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THE STANDARD DICTIONARY OF FACTS 



introduced the Cartwright power-loom at Lowell, 

 Mass., which is now the largest cotton-manu- 

 facturing center in America. There are also ex- 

 tensive mills in active operation in Alabama, 

 Georgia, and other Southern States. In 1907, 

 Great Britain had 52,000,000 spindles in opera- 

 tion; the continent of Europe, 35,800,000; 

 United States, 25,924,000; and the East Indies, 

 5,400,000. 



Credit, in finance, is the postponement 

 agreed on by the parties of the payment of a 

 debt to a future day. It implies confidence of 

 the creditor in the debtor; and a "credit sys- 

 tem" is one of general confidence of people in 

 each other's honesty, solvency, and resources. 

 By means of a credit system a comparatively 

 small stock of money can be made to do duty for 

 carrying on a number of different transactions; 

 but it is indispensable for every good system of 

 credit that money must be instantly available 

 when required, and this principle applies to 

 every species of transaction where postponed 

 payment is concerned. Public credit is the con- 

 fidence which men entertain in the ability and 

 disposition of a nation to make good its engage- 

 ments with its creditors; or the estimation in 

 which individuals hold the public promises of 

 payment, whether such promises are expressed 

 or implied. The term is also applied to the gen- 

 eral credit of individuals in a nation; when 

 merchants and others are wealthy and punctual 

 in fulfilling engagements ; or when they transact 

 business with honor and fidelity ; or when trans- 

 fers of property are made with ease. So we 

 speak of the credit of a bank when general con- 

 fidence is placed in its ability to redeem its notes, 

 and the credit of a mercantile house rests on its 

 supposed ability and probity, which induce men 

 to trust to its engagements. When the public 

 credit is questionable it raises the premium on 

 loans. 



Cutlery. A term comprising all cutting 

 instruments made of steel, but more particularly 

 confined to the manufacture of knives, scissors, 

 razors, surgical instruments, and swords. Those 

 articles which require the edge to possess great 

 tenacity, at the same time that superior hardness 

 is not required, are made from sheer steel. The 

 finer kinds of cutlery are made from steel which 

 has been in a state of fusion, and which is termed 

 cast-steel, no other being susceptible of a fine 

 polish and very keen edge. Razors are made 

 of cast-steel, the edge of the razor requiring the 

 combined advantages of great hardness and 

 tenacity. After the razor-blade is formed, it is 

 hardened by gradually raising it to a bright-red 

 heat, and plunging it into cold water. It is 

 tempered by heating it afterwards till a bright- 

 ened part appears of a straw color. But the 

 beauty and elegance of polished steel is dis- 

 played to great advantage in the manufacture 

 of the finer kinds of scissors. Damascus was 

 anciently famed for its razors, sabers, and swords 

 the latter especially, which possessed all the 

 advantages of flexibility, elasticity, and hard- 

 ness, while they presented a beautiful wavy ap- 

 pearance called the water. It is not known how 

 this effect is produced; but it is well imitated 

 in Europe by scooping hollows in the blade and 

 filling them up; also by welding together a 



bundle of steel bars, cutting and rewelding them, 

 etc. In recent times, the English and German 

 cutlery has been long celebrated for excellence 

 and cheapness. The manufacture of table cut- 

 lery in the United States was introduced in 

 1834 by Mr. John Russell, of Greenfield, Mass., 

 and has assumed such an importance as to 

 Command a large export. 



Forestry is the act, occupation, or art of 

 forming and cultivating forests; the systematic 

 utilization, reproduction and improvement in 

 productive capacity of trees in masses, including 

 the planting and culture of new forests. The 

 usefulness of forests to man lies: (1) in their 

 furnishing him with timber for fuel and for 

 manufacturing and building purposes as well 

 as with other serviceable products, such as their 

 bark, their sap (by distillation), turpentine, 

 creosote, wood alcohol, vanilin, etc.; also fer- 

 tilizers, fodders, materials for textile fabrics, 

 dyes, inks, etc. (2) in their influence on climate, 

 by furnishing large tracts of superior coolness, 

 by conserving humidity, decreasing evapora- 

 tion, breaking the force of winds, etc. (3) In 

 their influence on the waterflow, by keeping 

 the ground more moist, conserving the springs, 

 making the outflow of water more steady and 

 regular, and causing the snow within them to 

 melt more slowly, thus preventing dangerous 

 floods; causing the rainfall to sink slowly into 

 the soil rather than to flow in torrents over the 

 surface; also by holding the soil together with 

 their roots, so keeping the hillsides from being 

 denuded and preventing their soil from being 

 carried down over the cultivable fields below, 

 sanding over valleys and silting up streams. 

 This being the case, not only private interest 

 exists in forests but a public interest, which 

 necessitates at times governmental action an 

 action to which in the United States we have 

 but recently awaked. Such action rests on the 

 following principles: (1) The widest scope should 

 be allowed to private enterprise in production, 

 care being taken that abundant statistics in 

 regard to supply and demand and opportunity 

 for education on the subject be furnished. 

 (2) Adequate legal protection should be given 

 to forest property. (3) Whenever improper 

 management threatens damage to neighboring 

 property the State should interfere to enforce 



E roper management. (4) Wherever public wel- 

 ire demands the reforestation of denuded tracts 

 the State should assist individual or communal 

 enterprise in performing this, or else do the 

 reforesting as a work of internal improvement. 

 (5) In cases where a permanent forest is desir- 

 able and private interest can not be relied on 

 for its proper management, the State should 

 own and manage it. 



The total woodland area in the United States 

 is estimated at 1,094,514 square miles, or about 

 699,500,000 acres, which is thirty-six and one- 

 half per cent, of the total land area, Alaska not 

 included. The total annual consumption of 

 manufactured forest products in the United 

 States, according to the figures of the census 

 of 1890, is more than 18,000,000,000 cubic feet, 

 divided approximately as follows: Lumber mar- 

 ket and manufactures, 2,250,000,000 cubic feet; 

 fuel, 15,000,000,000 cubic feet; railroad ties, 



