422 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



standard meridian that passing through the 

 center of the transit instrument at Green- 

 wich," was then adopted, every state repre- 

 sented voting in favor of it except San Do- 

 mingo, which dissented from it, and France 

 and Brazil, which did not vote. The next 

 resolution, recommending the counting of lon- 

 gitude in two directions from Greenwich, up 

 to 180°, east longitude to be reckoned jo/ms, 

 and west longitude minus, was adopted by a 

 small majority over the proposition to count 

 continuously in a single direction to 360°. 

 A fourth resolution proposed " the adoption 

 of a universal day for the purposes for which 

 it may be found convenient, and which shall 

 not interfere with the use of local or other 

 standard times where desirable." The fifth 

 resolution recommends " That the universal 

 day is to be a mean solar day, is to begin 

 for all the world at the moment of mean 

 midnight of the initial meridian coinciding 

 with the beginning of the civil day and date 

 of that meridian, and is to be counted from 

 zero up to twenty-four hours " ; the sixth, 

 " That the Conference expresses the hope 

 that as soon as may be practicable the as- 

 tronomical and nautical days will be ar- 

 ranged everywhere to begin at mean mid- 

 night " ; the seventh, " That this Conference 

 expresses the hope that the technical studies 

 to regulate and extend the application of 

 the decimal system to the divisions of the 

 circle and of time shall be resumed so as to 

 permit the extension of this application to 

 all cases where it presents real advantages." 



Characteristics of North American Flora. 

 — In a paper read in the British Association 

 on the characteristic features of North 

 American vegetation, Professor Asa Gray 

 spoke of the resemblances and differences 

 between the flora of North America and 

 that of Europe, and their causes. The trees 

 of the Atlantic border are similar to those 

 of Europe. Many plants — among which are 

 species of rhododendron, cypripedium, and 

 coreopsis — may be found growing wild here, 

 which are cultivated in the gardens of Eu- 

 rope. America is remarkable for its wealth 

 of species of trees and shrubs. Besides the 

 variety of leguminous trees and the wealth 

 in species of ComposUce noticeable in Amer- 

 ica, there are many tropical plants which 

 extend northward into the United States. 



The Cotton Production of Alabama. — 



Some curious facts are brought out in Pro- 

 fessor Eugene A. Smith's report on the 

 "Cotton Production of Alabama." This 

 State stands fourth in the United States 

 in the total production of cotton, and also 

 in the product per square mile (13-6 bales). 

 The highest product per acre in the State is 

 reached in Baldwin County in what is agri- 

 culturally styled the " long-leaved pine re- 

 gion," and the next highest in Cherokee 

 County, in the " Coosa Valley region." In 

 a larger sense, the highest rate of produc- 

 tion is obtained in the central belt, having 

 an area of less than seventy-five miles, which 

 gives from seventeen to forty-three bales per 

 square mile ; the next highest, in the " Ten- 

 nessee Valley region," which gives fifteen ; 

 and next, the Coosa Valley and the " oak, 

 hickory, and long -leaved pine" regions, 

 which give thirteen bales each to the square 

 mile. The product of the State as a whole 

 is equivalent to a little more than a bale 

 for every two of its inhabitants. More than 

 fift3--fivc per cent of the colored population 

 of the State is found in the central cotton 

 belt, where sixty per cent of the cotton is 

 produced ; and it is observed that so close- 

 ly " does this class of the population follow 

 the best lands, that the density of the col- 

 ored population of any region might almost 

 be taken as an index of the fertility of its 

 soils," while the whites are much more even- 

 ly distributed over good and poor lands alike. 

 This, however, is not strange, when we re- 

 member that the colored people were intro- 

 duced as agricultural laborers, and put where 

 they could be most advantageously employed. 

 What should be the best cotton-lands begin 

 to show signs of exhaustion through long 

 and improvident cultivation. This is a logi- 

 cal result of the character of the laborers, 

 who are unintelligent and not interested in 

 keeping up the quality of the land, and of 

 the inability or indisposition of owners to 

 invest in improvements looking beyond the 

 present year's crop. The general custom of 

 depending upon advances of credit on the 

 faith of the next year's crop has its influ- 

 ence in promoting deterioration of the soil. 

 As cotton is the only crop which will always 

 bring ready money, the planting of that sta- 

 ple is usually insisted on by the merchants 

 making the advance, and it is also selected 



