Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1893-10-14
NOTES AND COMMENTS.

| NE Vi
Worlds Fair are bearing fruit in practi-
, cal way. A citizen of Jefferson, Penna.,
who is interested in breadstuffs, had his
eyes opened in Chicago when he came to
study the improved machinery on exhi-
bition there, and he declares that the old
| four-mill in the country districts, now
too often marked by broken wheel and
choked sluiceway, can still be operated
with profit if properly fitted out.
Promising that the Allegheny Valley
wheat is as fine as any grown in the
West, he says: IL found at the Worlds
Fair improved machinery for a -four
mill-nothing lacking that the makers
are selling for $1,000 l investigated
it carefully. l said to myself, if the
! machinery does what these people claim,
it will be the best investment | ever
made. The makers happened by good
luck to have their patent in mill in Mer-
Ger County. When | came home that
week, some Of us talked it over. We
was doing all that was claimed for it.
Mill machinery that would make fifty
barrels of flour per day for $4,000 sounds
cheap, doesn't it2 That's the figure few
of us will pay for the machinery alone.
We can put it in the Blank Mill, and
instead of peddling our magnificent
wheat that averages sixty -four pounds
to the bushel, we will grind it and sell
it and save all there is to be saved in the
shape of feed-a pretty nice item in
itself. When other people learn what
we are doing, there will be change in
milling all over the State. We will save
heap of hauling back and forward
the farmer will get more for his grain
more outcome. 1t must be poor com
| munity that can't raise enough money to
put in improved machinery when it is
! offered at such low figures, or that will
not Justify miller substituting it for
the sort of machinery now in use pretty
much all over Pennsylvania and Ohio in
the mills in the country districts"
A PECULIAR means of making a living
1T Lewiston, Me-, is by the collection of
wood in the Androscoggin, at the foot
If the falls, and the sale of it for house
iuel. Hundreds of families get all their
wood by way of the river, and valuable
ogs and pulp wood are often picked up
oy the driftwood hunters These men,
standing on the rocks by Boxers Island
On the Lewiston side of the falls, gather
IN with poles the stumps, roots, boards,
panks, and refuse wood that come down
with the overflow. Boats are also
pressed into service. The driftwood
hunter has to have care, however, what
logs he handles. Should a stick of pine
Or hemlock with private mark on it be
found in the swirling current, he must
leave it alone or run the risk of arrest for
larceny. On the Auburn side Of the
river there is considerable community
with long narrow boats, fiat bottomed
like scows, and with these craft they
collect vast quantity of floating wood,
often mourning the suspicion of ''poach-
ing" Naturally enough this is not con-
sidered very heinous crime, especially
when winter draws near. The lumber
men and water-power companies are
obliged to keep very sharp eye on these
gentry, and only recently several arrests
were made on something more than
suspicion.
The Department of Agriculture has
sent out circulars making inquiries over
a wide extent of territory regarding the
''seventeen-year locusts," which have
made an appearance this year in eight
States of the Union The object of the
department is to ascertain accurately the
limits of the areas occupied by the in
sects There are twenty-five known
broods of them, and they turn up in diff
ferent years in various parts Of the
country. Though to some extent the in
tested territories overlap, each brood
comes out of the ground only once in
seventeen years. Strictly speaking, the
insects are not locusts. but cicada. Some
years ago it was sought to introduce
these Insects as an article of diet; but the
experiments in that direction did not
promise success. Clearing of land has
done much to diminish the number of
these creatures; but their most destruc-
tive foe is the English sparrow, which
drops every other kind of food and feeds
on them exclusively when it has the
opportunity
SPEAKING of the Transportation
Building reminds Century writer of the
general subject of transportation to the
Fair, and suggests an incident which has
Il decided Gilbert and Sullivan flavor.
The Exposition managers were from the
start anxious TO have the railroads make
a low rate to Chicago Accordingly
they appointed committee on transpor
tation which consisted entirely, believe,
OF railroad men whose lines come into
Chicago lntheir capacity as committee
men these gentlemen passed a resolution
requesting their res lectlve railroads to
make reduced rates during the Worlds
Fair months. On receiving this resolu-
ton by mail the next day at their re-
spective offices, they in their capacity
as railroad managers, wrote letters to the
transportation committee DENYING the
request which, as members of that com
mittee, they had made
POSTAL cards have been in use hardly
twenty three years and yet, according to
THE Collector" there are how 5000
varieties of them-at least, the Watson
collection contains that many. This
collection includes, however, various
issues OF the same denomination, and
also cards issued for special occasions.