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MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

The Scientific American says :— “During the past tea years 36,000,000d015. worth of silver has passed through the Lima Mint for coinage or assay, the amount coined being £17,000,000dols ( Gold coin pays 3 per cent, export duty. The exportation of national silver coin is prohibited, but silver bars may be exported on payment of 3 per cent., and coin is accordingly melted into bars to evade the prohibition. There is but a slight production of gold, but silver is largely produced and exported either as a metal or ores. Coinage is unlimited and gratis, the Mint.receiving bullion and returning its value in coin. Silver is found in all the western range of the Andes from latitude to Sdegs. to 22degs. south. The district of Cerro del Pasco produced between 1630 and 1849 475,000,000d015. A tunnel on; the plain of the famous Sutro tunnel is projected at Cerro del Pasco, 150 ft, .below the present workings, and is calculated to open up 100,000 square yards of surface, and 500,000,000d015. worth of fresh ore. This is but one of the many mining districts, .as others of equal value with better railroad facilities exist in the province of Puuo. Before the modern system of railways, the difficulties to be encountered in the way of smelting silver wero incredible, the ores being transported great distances on mules' backs over .rugged mountain paths, where often ani-. mals with their loads were lost through n misstep, yet, notwithstanding this, immense quantities were smelted at the Government works.”

The manufacture of oleomargarine—or butter made from fat-—has reached immense proportions in America ; one establishment in New York alone uses 200,0001 b, of fat daily, from which 100,0001 b. of oleomargarine is produced. Sqrae of the dairy farmers have taken alarm at this, and at a recent meeting of the New York State Dairymen’s Association the Hon. C._L. Sheldon delivered himself of the following piece of rhetoric :—“ We live in an age when the hand of scientific research is stretched out to grasp the secret forces of nature, and who knows but the day will-soon dawn upon us when not only the cow shall take seat in dairy science and economy, but the whole bovine family shall. be entirely excluded ; and not only that, even the vegetable kingdom shall be discarded, while science with one hand shall roach down into the bowels of the earth, and with the other shall grasp the subtle elements of the sky, and bring them together, manipulate them, and name the resultant product butter 2 . And _;then we poor dairymen, our occupation gone, shall sit with folded. hands and muse upon our sad condition, thinking upon our hard lot, until, perchance this formula shall come to mind : ‘No grass, no cattle ; no cattle, no manure ; no manure, no crops ; no crops, no folks ; no folks, no anything;’ and then beginning again at ‘no anything,’ we may reason hack until wo come to ‘no grass,' and thus for ever, in this circle, we may travel and reach the result that from nothing comes nothing.” Well may an English writer, paraphrasing the above, ask the question, “ Is it not possible, after all, that the moon may bo made of green cheese ?” In article on the poultry supply of England Land and Water says it is common in the southern counties, whence come enormous numbers of ‘‘ prime young geese,” for the eggs to be hatched by children. The little ones are kept in bed night and day, being relieved by others, who arc kept from school for the purpose of hatching out eggs, that aro thus maintained at the requisite temperature for incubation. The information must be anything but agreeable for the connoisseurs who dole on the festive bird.

Mr. M'Adam, a Scotch farmer, who emigrated to America years ogo, Ims gone a sensible way to work to decide the question as to the relative value of shorthorns and Ayrehires as milkers. Mr. M’Adam keptsixty-four of each breed' on exactly the same conditions, both herds being first-class of their respective breeds, and with the following results' for the month of Juno last :—Ayrshires, 64 cows—6s,3Bolb. of milk ; cheese, 6424 lb.; ratio, 10T7 ; daily average of milk per cow, 33 lb. ; cheese, 34 lb. Shorthorns, 64 c0w5—52,680 lb; of milk ; cheese, 4797 lb. ; ratio, 10'98 ; daily average of milk per cow, 27 lb. ; cheese, 2 - 7-I5 lb. The Oardciw's Monthly is rich in information regarding the treatment of flowers. We have a further instalment of the methods adopted to keep up the of mignonette during the winter months. This old-fashioned plant is quite os great a favorite as ever in the old land ; here; it is as often ns not crowded out by something newer, but certainly not so deserving, for very few things have over occupied the position, so long-held by mignonette. The seeds are sown in pots by the florists who supply the demands of London.' We hear of some of these florists with 16,000 pots' of mig-

nocette for the season. The seedlings are raised in shaded heat, but are allowed abundance of sun after being thinned out. This practice answers admirably here also. For cut flowers, shallow vessels, or plates of glass or china, are in favor. A little mound of moss is built up on the plate ; the flowers are arranged in the moss with ferns, mosses, and other beauties, and when maintained iu a damp state keep fresh for a long time. The National Gallery Pictures.— The cleaning of the old pictures at tho*National Gallery, which is now in progress, has been attracting some attention lately.. Not a few artists and connoisseurs are afraid that we are about to experience serious loss from the scouring that is at present going on in the National Gallery. “The Music Lesson,” by Titian, is cited as one of the works that have been most severely scraped and skinned, and a “ Holy Family” by the same master is alleged to have been considerably the worse for the cleansing to which it has been recently subjected. It is a well-known fact that hard brushes and soft soaparetherevivaliata'used in Trafalgar-square. With all the modern methods known to respectable picture dealers it is worse than barbarism to resort to this-charwoman process of cleaning. One recalls the statue of Erasmus at Rotterdam, which at one tiifie was freestoned every Saturday, until the author of “ The Praise of Folly” was as bright as.a new farthing. Under a new burgomaster, however, Erasmus was left to bronze in peace. Why not let our old masters alone ? The Rain Tree.— The Council of the United States of Colombia, in the Department of Loreto (Peru), has written from Yurimaguas to President Prado, informing him that in the woods adjacent to the city of Mayocamba, there exists a tree called by the natives Tamai caspi (rain tree), which possesses some remarkable qualities. It is a tree of fifteen metres (about fifty feet) high, when at maturity, and has tho property of absorbing an immense quantity of humidity from the atmosphere, which it concentrates and subsequently pours forth from tho leaves and branches in a perfect shower,- and in such abundance that in many cases the ground in its neighborhood is converted into a perfect bog. It possesses this curious property in its greatest degree in the summer, precisely when the rivers are at the lowest, and water most .scarce, and the writer of the letter proposed that it should be planted in the more arid regions of Peru, for the benefit of agriculturists. The Latest in Ladies Hats. —The full dress hat for ladies in Paris continues to be either a white Rubens or a golden-cloth Marie Stuart capote, of which the edge is a row of cut beads; Very rich and curious are tho knick-knacks on velvet and faille bonnets, the prettiest being initials, large hammer-shaped pins, and swords and daggers. The fashion for exotics and exotic foliage is declining. Opera caps are now the prettiest head-dresses. Rich Oriental tissues are made up for caps.

Revival op an Old Industry.—Fans.— An exhibition of fans and a competition in the art of fan-making are about to be held in the City, under the auspices of the Fan Makers’ Company. This Guild, which has now been revived, some of the leading fan-makers in Londonbaving joined it, was founded in 1709, under a charter granted by Queen Anne. In 1791 the company found that a considerable quantity of fans was being imported into this country from France, to the great detriment of the English maufacturers ; and they attempted to get the Government of the day to prohibit the importation, and to sue for the then penalty of £2OO for the offence of selling any French fan embelished with gold, silver, or other metal. The Government, however, only replied that they did Hot see sufficient grounds to recommend any alteration in the existing laws, aud neither the company nor the trade could get any redress, The present Master of the Company is Mr. Henry Home wood Crawford, one of the ’ Under-Sheriffs. These “ sceptres of the world,” as they have been, styled in the hands of beauty, can boast a high antiquity, paintings of them, 4000 years old, being found at Thebes. The usual materials are ivory for the. complete fan, mother-of-pearl, sandal wood, and tortoiseshell for the panaches and hrins , sticks and inner ribs. The choice for mount is practically illimitable, vellum,. paper, feathers, and lace being called into requisiton, and no articles de luxe afford such scope for artistic treatment. At the Philadelphia exhibition much interest was excited by some unique specimens in the Jamaica section ; these. were made from the lace bark (layctta lintearia ), adorned with the delicate-cuticle of the dagger plant ( yucca aloifolia), .and rare native filiny ferns. These were not only charming, but cheap, and would be certain to command a large sale in this country.

We (Stannum Miner) are indebted to Mr. James "Warren, of Sugarloaf, a gentleman upon whose veracity wo place the best reliance, for the following, account of a most extrarodinary occurence. We give the statement as nearly as possible in Mr, Warrell’s own wordsl give you the details of a very rare occurence. A-boy of mine, about 11 years old, was sent a message last Saturday week, about 1 o’clock p. m. About half-way between my place and Connolly’s, on a well used road, a kangaroo came from behind, took him up, and carried him, without stopping, to the. Maryland Company’s ground—about a mile and a-half —over some very rough country, The lad got homo about dusk, his face bloody, and seeming'y half mad. lie soon became sensible, however, and by the time I got home*—an hour afterwards—lie was sufficiently recovered to bo “interviewed.” “Well. Willie, did you not see tbe kangaroo before ho caught* you?” “ No, ho was just on to me before I knew.* “ Were there any more kangaroos?” “Not then, but about half-way there was a big mob of kangaroos, and we all went together.” “I suppose you were crying?” “ Yes, all the way.” “ When he dropped you, what did ho : def ?” “Nothing; stood and looked at mo for a minute, and then went off with the mob.” “ What did you do then?” “I don’t remember anything after that. About sundown I found myself at the Lincolnshire mine, near where the engine was, and then I made for home.” I think the lad must have been crazy for a while ; his coat was split open down the back, but, although his face was covered with blood when he got home , there was no scratch on him. The kangaroo must have been a good sized oiio to carry him (about 05. lb weight) so far, and without a spell; and it seems strange that in the act of jumping ho did not strike the boy with his feet. 1 have not the slightest reason to doubt the truth of the boy’s 'statjment. What was the motive that prompted the action ? Some say that if there had been any water convenient ho would have drowned the boy. I have a notion that the kangaroo was one who had lost its joey, and was making an attempt to adopt one. Moral: When a child of tender years goes alone where kangaroos may bo, a dog, largo or small, is very good company.

No Fault op Heus.- One of those excrescences of life, a female slanderer, went into a neighbour’s house the other morning with her. tongue loaded with now venom. There wote several women present, and tbe slanderer’s eyes glistened in anticipation. Throwing herself in a chair, she sighed, and said “ One half the world don't know how the other half live.” “That ain’t your fault,”-quietly remarked one of the company. The slanderer turned yellow.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM18780706.2.25.9

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5390, 6 July 1878, Page 1 (Supplement)

Word count
Tapeke kupu
2,136

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS. New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5390, 6 July 1878, Page 1 (Supplement)

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS. New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5390, 6 July 1878, Page 1 (Supplement)

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