GLEANINGS OF FACT.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 367, 21 May 1903, Page 6

GLEANINGS OF FACT.

/ The province of Quebec is 293 years *ld; Montreal, 25 J; Toronto, 109. The carat u*ed in estimating the weight of gems is a grain of Indian wheat. Coffee fa planted 400 trees to the »ere, and the yield averages a pound • tree. The cultivation of sugar extended from India to Persia some time in the ftksth century. A floating bottle dropped in the •ulf stream will crosa the Atlantic t% about ISO days. English beekeepers average 50 founds ot honey from their hives, American only 20 pounds. The United States grants 25,000 patents a year, England only 8,000. Canada grants 4,000 a year. London's fire brigade puts out a #re at an average cost of €4O. Xew York pays £I3S for the same service, and Cincinnati holds the record with £295 per fire. The only occasion upon which a peer or peeress wears a coronet is •t the coronation of a sover?i?n. A 1 the moment when the archbishop oi Canterbury places the crown on the bead of the new monarch every peei present at the ceremony dons his iwn coronet. The invasion of London by American visitors has reached unprecedented proportions and never before have there been so many wealthy Ameri cans in the English capital. At one fashionable West end hotel a dozer Sultimillionaires are staying wit! ielr families, and money i» being J»ent with a prodigality whjch tht fetish "old nobility" must regard a* demoralizing and det«*table.