Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1885-12-10
Facts and Figures.


The State census of Wisconsin has
been taken and the total population is
shown TO be l 500. $50, gain over 1880
of p per cent. The largest gains are
in the northern half of the State. where
there have been large openings of
comparatively new country. due in
great measure to lumber interests.
Cooperative associations. or union
stores, for the sale of groceries or dry
goods, are as popular in Massachusetts
manufacturing towns MS building asso-
Citations are in Pnilldelphia. Some
communities OF 5000 Inhabitants sup
port two or three. The union store at
Danyers, n minor shoemaking town,
has just declared its fifth annual diyi-
dend OF S35 on every 500 share.
According to data collected by Mr.
r. w Best, of the Department of Ag-
riculture, there are in the United States
2S5. 600. 600 acres of improved land.
445, 900. 600 acres of forest, and $780,
100000 acres of unimproyed and waste
untimbcred land. incidentally il is
found that forests are disappearing at
the rate of $1,000. 600 acres each year.
The forest product during the census
year was 1S.000 900. 900 feet board
measure. Last year it was 2S 200, 000,-
600 feet.
The earliest recorded protected En-
glish invention is said to be the making
of the Philosophers Stone: That in
the time of Edward Ill. some alchem-
lists persuaded the King that Philoso-
piers Stone might be made; that the
King granted commission to two fri
airs and two aldermen to inquire it it
were feasible. who certified that it was,
and that the King granted to the two
aldermen patent privilege that they
and their assigns should have the sole
making OF the Philosopher Stone"
An important series of experiments
has long been in progress at Mddles-
borough, England, with the view OF
utilizing oil waste from chemical
works, instead of coal, rs fuel for
steamers. 1t is claimed that the new
invention will revolution!ze the ocean
carrying trade. Several steamers ply
ing between English and Mediterranean
ports nave made round trips by the use
of the new fuel exclusively. and the en-
gineers report excellent results. The
oil tanks occupy but little room and
the fuel costs only half as much as
coal.
More than three hundred years ago
an English historian gave the follow
ing description of saw-mill: The
sawmill is driven with an upright
wheel. and the water that maketh it go
is gathered whole into narrow trough,
which delivcreth the same water to the
wheel. This wheel has piece of tim
Der put to the aXle-tree end, like the
handle OF 4 broch, and tasted to the
end of a saw. which being turned by
the force OF the water hoisteth up and
down the saw, that it continually eat
eth in, and the handle of the saw is
kept in rigall of wood from swerving.
Also the timber licth, rs it were. npon
q ladder, when is brought by little to
the saw with another vice.
Three hundred pages of statistics in
the last report OF the Massachusetts
Bureau OF Labor Statistics are taken
up with a historical review of wages
and prices from 1852 10 1860. Taking
the history broadly we find that wages
have risen far more rapidly than the
price of commodities has advanced.
In thirty years before the war wages
advanced 62,3 per cent. in twenty lead
ing occupations, while commodities
rose but Il per cent. in price. Since
1860 the rise in wages has been "a
per cent; in commodities, 14.5 per
cent. Or, since 1880 there has been q
rise OF S9.4 per cent. in wages, and an
advance Of IS per cent in the price OF
commodities. The same amount OF
human toll to-day reaps larger re-
ward in necessities and comforts than
ut any previous era in our history.
Man grows more valuable and things
less valuable with every decade. The
general tendency is to the equalization
of condition, rs Mr.. Carey asserted in
the face of the pessimistical teaching OF
the English economists nearly half q
century ago he american.