Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1884-08-27
II.-NO WOODSTOCK w. WEDNESDAY, AUUUol Ill., loo4

1884. '
TOPICS OF THE DAY. s
Experiments in silk culture as a
home industry are progressing in the (
West and to some extent in the South /
Ladies in Georgia, Louianiana, Ohio |
Illinois, Kansas and Iowa report the
successful Matching Of premium eggs ,
and edifying experience in the raising
of worms.
The New Orleans "World's Fair"
to be opened next December, was first
intended to commemorate the centen-
NAL of the shipment of six bags OF
cotton from Charleston, SC, to Eng
and, in 1884: but its scope has been
enlarged so as to embrace all indus
tries. The buildings will be larger
than those at the Philadelphia Centen-
nial; the machinery hall alone will be
1900 feet by 800 feet and cover 81
acres.
The business of making wooden
houses in the United States for custom
sale is stimulated by b.isk demand
for these products in Brazil Several
large shipments have been made to
Rio Janeiro, and they were all sold
soon after their arrival Fifteen hun
dred of these have already been
erected IN the new City of La Plata,
the new capital of the province OF
Buenos Ayres.
A letter from Germany notes that
nearly 6,000,O0O acres of land in that
part of the world have recently been
diverted from the cereals to the cul-
ture of beet root. The refuse, after .
the extraction of sugar, forms fine
feed for live stock, and tends to make
the people there less dependent Upon
us for meat than they used to be, but
the contrary is the case with regard
to cereal food.
G. W. Lindquist, one of the survi-
vors of the Polaris expedition, declares
that no arctic voyager need expect to
be made hero of very long after his
return. He holds masters certificate
and was once toasted from town to
town, but now, as he laughingly ad-
mits, is able to to find no better
position than quarter-master on
coasting steamer. Nevertheless he is
in favor of polar expeditions and is
sure they are productive of good OF
several sorts.
1t is said that the barbarous custom
of suttee still fingers in India, and
case is reported from the Rajportana
states within the last few months.
A thakoor's widow burned herself in
the Duni district of Jeypore, but the
district court brought those concerned
to Justice, innicting sentences of from
three to ten years imprisonment.
The British government long ago en-
acted severe laws against the suttee,
but the superstition is difficult to erad-
icate.
Charts of the geographical distribu-
tion of the lightning strokes for 1882
and 1888. prepared from our fire
records, says the Insurance Chronicle
show that they are chiefly confined to
that part of the country situated north
of the Ohio River and east of the
Missouri River. In both years IS per
cent. of all the strokes occurred with
in this area. In the Southern States
lightning seems to be comparatively
rare, and seldom occurs outside of
three States-Texas, Louisiana, and
Georgia. There seems to be two
principle centres of electrical disturb
ance, from the fire underwriters
standpoint, and these are in the New
England and Northwestern States
Sixty-fve per cent Of the strokes
happen in the summer; the remaining
35 per cent. are divided between spring
and autumn in about equal proper
tions.
Nicholas Anchorena, who died not
long since at Buenos Ayres, was
probably the richest farmer in the
world. His executors report his rural
estates as follows: Land, 1,710 square
miles; COWS, $4,000; sheep,4lO,O00
He also owned much house property
in Buenos Ayres, and his assets have
been valued at $l2,400,000. He in
herited $1,000 from his father thirty
!, years ago.
L. P. Mccarthy, the well-known
! statistician of San Francisco, who
| publishes a volume annually of statis-
. tics, which are collected with great
| industry from all quarters of the world,
. has at last succeeded in obtaining from
the imperial office at Pekin the official
census of the population of China.
, According to the data thus obtained,
, the actual population of the Chinese
empire is 2S0.G00,000. While China
| Is still the most populous empire in
the world, it will be noted that the
country usually denominated India has
| a nopulatiOn nearly as large, although