Interesting Items.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1904, 11 June 1892, Page 2 (Supplement)

Interesting Items.

German silver was invented in China. Twelve average tea plants produce one pound of tea. An herb that is reported to cure any kind of insanity has been found in Yucatan. Thirty-five nations havo responded to the invitation to participate in the World's Fair in Chicago. It is estimated that 700,000 girls are employed in the public-houses and drinking- | bars of Great Britain. A manifesto in favor of bi-metalism has been issued on behalf of the textile operatives of England. HisEionariea firafc taught the Chinese gar. deners tho art of grafting. ] The average length of ll£q is considerably | longer in England than in France i j In Prussia it has been found that the aver- j age duration of a Jewish life is five years longer than that cf a Christian. It is a strange fact that in Lapland there are so many species of rare plants that when Limifflus visited it he was simply amazed. In Japan there are apple trees growing four inches in height, whioh bear fruit freely about i/hoeize of currants. Ia the middle of a forest, on the banks of ths B-oCedeno, Kumboldt found wild orange trees laden with large sweet fruit. The Japaceso astonished the Yankees by applying ior no less than 124 000 square fettof space at the Chicago Exhibition. In 18-11 the consumption of tobacco in tha United Kingdom, with a population of 25 millions, was 23 million pounds. To-day, with a population of nearly 40 millions, it exceeds 55 million pounds. Mr B. F. Dowell, a septuagenarian, bas just won a lawsuit, after 36 years of litigafciou, against the United States Government, for the value of a mule killed by the Indians in 1855. Tho claim was 200 dollars. Money left for the purpose of purchasing wood to burn heretics with at Smithfield has just been devoted to the Charity Commissioners to a scheme for promoting technical instruction, mainly in connection with ths i printing tiades. Gold is found in all Corean provinces, and gDld-washing is an industry practised in every part of the country. Very little silver is, however, found. Copper is met with in emnll quantities; it is of inferior quality. Iron is to be obtained in all the provinces/ In come of the rugs from the Orient the knots of the threads axe so fine that they cannot be Beeu by ths eye. No machinery has been introduced there yet for making ruga or carpels, each tuft and knot being tied by deft fingers. At a certain ohurch near Ledbury, in England, a sermon ia still preached yearly against the vice of duelling. This is done in accordance with the last will and testament of a fair damsel whose rival lovers died fighting for her hand. For a hundred years and more orange 3 were (so the " Horticultural Times reports) cultivated in the open in the south of Devonshire, trained as peach trees, against walls, and sheltered only with mate of straw during She winter. Bull-fights were common in Thessaly and in Rome undor the emperors, where they were introduced by Julius Cassar, b.c. 45, though in Ifttser times they were forbidden. They \rere introduced into Spain by the Moorfl before 800 a d. While coming out of a Chicago theatre a youDg man had tbo sight of one of his eyee destroyed by a blow from a needle-like wsapon tLat projected from the hat of s. voucg woman who was accidently thrown against him. A young man, being asked by a judge whether he had a father or a mother, said ho j wasn't quite sure whether he had or not. Firat hia father died and then his mothee married again ; then his mother died and his father married again, and now ha didn't esaotly know whether they were hiß fathei and mother or not. The names of thoee who have enriched our gardens with useful and valuable plants are deserving of record and remembrance. Sir W. Baleigh introduced the potato ; Sir .Anthony Ashley first planted cabbages— a oabbage appears at his feet on his monument ; Sir Biohard Weaton brought over clovergrass from Flandera in 1645 ; figs were j planted in Henry Vill.'s reign, at Inmbetb, by Cardinal Pope— it is Siid the identical E?eea are still remaining. Spilman, who erected the first paper-mill at Dartford, in I 1590, brought over tbe two firfat lime trees, j which ho planted, and are still growing, | ThotnoE Lord Cromwell enriched the gardens i of England with three different kinds o" | plums. It was Evelyn, whose patriotism was I not exceeded by hia learning, who largely [ propagated the noble oak in England— bo i muck so, that the traes he planted have sup- i plied the navy of Great Brisain with its chief propoitirn of th&t timber.