158 



tlie "spat," the technical name of its young. The water in this tank 

 was k(4iJt perfectly still, and every care was taken to maintain the temp- 

 erature as uniform as possible ; thermometers and other instruments, 

 still more sensitive, were used. Captain lioss tested the effects of elec- 

 tricity by transmitting currents through water containing infusoria, and 

 it was found that their production was rapidly increased by such means. 

 Consequently, a series of constant electrical currents were transmitted 

 through the tanks containing the spat, or young oyster, in the hope that 

 a similar stimulating effect might be produced in relation to its growth 

 and development. The exijeriments are still in progress, with x)romise 

 of favorable results. 



FACTS FEOM VARIOUS SOURCES. 



Mr. L. G. Olmstead, of New York, gives the following statement of a 

 simple and convenient method of bleaching beeswax that he saw prac- 

 ticed in Italy : 



The yellow wax is first melted in a kettle, and then is dipped out into a long tin 

 vessel that will hold two or three gallons, and which has a row of small holes about' 

 the diameter of a knitting needle in the bottom. This vessel is fixed over a cylinder 

 of wood two feet in length and fifteen inches in diameter, which is made to revolve 

 like a grindstone in one end of a trough of water two and one-half feet in width, ten to 

 fifteen feet in length, and one foot in depth. As the melted wax falls in small streams 

 on this wet revolving cylinder it flattens out into a thin ribbon and floats ofl^ toward 

 the other end of the trough of water. It is then dipped out with a skimmer, (that 

 may be made of osier twigs,) spread on a table with a top made of small willow rods 

 covered with a clean white cloth, and then exposed in this way to the sun until 

 bleached. 



Mr. Legoyt, chief of the department of general statistics of France, in 

 an interesting report published in 1868, upon the agriculture of France 

 at different periods, says that the increase in the production of wheat 

 in 18(32, compared with 1810, was thirty three per cent., and the decrease 

 in the production of rye twenty-five per cent. In the same period the 

 average yield of wheat per acre increased from 13.9 to 10.3 bushels, and 

 potatoes were more largely cultivated by thirty-four per cent. The 

 cultivation of the sugar-beet root in France increased from 110,852| 

 acres in 1810 to 336,009f acres in 1862, or one hundred and thirty-eight 

 per cent. It appears from the same report that there are 3,800,000 pro- 

 prietors of land in France, and that in 1806 there were 3,226,000 farms ; 

 of this number fifty-six per cent, contained less than twelve and a half 

 English acres of land. The average extent of all the farms in France 

 (exclusive of forests) was twenty-six and a quarter acres. The number 

 of leased ftirms in 1862 was 568,000. 



Information recently laid before Parliament embraces some interest- 

 ing facts relating to tenant farms in Ireland. The whole number of 

 farms is 682,000. There are 512,080 farms of less value than £15 a 

 year ; 94,098 are valued at £15 and under £30 ; 38,531 at £30 and under 

 £50 ; 21,857 at £50 and under £100 ; 72,668 at £100 and upward. This 

 valuation is supposed to be the basis of poor-rate assessments, and at 

 least twenty per cent, below the actual letting value. Of these farms 

 526,539 are' tenancies at will; lease for twenty-one years or a less term, 

 25,406 ; lease exceeding twenty-one and under thirty-one years, 22,217 ; 

 exceeding thirty-one and under sixty years, 4,312 ; exceeding sixty and 

 under ninety-nine years, 5,497 ; exceeding ninety-nine years, 3,903 ; for 

 lives, 28,339; for lives, alternative, 30,880; renewable forever, 4,540; 

 perpetuity, 10,128 ; in occupation of proprietors in fee, 20,217. 



