1882.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



135 



but by no means a panacea, and the. warmest 

 climate on earth is out and out preferable 

 even to the border lands of the polar zone. 

 The averaf^e Arab outlives the average Esiiui- 

 maux by twenty-live years. 



The hyi;ienic benefit of sea voyages, too, 

 has been amazingly exaggerated. Seafaring 

 is not conducive to longevity; the advantage 

 of the exercise in the ritrging is more than 

 outweighed by the effluvia iif the cockpit, by 

 the pickle diet, the unnatural motion and the 

 foul weather misery, and, from a sanitary 

 standpoint, the sea air itself is hardly prefer- 

 able to mountain and woodland air. The 

 eozoon may have been a marine product, but 

 our Pliocene ancestor was probably a forest 

 creature. 



"For what lengtli of time would you un- 

 dertake to warrant the health of a seaman?" 

 Varnhagen asked a Dutch marine doctor. 

 "That depends on the length of his furlough," 

 replied the frank Hollander, and it will re- 

 quire centuries of reform to redeem our cities 

 from the odium of a similar reproach. In 

 victuals and vitality towns consume the 

 hoarded stores of the country, and only the 

 garden suburbs of a few North American 

 cities are hygienically self-supporting. Perma- 

 nent in-door work is slow suicide, and be- 

 tween the various shop-trades and sedentary 

 occupations the difference in this resiiect is 

 only one of degree. Factories stand at the 

 bottom of the scale, and the dust and vapor 

 generating ones below zera; the weaver's 

 chances to reach the average age of his species 

 have to be expressed by a negative quantity. 

 In France, where the tabulation of compara- 

 tive statistics is carried further than any- 

 where else, the healthfulness of the principal 

 town trades has beeu ascertained to decrease 

 In the following order: nousebuildinsr, huck- 

 stering, hot-bed gardening (florists), carpenter 

 and brick mason trades, street paving, street 

 cleaning, sewer-cleaning, blacksmiths, arti- 

 sansmiths (silver, copper and tin concerns), 

 shoemaking, paper making, glass-blowing, 

 tailor, butcher, housepainter, baker, cook, 

 stonemasons and lapidaries, operatives of 

 paint and lead factories, weavers, steel 

 grinders — the wide difference between brick 

 and stonemasons being due to the luiig-iufest- 

 ing dust of lapidary work, which, though an 

 outdoor occupation, is nearly as unhealthy as 

 steel grinding. Lead paint makers have to 

 alternate their work with jobs in the tin shop, 

 and after all can rarely sland it fOr more than 

 tifteen years. Needle-grinders generally suc- 

 cumb after twelve or fourteen years. — Popular 

 Science Monthly. 



THE WAR IN EGYPT. 



The prospect of a speedy termination of 

 the Egyptian difficulty does not improve. In- 

 deed, it looks now as though England has on 

 hand a serious war which is not likely to be 

 brief, even if no general European complica- 

 tion arises from it. 



Meantime the industries of Egypt are griev- 

 ously deranged ; trade is at a stand-still, and 

 all manufacturing operations are suspended, 

 and agriculture is largely interrupted. 



The geographical and the social character- 

 istics of Egypt are peculiar, and of such a 

 nature that war affects the country far more 



disastrously than would be i)ossible in any 

 other land. 



Tlie Europeans who have been driven out 

 furnislied most of the capital for all com- 

 mcucial and industrial enterprises, filled most 

 of the positions requiring scientific knowledge 

 or mechanical skill, and controlled the ma- 

 jority of the means for making luoductive 

 and profitable the labor of the native masses. 

 In their ab.seuce a speedy revival of prosiierity 

 is impossible, even if the war should end at 

 once. 



Within the past twenty years the agricul- 

 tural products of Egypt have been nearly 

 trebled by means of the caiiital and machinery 

 introduced from Europe. The irrigation and 

 consequent cultivation of vast areas of sugar 

 and cotton and corn land have been made 

 possible by the introduction of steam pumps 

 and other modern irrigation machinery. Were 

 the natives able to operate such machinery 

 they cannot now do so for lack of coal, and so 

 to a serious extent tlie\' cannot produce the 

 crops on which their prosperity depends. 



The cotton- ginning factories and steam- 

 presses, by means or which the cotton croj) 

 of Egypt has been made fit for profitable ex- 

 portation, were introduced by Europeans and 

 largely operated by them. The same is true 

 of the sugar mills and the railways and other 

 means of rapid and economical transportation. 

 The natives themselves are incapable of ope- 

 rating the railways or of conducting an ex- 

 port trade, were such trade possible in Egypt 

 in time of war. As a consequence the gath- 

 ered crops are lying in the interior unsold ; 

 cultivation is largely suspended and thousands 

 of native workpeople are threatened with 

 starvation. 



The commercial and industrial arrange- 

 ments incident to the war are not confined to 

 Egypt. Even if no harm befalls the Suez 

 Canal, and there is no suspension of traflic 

 through it, England cannot but suffer severe- 

 ly, though indirectly, in her commercial and 

 manufacturing interests. 



Fully two-thirds of the cotton crop of 

 Egypt, averaging 280,000,000 pounds, has hith- 

 erto| gone to England. In the Bolton district 

 alone .5,000,000 spindles are employed on 

 Egyptian cotton ; and in the whole of Eng- 

 land some 20,000 work peeple are employed 

 upon this staple. The stoppage of the supply 

 cannot but affect them disastrously. 



The large dependence of English industry 

 upon Egyptian products is further illustrated 

 in the case of cotton-seed, about $9,000,000 

 worth of which is imported annually. Last 

 year Hull alone took 120,000 tons, and in its 

 crushing 2,51)0 men and boys were emi)loyed. 

 Still more serious will bo the efl'ect of the 

 stoppage of the supply of Egytian cotton seed 

 upon English agriculturists, who depend very 

 largely upon cotton-seed oil-cake for feeding 

 their cattle. The English soap boilers use 

 about 50,000 tons of Egyptian cotton-seed oil 

 a year, and must likewise severely feel a 

 cuttting off of the supply from that region. 

 England also draws from Egypt annually 

 $6,000,000 or $7,000,000 worth of wheat and 

 beans, $3,()00,000 worth of sugar, and more 

 than $2,(100,000 worth of wool, ivorj', gums, 

 and other native products. 



In return for all these, Egypt has taken 

 manufactured goods, machinery, coal, and 



cotton fabrics, the producers of which cannot 

 but lose heavily by the ruin which has fallen 

 uiion I'.gypt. 



How far these English lo.S8e8 will react upon 

 American trade it is impossible to foresee. 

 The deficiency in cotton and corn can be 

 made good from this side, but it is doubtful 

 if any marked advantage will accrue to Amer- 

 can producers unless the war shoufd involve 

 other powers than Egypt and Great Britain. 



The first efl'ect anticipated by our ship- 

 ping mercliants is an advance on ocean freight 

 and in marine insurance, through the with- 

 drawal of first-class steamers for transport 

 service to the seat of war, and the substitu- 

 tion fortliem of second and third-class freight- 

 ers in the regular carrying trade. — Scientific 

 Anierkun. 



THE CLIMATE IN DIFFERENT PARTS 

 OF THE UNION. 



Figures gleaned from the observation points 

 of forty-nine States and Territories show that 

 the hottest places in the Union are Florida, 

 Louisiana and Arizona, the mean annual 

 temperature of which is 69. Texas ranks 

 next at 07, Alabama 06, Mississippi 04, 

 Arkansas 6;!, South 'Jaroliua 02, Indian Ter- 

 ritory 60, North Carolina 59, Georgia and 

 Tennessee stand on a par at 58, Virginia 57, 

 Kentucky 56. The mean temperature of 56 

 prevails in California, Missouri and the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia; 54 in Maryland and Penn- 

 sylvania, 53 in Delaware, Ohio and t.'regon; 

 52 in Idaho, Utah and West Virginia. 51 in 

 Indiana, Kansas, New Mexico and Washing- 

 ton Territory; 50 in Connecticut, Illinois 

 Nevada and New Jersej ; 49 in Iowa and Ne- 

 braska; Massachusetts ranks with Rhode 

 Island, New York and Colorado at 48; 

 Michigan and Dakota are equal at 47. Alaska 

 is not the coldest part of the Union, as is com- 

 monly supposed, but stands with New Hamp- 

 shire at 40; colder than tliese are Maine and 

 Wisconsin at 45, Montana and Vermont at 

 43, Minnesota at 42, and coldest of all 

 Wyoming at 41. 



PURE AND WHOLESOME. 



Nearly all the American cotton seed oil 

 shipped to Europe is christened "olive" oil, 

 tnd re-exported to this country, where we 

 consnme it with the greatest gusto, as "real 

 extra Lucca." This suggests to our mills the 

 importance of securing a market here at 

 home, where they can sell their oil to much 

 greater advantage, since they will not have to 

 pay double freight to Marseilles and back. 

 Our people have been putting cotton seed oil 

 on their salads as olive oil for years; why con- 

 tinue this practice any longer V Why not con- 

 fess what is well known that cotton seed oil is 

 not like glucose or oleomargarine — an adultu- 

 rant— but as good and as pure as the product 

 of Italy in every respect ? It is true that 

 when we first began to manufacture it many 

 persons pretended to find about it a somewhat 

 bitter taste. But this taste has latterly been 

 completely eradicated, and now our factories 

 turn out as fine a salad oil, and chemically and 

 gastrouomically exactly the same as the best 

 farms of Tuscany and Lucca. This oil should 

 suiiplant lard in the Southern household ; it is 

 cleaner, better, cheaper and in every way su- 

 perior to lard. Its use instead of lard has be- 



