Miscellaneous Items.

Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 1507, 16 November 1885, Page 4

Miscellaneous Items.

A ; western timber-buyer thinki that if the original black walnut forests of Indiana and Ohio were standing to-day they would be far more valuable than the farms, to make which thoy were' 1 'Cleared away. Miles and miles offence . m those states,, were laid with black ..walnut rails. .A' farmer who began; . ; making. his farm thirty years ago , spent , eight years m clearing it ...of walnut ' '.timber, eighty acreß. of which he had "burned up. After thirty years of cultiration the farm is worth £1600. If it had its walnut timbar back it would be worth more than £20,000. . This farmer is only one among thousands who for r ,years,girdled, cut, and burned the great .. ; ,f oresj; they found occupying , the land." An English : author once attended a masked ball without a mask or domino. The. lady of the house a little piqued at ' ' this slight, approached him and said : . "Aiid pray, sir, what character do you liidme?" "I appear as a gentleman;" ; itid he. " Ah ! a capital disguise \\ ' The robkg, which for many centuries have frequented the spires of the ancient CAthedral of Batiabon, have suddenly . disappeared, and not a bird is now to be seeuin the vicinity. This circumstance has excited the utmost consternation n South Germany, as the last time that the .rooks took flight from Ratisbori Cathedral, their departure heralded * ' Tery severe outbreak of cholera. . ■