MANUFACTURES AND TRADE. 



261 



lowing ruling regarding foreign orange, 

 lemon and lime boxes made of American 

 shooks: 



" In view of this doubt as to the proper 

 construction of the law, the rule would ob- 

 tain, as often announced by the Supreme 

 court, that the benefit of the doubt should 

 be resolved against the government and 

 given to the importers. This would au- 

 thorize the conclusion that imported orange 

 boxes, which are made entirely of Ameri- 

 can shooks, previously exported filled or 

 empty, would be free of duty under said 

 paragraph 387. 



"This construction we accordingly place 

 upon the law, and, in harmony with such 

 interpretation, we modify decision in re 

 Haynes, G. A. 2855, sustain the protests 

 and reverse the collector's decision in 

 each case, with instructions to reliquidate 

 the entries accordingly. " 



The effect of this ruling will be to lower 

 the duty on foreign citrus fruits a few 

 cents a box, thus still further cutting into 

 the American producers of these fruits. 

 Perhaps the day may come when we shall 

 have a tariff law specially favoring Ameri- 

 can producers as against foreigners. At 

 present the latter appear to have things 

 very much their own way. 



COTTON SPINNING IN JAPAN. 



Statistics published recently by the 

 government of the United States show 

 that in 1887 only 19 cotton spinning fac- 

 tories with 70,220 spiadles were to be 

 found at Kobi, Osaka and vicinity; while 

 in 1893 there were 40 establishments num- 

 bering 381,781 spindles, and producing 

 87,667,324 pounds of cotton yarn. In 

 1894 the output was 90, 000,000 pounds. In 

 February, 1 895, there were 47 cotton spin- 

 ning establishments, with 492,979 spin- 

 dles and the number is liable to be greatly 

 augmented in the near future. Up to 

 1894, the value of spinning machinery for 

 cotton and silk imported into Japan was 

 $1,445,000. It is of interest to note that 

 in Japan, male cotton spinners receive but 

 8 cents a day while female operatives get 

 but 5 cents a day. Some day our own 

 spinners as well as those of Great Britain 

 will have to compete with the 5-cent spin- 

 ners of Japan. 



The wettest place in the world is Cherra- 

 pongee, in India, the annual average rain- 

 fall there being 610 inches. In 1861, the 

 downpour at that point reached the mar- 



velous figure of 905 inches. The average 

 annual rainfall for the globe is 36 inches, 

 and the mean annual temperature is 50 

 degrees Fahrenheit. 



The hottest city in the world is Cal- 

 cutta, India, where the mean annual tem- 

 perature is 82.4; the coldest inhabited 

 place is Tobolsk, Russia, with a mean an- 

 nual temperature of 32. The average 

 temperature of St. Petersburg is 39.6, 

 and of Moscow, 40. 



The line of perpetual snow under the 

 equator is 15,260 feet above the level of 

 the sea. In latitude 70 it is but 1,278 

 feet above sea. 



In spite of the fact that we hear con- 

 tinually that Australia is overrun by rab- 

 bits, they are quoted in the Melbourne 

 market at 24 cents per pair, and hares 

 range from 24 cents to 36 cents each. 

 These prices are quoted by United States 

 Consul Maratta. 



Consul Germain, at Zurich, Switzerland, 

 reports to the State Department that the 

 female operatives in the knitted under- 

 wear factories in Switzerland get an aver- 

 age of 29 cents per day. He visited a 

 factory employing about 500 girls and 

 women at these wages, and was informed 

 by the proprietor that each of them had 

 an account in the savings bank. Large 

 amounts of this underwear are imported 

 into the United States from Switzerland. 



Mulhall, the great English statistician, 

 alleges that at the death of Augustus 

 Csesar. the population of the earth was 

 but 54,000,000. That of Europe before 

 the fifteenth century did not exceed 50,- 

 000,000. The world's population is now 

 estimated at 1,479, 729,400, that of Europe 

 being 357,379,000. 



The Royal Geographical Society of 

 England gives the earth's area at 196,- 

 971,984 square miles, and its cubical con- 

 tents at 259,944,035,515 cubic miles. 



One- quarter of all the people born upon 

 the earth die before reaching the age of 

 six years; one-half before reaching the 

 age of 16, and only about one person in 

 each 100 born lives to the age of 65. 



H. C. Welty, of Topeka, Kansas, one of 

 the most prominent well-drillers in the 

 State is an advocate of irrigation by means 

 of wells and pumps and wherever possible 

 by artesian supply. Mr. Welty was the 

 organizer and moving spirit in the Well- 

 drillers' convention last year. 



