394 



sandstone. Consumption is also more prevalent in the first-named dis- 

 trict. Since anaemia is a want of iron in the blood, Dr. Moffat examined 

 the constitution of wheat grown on the Cheshire sandstone, and found 

 it produced much more ash, and hence a larger proportion of mineral 

 constituents, including oxide of iron, than that grown on the corbonifer- 

 jus soil. He estimates that a pound of wheat from the first furnishes 

 five grains more of oxide of iron to the consumer than a pound of wheat 

 from the second soil, which accounts for the comparative poverty of the 

 blood of the miners in iron and phosphoric acid. An examination of the 

 blood of the animals kept in the two districts confirmed the above ob- 

 servations. 



Eemedy fob Spanish fever. — A Kansas farmer professes to have 

 treated with invariable success cattle affected with Spanish fever, ac- 

 cording to the following recipe : 



When the animal loses its appetite and becomes stupid, take several gallons of tepid 

 ■tt'ater, for a full-grown steer, and inject it from a large syringe ; and in about twelve 

 hoars give from a half pint to a pint of linseed-oil, to move the bowels, and the ox 

 wiU get well. 



He claims that the above recipe produces a reaction, softens the parts, 

 and restores the normal action of the system. 



Change in the course of rain. — A correspondent writing from 

 Hawkins County, Tennessee, states that ordinarily, in that locality, the 

 rains all come from the soutiiwest, conforming to the direction of the 

 rivers and mountains ; but what little rain has fallen during the dry 

 season, both last year and this, has all come from clouds passing from 

 north to south, directly across the rivers and mountains. Sciei^ists 

 are asked to account for this change of direction. The droughts, dur- 

 ing which the change occurs, are not owing to the absence of forests, 

 for the country is heavily timbered. 



Tobacco in Santa Clara County, California.— Mr. J. D. Culp, 

 of Gilroy, Santa Clara County, California, who has had much experi- 

 ence in tobacco-culture, claims to have a method of raising and curing 

 it by which it is made equal to the best imported Havana, and this 

 claim is indorsed by certificates from leading tobacco houses in San 

 Francisco. He has secured the aid of capitalists, and is prejoaring for 

 extensive operations. His crop of 1871, on five acres, planted with 

 Havana seed, amounted to 8,000 pounds. In illustration of the 

 fertility of his soil, he states that he has raised on the same land, with- 

 out manure, twelve successive crops of tobacco, the last being fully 

 equal to the first, and the land exhibiting no deterioration. He has 

 been at no expense for protection against tobacco-worms, wasps having 

 destroyed them on appearance. 



Industrial education. — The board of regents of Kansas Agricul- 

 tural College are reported as having adopted a new curriculum, com- 

 prising agriculture, horticulture, stock-breeding, veterinary science, 

 farm economy, mechanics, and architecture. 



Merino rams for Colorado. — It is reported that SCO Spanish 

 merino bucks, selected from among the purest blooded flocks in Eutland 

 and Addison Counties, Vermont, have recently been purchased for 

 shipment to Southern Colorado. Thrfee hundred are for Thomas O. 

 Boggs, of Bent County, designed to supplant the long-wooled bucks from 

 Canada, which he has tested for the last two years. Having tried 

 Cotswold, Leicester, Southdown, and the Vermont merino, he decides 

 unhesitatingly that the latter arc the best for crossing with Mexican 



