POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



277 



Stephens, C. A. Pluri-cellular Man. Norway 

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Stowell, T. B. The Lumbar, Sacral, and Coc- 

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Strahan, 8. A. K. Marriage and Disease. New 

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Wadsworth, M. E. The South Trap Range of 

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Ward, Lester F. The Utilitarian Character of 

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Wistar, Tsaac J. Consumption, etc., of North 

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Wrightmour, Rev. J. S., Xenia, Ohio. The 

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POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



Possibilities of Wheat-raising. Within 

 twenty years, according to a bulletin of the 

 State Agricultural Experiment Station, the 

 area annually sown to wheat in Ohio has in- 

 creased from an average of 1,800,000 acres 

 during the eighth to 2,500,000 acres during 

 the ninth decade. This area represents 

 twelve per cent of the area in farms with- 

 in the State ; but several counties are sow- 

 ing annually from eighteen to twenty and 

 even twenty-five per cent of their farm-lands 

 to wheat. A further increase in acreage 

 is anticipated from the clearing away of 

 more forest and the reclamation of waste 

 lands by drainage, so that it will be possi- 

 ble to devote 3,000,000 acres to wheat with- 

 out interfering with any other agricultural 

 interest. Such an increase, at the present 

 rate of production, would represent an an- 

 nual crop of 40,000,000 bushels. But it is not 

 to be supposed that Ohio farmers will rest 

 content with a yield of only thirteen bushels 

 of wheat per acre. The northern third of 

 the State has increased its average yield 

 within forty years by nearly three bushels, 

 and the middle third by from one to two 

 bushels, and it is reasonable to expect a fur- 

 ther increase within the next forty years. 

 At the average already reached in Summit 

 County, the whole State would produce about 

 60,000,000 bushels, or bread for twelve million 

 persons. What is true of Ohio is true, to a 

 greater or less extent, of the entire winter- 

 wheat belt of North America. The area 

 now sown to wheat in this region may be ex- 

 panded largely without infringing upon other 

 productions, and the rate of yield may and 

 will be very materially increased by better 



husbandry, including an intelligent use of 

 manures and fertilizers, and more thorough 

 drainage. The profitable culture of wheat 

 on the steep hillsides of southern Ohio ap- 

 pears to be hopeless. The great problem 

 before the grower in the central belt of 

 counties is winter-killing, but it may be 

 partially solved by under-draining and the 

 intelligent use of clover and manures. The 

 influences are more generally favorable to 

 wheat culture in the northern counties than 

 elsewhere in the State. A general improve- 

 ment in the methods of agriculture appears 

 to have contributed more largely to the in- 

 crease of the wheat crops than the use of 

 commercial fertilizers. 



Distribution of Diphtheria. A paper by 

 Dr. Samuel W. Abbott, Secretary of the State 

 Board of Health, on the Distribution of Diph- 

 theria in Massachusetts, brings out some cu- 

 rious results from an examination of the con- 

 ditions in the several parts of the State in 

 which the disease has prevailed during the 

 past eighteen years. The town which suf- 

 fered relatively most of all was Florida, a 

 hilly town of small population, situated over 

 the Hoosac Tunnel. Next to it was Spencer, 

 an interior town of Worcester County, having 

 a comparatively dense population (7,466 in 

 1880), mostly engaged in the shoe manufact- 

 ure. The third town in the list was Free- 

 town, with 1,329 inhabitants in 1880, adjoin- 

 ing Fall River, and situated on low and sandy 

 ground. Other towns that suffered greatly 

 were Adams, Williamstown, and Hancock, on 

 high land ; Webster, a manufacturing town 

 on comparatively low land ; Ayer, and Nan- 

 tucket. Four towns had no deaths from diph- 

 theria during the period under consideration. 

 They are all small towns, distant from rail- 

 roads, and not visited by the general public. 

 Dividing the towns and cities according to 

 the density of their population, the author 

 found that the average annual death-rate from 

 diphtheria and croup in ninety-two densely 

 settled towns and cities was ll - 39 per 10,000 

 of the population, while that of two hundred 

 and fifty-four rural or sparsely settled towns 

 was 6"53 per 10,000 for the same period. Out 

 of the twenty-eight cities, twenty, including 

 all of the most populous, except Fall River, 

 had a death-rate from diphtheria and croup 

 higher than the average of the State. Divid- 



