CLIPPINGS.

South Canterbury Times, Volume XV, Issue 2067, 7 November 1879, Page 3

CLIPPINGS.

In April last, wo (American Agriculturist), announced a new poison foe insects, called London Purple, Green is a pound of arsenic and copper, and must be prepared direct. London Purple is a compound of arsenic and lime, quite as' poisonous as the other, but being an incidental product, formed in another manufacture, it can be affoVded much .cheaper. It is artificially colored and deep purple, to guard against accidents in its use. It is in a state ot very fine division, and claimed to be equally efficacious it is with the Green when used in oubfifth less quantity. Like that it is applied with water or dilated with flour plaster, or other powder. Hecently w« have received from those who have used.it for the potato bug, testimony as to its complete efficacy. It has also been found to effectively destroy the canker-worm. A, R. Whitney, nurseryman at Franklin Grove, 111., writes that the cankerworm took possession of an orchard of 25,000 apple-trees attacking his nursery stock. The use of 12 ounces of London Purple in 44 gallons of water, applied by means of a force pump, destroyed the worms in short order.

“ A. H.’ Neb, asks the American Agriculturist, “ If wheat sown side by side will not ' mix, how do persons originate a new kind?’ The flowers of wheat are closely surrounded by the palets or chaff, and it is claimed that the ovary is fertilized by the pollen of its own flower, before the chaff opens, and liberates : the stamens. Those' who « originate new varieties” by crossing •re obliged to. carefully open the chaff before •; datura! fertilization takes place, and apply the foreign pollen. The depression in the marriage rate, that unerring test of the material codt ditibti and prospects of the people, was still more strongly marked during the first quarter of this year than it had been in any of the four quarters of 1878. The annual marriage rate, - iikthe - three months ending March last, did not exceed 11-6 per 1000, and.was 2*l below the average rate in the cot, responding period : of the * 40 y ear g__lß3B-77. So low a marriagerate, has not prevailed in the first quarter of any year since 1837, when the Act for civil registration of marriages, births, and deaths first rendered these statistics possible. The nearest approach to so low a marriagerate in the first quarter of the year, was 12 5 in the first three months of 1831. As a natural result the birthrate in England and Wales has fallen below the average. In the three months ending June last the annual rate was equal to only 35 '2 against 87*4, 36.5, and 36-9 .in the corresponding periods of 1876, 1877, 1871; it was lower than in any June quarter since 1869, and was I/O below the average rale in the second quarter of the ten years 1869*79.—“ Sanitary Record.” Two sisters named Susan and Sarah Wilkins, aged 19 and 17 years, have been carrying on a novel kind of robbery-for the last few months. Their plan (writes the “ Age,”) was to watch children going on errands to shops, to ask them if they wanted lollies, giving them pennies to buy some, and then offering to take charge of the children’s money till they returned, gBBUIiDg them that they were friends

of tbeir mammas. In this manner they succeeded in securing suras varying from sixpence to a pound note. The police suspected them for a long time, watched them in private clothes for weeks, and finally caught them in the act. The judge at the Warrington County Court the other day severely remarked on the tendency of women to overdress. His Honor had to decide a claim for making up a satin dress for the dsughtor of a pavior. The maker said it was adorned with no fewer than 72 kiltings in front, that il was covered with difficult work, and that it took her a week to complete the dress. The bill was 19s. The mother of the girl for whom it was intended thought she charged too much • but the Court said that;, if parents wanted their children dressed in such a manner they must pay for it, and gave a verdict for the plaintiff. The judge added that dress was one of the crying evils of the day, and he thought that in some respects it was only second to drink. The agricultural statistics for Ireland for 1879,prepared by the late Register-General up to the 23th ult,, show that the whole extent of land under cultivation this year is 5,121,788 acres, showing a decrease of 82,217 as compared with last year.There is an increase of 3,467 acres in the wheat crop, of 10,689 acres in barley, and 569 acres in beans an peas, of 5,944 acres in mangel worzel and beet-root, and of 16,187 in flax. The decrease is in oats, 82,535 acres; barley and rye, 1813 acres ; potatoes, 4091 acres; turnips, 15,577 acres, cabbage, 6,068 acres ;■ carrots, parsnips, and other green crop, 903 acres; vetches and rape, 2,532 acres ; and in meadow and clover, 5,456. There are 1,740,291 acres returned as bog and marsh. The returns of live stock show an increase of 9,956 horses and mules, 230 asses, 81,974 cattle, and 75,802,, poultry, and a decrease of 77,245 sheep, 197409 pigs, and 1,772 goats. The total number of scutching mills in the country is 1,199, of which 1,157 are in Ulster. A very unusual discussion took place in the Tasmanian Upper House lately. Mr Chapman, M.L.C., moved a resolution censuring the Hon. W. L. Crowther, the Premier, for promoting an appeal to the public*for the assistance and support of Mrs Kenny, whose charge against Dr. Huston obtained her so much notoriety recently. Dr Crowther replied that he acted in his private capacity, and not as Premier. Ultimately, the motion was carried in the following ?eems:—--“That the conduct of the Hon. W. L. Crowther, the premier of the colony, in promoting an appeal to the public of Tasmania on behalf of Gertrude Kenny, late matron of the New Norfolk Asylum, in which grave reflections are made upon the commissioners of the .hospital for Insane, is unwarranted, highly unbecoming and deserves the censure of this Council.”

Dun-np thinks he sees a prospect in the new system of receipt stamps, (says Agles.) He imagines himself cornered in bis residence by a relentless collector of tradesmen’s accounts. He has exhausted every method of deferring a settlement. In despair, he asks, “ Hava you got a receipt stamp?” “ Oh, yes,” says the inexorable, producing a stamp case. Ah, well,” says Dun-up, cordially, ( * I have have kept you so long out of your money I mustn’t put you that expense. I’ll supply a stamp myself. Just wait a minute.” Leaving the room for the ostensible purpose of getting a stamp, D. escapes from the premises by the back door and defers his difficulty for another 24 hours. We are informed by persons who have visited some of the battlefields in South Africa (says “The Colonies and India”) that while the bodies of Zulus and the horses and cattle slain there have been devoured in a few days by the flocks of carrion crows, the bodies of white men have been left untouched by these scavengers. This was observed particularly oa the field of Isandhlwana, on its being revisited for the first time after the disaster to our troops there, when the bodies of the European soldiers were found untouched, while those of the j Zulu were almost entirely devoured, I The reason of this preference of the j birds for the flesh of black men is difficult to understand. Possibly the fact of the Europeans being clothed, while tbe Zulus were naked, may help to explain the circumstance, though this solution is not entirely satisfactory, as some of the bodies of our fallen troops were stripped by the Zulus.

A queer trade war is reported as raging in New "York. The retail tea sellers have attempted to stimulate their trade by gifts of glass and stoneware among their customers. The crockery dealers found themselves suffering from the free distribution of what they had to sell, and protested against the incursion into their field of business. Failing to carry their point in that way, they determined upon retaliation, and now buyers of teapots are given tea, just as buyers of tea were presented with teapots. In Mr Yates’ new London magazine, Time, Archibald Forbes contributes a rather amusing picture of flirtation in India, from which we learn that a really successful Anglo-Indian young lady thinks it “ a bother” to be ea-

gaged to more than one man for more than ten days at a time, and that a clergyman’s wife at a hill station was only prevented from attending a fancy ball in the cossume of Eve by finding she could get no thread that would not tear the fig leaves. Leo XIII is becoming noted in Rome for the unostentatious way of his life. A letter from Rome says be “is the most simple in taste of all the Popes known to history. His bedroom is pa’ ed with common stones, and is never warmed. His reception roams are fitted up with luxuries, but his private apartments are as cheerless as a hermit’s cell,” The New York correspondent of the S. M. Herald writes :—“ln Pbilapelpha a murder trial has been the occasion of a very forciahle dramatic situation. The man had been convicted for killing bis own daughter under circumstances of aggravate! brutality. The defence showed that he had always been a good and human man until he sustained a severe injury to the ekull ; but the jury after hearing from the medical experts that there was no trace of permanent injury, found him guilty. While r<ceiving his sentence, however, the man cemmitted suicide in open Court, by swallowing a few grains of strychnine.?' Foaming at the mouth, and writhing in muscular, agony, he was move dto a cell to die. And then, on the post mortem examination, it was proved that there had been really a fracture of the skull, and that the man was actually irresponsible.