42 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



BRIEF ITEMS OF INTEREST. 



A salt factory at San Diego, California, 

 is producing 1,600,000 pounds annually. 



Wool prices all over the West opened 

 about two cents lower than last year, with 

 lesser demand. 



The inhabitants of Colfax county, Neb- 

 raska, are hunting eels with guns. The 

 sloughs are alive with them. 



The United States produces 4,000,000 

 bushels of peanuts, or one-sixth of the 

 total production of the world. 



There are now more than a million 

 miles of telegraph lines in existence and 

 more than half of them in this country. 



There were 45,000 tons of commercial 

 fertilizers used in Indiana last year, of 

 which 15,000 tons was raw ground bone. 



A Tom Thumb calf is one of the curios- 

 ities at Hartford City, Ind. At two weeks 

 old it weighed but twenty pounds. 



It requires 40,000 electric lights for the 

 houses of the English parliament, and 

 fifty expert electricians to take care of 

 them. 



When water freezes it expands with a 

 force estimated at 30,000 pounds per 

 square inch, and no material has been 

 found which can withstand this pressure. 



It is estimated there are 400,000,000 

 fowls in the United States valued at $200, - 

 000,000. The egg product of last year 

 was 1,200,000,000 dozen, netting $150,- 

 000,000. 



In 1870 the farmers in this country 

 formed 47 per cent, of the population. In 

 1880 it had dropped to 44 per cent, and 

 in 1890 to 40 per cent. And even now it 

 don't pay nor any other business, for 

 that matter. 



One telegraph reporter sent out the 

 press reports of the convention at 

 which Lincoln was nominated. It required 

 200 operators to send the reports from 

 St. Louis. The country is growing in 

 more respects than in population. 



Statistics by the Department of Agri- 

 culture at Washington show a decline in 

 the value of farm animals of $755,580,597 

 since 1893. The greatest depreciation is 

 in the case of horses, in which the aggre- 

 gate decline for seven years has amounted 

 to $500,000,000. 



There have been 2,396 of Spurgeon's 

 sermons printed and the total sales have 

 reached nearly 100,000,000 copies, or an 

 average of 35,000 copies each. There 

 cannot be much doubt that he exerted some 

 good influence on the world by his busy 

 life. 



Edward Atkinson makes the statement 

 that the product of the hen in the United 

 States is of greater value than all the iron 

 products of the furnace; that it is twice 

 the value of the wool, and three or four times 

 the value of the products of the silver 

 mines of the country. 



Chas. S. Hawkins, in the Indiana 

 Farmer, after four years' use of the corn 

 shredder passes judgment against them 

 as being too slow, making the fodder cost 

 too much, and as too dangerous because of 

 the frequent choking and the risks in- 

 volved in clearing them. He thinks they 

 must be improved or abandoned. 



It is estimated that more than 3,000,000 

 dozen of eggs are broken by the Chicago 

 grocers in handling, and that as many 

 more are cracked and sold at a loss of 

 from three cents to five cents per dozen, 

 the total loss reaching pretty nearly a 

 round half million of dollars. The two 

 combined are about one-fifth of all that 

 are sold in that market. 



A GLANCE OVER THE FIELD. 



ARIZONA. 



Choice fat cattle are being shipped from 

 the Salt River valley to Denver in consid- 

 erable numbers. 



Territorial bonds to the amount of 

 $350,000 have been disposed of in Chi- 

 cago, and the turning of that amount 

 loose in the Territory is expected to ease 

 up the financial stringency. 



Whitelaw Reid, it is claimed by the 

 Arizona Gazette, has offered $15,000 for 

 the Churchill residence, with a view to mak- 

 ing a permanent winter home in Phcenix. 

 The offer was declined as too low, but it 

 was thought he might raise his bid. 



Governor Franklin has absolutely re- 

 fused to carry out the provisions of a con- 

 tract which was entered into by the lately 

 removed Governor Hughes with an East- 

 ern syndicate, for the employment of the 

 prison labor of the Territory. The Phoenix 



