Varieties.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 351, 29 January 1903, Page 7

Varieties.

EGGSHELL FARM FOE CHILDREN. eggshell farm is a part of one of SMQ) the primary school department iSSt of study in this city. Each child takes an eggahell about twothirds whole. The child's name is written on the shell and after a lesson on soils sufficient earth is placed in the shell to fill it. Each one in a room is given the same Vind of seed to plant Afrer the plant becomes too large for the shell the child is encouraged to take it homo and plant in a large garden. The teaehers aim to teach the complete life history of the plant from seed to seed.— < Buffalo Express.' THOSE WARMING CURRENTS. The mild climate'of the northwest coast of America is commonly attributed to the Japan* current, and the Gulf stream is supposed to have a Use influence on ihe western coast of Europe, etc. But it can hardly be supposed that the Japan rent, however warm it may be when it leaves the tropics, retains an appreciable excess of heat after a journey of 6.000 miles in northern latitudes. No trace of this current reaches the horses of North America. In the North Atlantic the gulf stream disappears as a current loag before the British isles are reached. EASI WAY TO SAVE ICE. I made a fortunate discovery at the beginning of the summer, that has lessened the amount of my ice bill. I tried first putting a newspaper over the ice in the refrigerator 5 ' but as 1 like to use the small piece, left in the box when the new ice comes, for my. water cooler, I found this would not do. as the ice tasted of the paper. Then I tried wrapping the ice in flannel. This was good, but to keep a fresh flannel ready and all clean and sweet made extra labour. Finally I spread a double thickness of carpet ever the outside top of the rotxigemtoz. Tkis waa a perfect success. My ice aoeount from April to October was ten shillings less than the year previous, and we certainly had as warm a summer. I had more ices and frozen desserts this summer, too.—' Good Housekeeping.'

FAIR AERONAUTS. The latest fashionable pastime for ladies of the French stage is ballooning, and no Parisian actress is considered to ba in the swim until she has received the • baptism of the air.' Each fair aeronaut, after her first journey to the clouds, treats h-?r envying friends who have not yet b9en up in the Bkies to as vivid a piece of word painting as her eloquence can command. It is generally conceded among ladies who thirst for new sensations that a balloon trip is the most satisfying experience yat imagined. It will ba remembered that M. Santos Dumont last summer wag overwhelmed with letters from fair enthusiasts who wanted to accompany him round the Eiffel Tower and to marry him into the bargain. Before SantosDiraont was heard of, however, it was, as usual, Mme. Sarah Bernhardt who, Beveral years ago, set the fashion for ballooning—as she has given the lead in other modes before. Besides amateur lady aeronauts, there is also in Paris quite a phalanx of feminine navigators of the air who might be called professionals Meadames Besancon, Sorcouf and Mallet among others, the wives of experienced captains of balloons, and Mme. Lachambre, whose husband has constructed all M. Santos-Dumont's airships.

COSTLIEST CITY IN THE WOELD. Only one public official in the United States handles more money than the comptroller of New York City, and that official is the secretary of the treasury, says 'Leslie's Weekly.' The government of Greater New York costs more every year than the combined expenses of the governments of half a dozen states. From the year's beginning te the end the comptroller of the metropolis receives and disburses about 600,000,000—more than half a billion - dollars. Half of this is paid into the treasury through taxes and other sources of revenue, and half is paid out of the running expenses of the city, a large part of which is expended in salaries and wages cf city officers and employeis, for there are 40,000 persons on the city's pay roll—persons enoagh to make a very good sized city in themselvesJAMES SETTLED IT. Two boys in a rural Scotch district were one day disoussing what sign it was when the cuckoo is fceard for the first time in the year. One of them said it was a sign of getting married, while the other said it was a sign that you were going to be rich. A farmer, overhearing them, said, ' That cannot be true, because J have heard it many times, and I am not married yet, and I am certainly not rich.' Juut then a local wort' y, known as ' Daft Jamie,' was passing by, and the farmer said: ' Jamie, can you tell us what sign it is when you hear the cuckoo for the first time?' ' Yes,' said Jamie, as he took his pipe from his mouth ' It's a sign you're not deaf.' Sidney: ' I'm terribly tired of life.' Bodney: ' You have never had to work.' Sidney: ' I knew; bub I'm so delicately •enstitated that ft exhausts my vitality to see other,people work.'