electricity. 1t can be rolled up
into pipes of great strength and light
weight, and is available for a range of uses
for paneling purposes for which we have
no equivalent. VI -
The New York Herald has compiled
list OF accidents since January 1, 1888, in
which three OF more persons were killed,
and finds the number Of killed during this
period to be 1886. Many of these acct
dents were clearly preventable being the
result of carelessness or of the use Of bad
materials oleota imperfect manufacture.
Boiler explosions are seen to be of almost
daily occurrence. 1t is probable that the
number of deaths by accident OF which no
account was made in the publisheds record
is at least 1000 more. These latter were
due to greater variety of causes, and
smaller portion of them were preyentable,
but of them the greater part would never
have occurred had ordinary precaution
been taken.
The great value of manufactures as
promoters of the growth of cities is Illus
trated in the experience of Cleveland,
Ohio. MI. James M. Swank, secretary of |
the American Iron and Steel Association, |
having lately visited that city, says in the |
Philadelphia Bulletin: cleveland is to- |
day a wonderfully progressive and prosper
GUS city. Its population has doubled since |
1888, being now over 100000 souls. Its
people are all employed, and mainly in |
manufacturing pursuits. Manufactures |