All Sorts

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 15, 15 April 1909, Page 598

All Sorts

A mother thinks her son "acquires his bad habits from the boy next door. Vesuvius and Etna are never both active at th« same < time; when one is most violent, the other is most quiescent. The hardest wood in the world is not ebony, bub cocus, which is much used for making flutes and similar musical instruments. There are 11,004 mines and quarries in active operation in the United Kingdom. These produce 280 > 0OQ;OOO tons of minerals in a year. The clearness of the air at Horn Sound, Spitzbergen, is such that it is possible to make out objects on the horizon at a distance of 80 miles. Sugar, when first introduced into England, was used only for the purpose .of making nauseating medicines pleasant to the taste. Cheese is one of the most concentrated of foods. A 201 b cheese contains more nitrogenous substance than a sheep weighing 601 bor 701 b. A statistician has ascertained that nearly 10 per cent, of the recipients of the Victoria Cross are military doctors. First Swagger — ' You won't get nothing decent there. Them people is vegetarians.' Second Swagger — * Is that right?' First Swagger — 'Yes, and they've got a dog wot ain't.' Divers in the clear waters of the tropical seas find that fish of different colors when frightened do not all dart in the same direction, but that each different kind takes shelter in that portion of the stibmarine growth nearest to its color. > ' Have you any nice fresh farmers' eggs ? ' inquired a precise old lady, at a grocery shop. ' No, ma'am,' replied the practical assistant, ' but we have some vexy good hens' eggs.' She took three to try. A local band was one day playing at Diimfermline, when an old weaver came up and asked the ba-ndmaster what they were playing. That is "The death of Nelson,"' solemnly replied the bandmaster. ' Ay, man,' remarked the weaver, ' ye ha' gien him an awfu' death.' The world's peppermint is grown on peppermint farms in the neighborhood of Kalamaaoo. Over 300,000 pounds of peppermint oil, worth five dollars a pound, is produced annually from the moist and ink-black soil of southwestern Michigan. Peppermint farming is simple. The roots are planted in the spring,- the bushes, ■which are about three feet high, are cut down in the late summer; the stilling goes on through August and September. An acre yields ahout 25 pounds of oil. The cost o£ this production — planting, weeding, stilling — is about 15 dollars. The oil itself brings 125 dollars. Thus every acre of a peppermint farm gives a profit of 110 dollars. In spite, says the Builder, of the lesons taught by the recent earthquake and fire, buildings of unsuitable character are being erectod wholesale in San Francisco. Structures embodying ordinary brick walls and steelwork suffered considerably from earth movements and were totally destroyed by the subsequent*" fire. Yet nearly 7£ millions sterling have been expended im constructing buildings of this class. Wiser members of the community have adopted either reinforced concrete or protected steelframe buildings with armored glass windows and other safeguards. These, however, are in the minority, the amount of about 3$ millions representing the outlay so far. In the outer regions timber framed buildings are rising apace, as may be judged by the- fact that the expenditure on this type of combustible construction is already wellnigh nine millions. It seems a pity that unnecessary fire risks should once more be accumulated in a. city which has surely had a fine opportunity of learning wisdom from experience, the best and most unpleasant of all preceptors. . .