The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1890-11-07
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

There is moro shipping now In the
port at Charleston than at any time for
the last five years.
Eighteen and one-half tons of celery
were shipped from Kalamazoo in one.
day recently.
1t is said there are only two red
slate quarries in the United States, one
in Vermont and the other in Virginia,
The Chinese Cotton Cloth Company
of Shanghai is at last about to COM
mence operations, although much ham
pered by financial difficulties.
-Nearsightedness is overrunning the
French people as much as the Germans.
Among the senior boys in the different
French colleges more than forty-six per
cent. are nearsighted.
The largest fruit farm in West Vir-
ginia is the Becker farm, near Harper's
Ferry. 1t contains 5000 apricot trees,
1000 peach trees, 5000 plum trees,
5000 miscellaneous fruit trees and 49,
600 grape vines
Recent experiments on the physio-
logical effects of the electric current
lead to the belief that continuous cur
rent causes death by direct action on
the substance of the heart, and death
by an intermittent current is due to the
alteration of the nerves and the inhibi-
tory mechanism of the heart.
"A German chemist has discovered
that when bottle partly filled with a.
solution of ozone in water is shaken, a
soft phosphorescent glow spreads over
the surface of the liquid and quickly
disappears. A second shaking gives a
fainter light, but the appearance can
not be obtained again until after an
interval of some days.
"A French agricultural experiment
station reports that out of SIS plants the
goat eats 449 and refuses 1876; the sheep
out of SIS plants eat 3S7 and refuse 141;
the COW out Of 1914 plants eats 276 and re-
fuses 21S; the horse out of 474 plants
eats 1862 and refuses 212; while the pig
out of 243 plants eats 70 and refuses III.
The production of silk throughout
the world last year is estimated at H.
706 tons, as against 11,54S tons in 1883,
11,SSS tons in 1887, 1854 tons in 1886,
and 9,002 tons in 1885. The average of
the four years from 1885 to 1888 was
~, 10 UOllo' L hO 1000 SlOp was IdGu6F
above it, although scarcely any silk was
produced in Syria and other parts of the
Levant.-N. Y. Evening Post.
Apparently the tables are turning.
California prunes have become so popu-
lar in this country that it is said the
French are beginning to put up their
prunes in the California style, so that
they will pass for California prunes.
Some of these days, perhaps, dishonest
| by putting on them California labels.
Westward the star of Empire takes it's
way"
The value of the worlds production
of coffee, at 100000 cwt., would be
about 1907, 900, 900 in the wholesale
market. The worlds consumption of
coffee is placed at $780, 900 tons, the
United States and Canada alone using
265, 900 tons. Two-thirds of the coffee
we drink comes from Brazil, which pro-
duces considerably more than one-half
of the worlds supply.-Kansas City
Commercial.
Attention has been called in various
quarters (the United States, England,
lulLs L IdhSC w VAO
remarkable cold weather prevailing of
late years, since 1885, in Central and
Western Europe; the yearly average be-
ing constantly under the normal. It
now appears from an Algerian record,
that these years have been warmer than
usual in Algeria. 1t has also shown
that there has been no change in the
frequency of north and south winds,
while in Europe the northeast winds
have been increasing in frequency.
"A recent dispatch from Chattanooga
| contains the unequivocal announcement
of the casting of twenty-five tons of
superior, soft, low-carbon steel, OBJ
| tanned from Southern iron by the basic
| process. The dispatch describes this as
"the most important eventin the indus
trial development of the South" and if
| the account is true it is an important
event, surely. New England's relations,
with the coal and iron fields of the
| South are such that the news of this.
successful experiment will be received
with a good deal of interest in this re-
| gion.-Boston Journal.