and bookkeeepers in banks, 22,911 draymen, hackmen, and teamsters, 32,407 employés of railroad companies (not clerks), and several thousand dealers and traders in different sorts of merchandise. Among the Irish engaged in manufacturing, mechanical, and mining industries were 12.742 black. smiths, 17,438 boot and shoe makers, 1,665 builders and contractors, 14,268 carpenters and joiners, 19,732 cotton mill operatives, 12,611 leather curriers, trim. mers, dressers, finishers, and tanners, 16,200 mil. liners, dressmakers and seamstresses, and 25,462 miners. Indeed, the Irish are represented in every trade, profession, and occupation in the United States. "An edict has gone forth from the agents of Rome to establish Roman Catholic parochial schools in the United States. This means war on our free school system; and I believe that in the coming contest between Roman authority and Irish American Catholi cism the Italian priesthood will be worsted." are constantly projected. The land and the water must be brought together by these artificial means, or they must remain separate and worthless.-New York Sun. It should be remembered, however, that in Kansas, Colorado and Nebraska, within the last ten years, grasses have advanced by self-propagation many miles into what was once regarded a desert region, while the rainfall has increased and agriculture is carried on, where once it was regarded impossible. Over enormous stretches where the rainfall is slight, nutritious grasses which require almost no moisture for their growth, abound, so that though diversified agriculture may be impossible, yet enormous herds of cattle can be profitably fattened for the markets of the world. Besides all this, the marvelous mines of all the precious metals make up for the lack of favorable agricultural conditions that are found elsewhere. On the whole, therefore, this part of the West is a great country. Irrigation in the United States. The Committee on Public Lands of the House of Representatives, in a recent report, announce the startling fact that "the arid region of the United States, whereon agriculture is not successful without irrigation, measures, in general terms, that portion of the public domain which yet remain undisposed of.” According to Prof. Powell, this region "embraces something more than four-tenths of the whole country, excluding Alaska." He defines as arid lands those whereon the annual mean rainfall is less than twenty inches; but says that "at twenty inches, agriculture will not be uniformly successful from sea son to season; many seasons in a long series will be fruitless." This region, which can only be made productive by irrigation, embraces the whole of the States of Colorado and Nevada, and the Territories of Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, with large portions of Southern California and Eastern Oregon, and portions of Washington and Dakota Territories. To make this vast region productive, the water must be taken from the streams, which are distant from each other, and carried many miles through canals, and thence through cross ditches. From the latter, the water is distributed by artificial and skilfully regulated overflow, finally doing its work by the various processes of flooding lateral percolation and absorption. The art of irrigation is studied and applied by our enterprising people in the far West in the light of the experiences of India, China, Japan, Egypt, France, Spain, Italy, Australia, Chili and Peru. Take a small example. In Southern California, fifteen canals and ditches, aggregating 409 miles in length, and with a surface width of 750 feet, convey water from King's River through 1,000 farms containing, all told, 125,000 acres. Other great irrigation works are now. in construction, and still others General Notes. -What are the facts as taken from the records of the Government in regard to the enormous reduction in national taxation since 1865, the year the rebellion was closed, when the internal taxes were $310,906,984? For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1886, when they were only $116,902,869 ? Here is a reduction of only $194,069,984 of internal taxes! Is this nothing of a decrease of war taxation ? The duties on imports have been reduced from $216,138,916 in 1882 to $189,410,448 in 1886, a reduction of $26,728,918. The only internal taxes now are on spirits, tobacco, fermented liquors and bank note circulation, all others having been repealed. The debt of the United States in 1865 was $2,756,431,571.43. It has been reduced, according to the statement of the Secretary of the Treasury made October 1, 1887, to $1,255,526,397. This is a reduction of the public debt of the United States in twenty years of $1,480,905, 174, a reduction of debt per capita from $78.25 to less than $24, and of interest from $4.29 per capita to less than 80 cents per capita. As a nation we are taxed less than any people in any civilized country on earth. Our expenses per capita of our population are within a fraction of $4 a year. --According to some recently published statistics there are now 370 colleges and universities in the United States, with 3,000 professors and 35,000 students. Of these students about 80 per cent. or 10.000 are in denominational institutions. Institutions for higher education, by which are meant, we suppose, schools for secondary education, falling short of college or university rank, under control of Evangelical churches, have in attendance over 58,000 students, while 120 theological seminaries, belonging to Evangelical churches, have 4,000 students. These figures will convey some idea of the extent to which higher education in the United States is under Christian control. Or, to look at them in another way, they convey an idea of what Christian churches and societies are doing for Christian education in that country. -The last rail was laid on December 14 on the Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie and Atlantic Railway, thus forming a continuous line from Minneapolis to Sault Ste. Marie. The Canadian Pacific line reached the Saulte last week, and the only break in an uninterrupted line from Minneapolis to the Atlantic seaboard is the international bridge now being built across St. Mary's river, and which was to be completed by January Ist. --It is claimed that there are about 1,300,000 Scandinavians in this country, and they are among the most intelligent of our foreign population. -The Railway Age says that 12,724 miles of new main-line railway were built in the United States in 1887. The largest number of miles ever laid before in one year was 11,568, in 1882. The total mileage is now 151,000. -The building statistics of St. Paul, Minn., for the year show a total of over $11,000,000, being $2,000,. 000 more than last year, and the largest ever known. -The grandest peak in the United States is said to be Mount Williamson, in Inyo, Cal. It is 15,000 feet high, a large portion of the northern side being nearly perpendicular. Two of the three peaks are inaccessible. -The State of Kansas pays two cents per pound bounty on all sorghum sugar manufactured within its limits. As the Fort Scott Works, with improved vacuum pans, obtains 102 pounds of sugar and twelve gallons of syrup from a ton of cane, and ten to fifteen tons of cane may be grown on an acre, the bounty alone gives the farmer a very fair return for the labor of producing the crop-to say nothing of what he re ceives for any sugar and sorghum seed he may sell or use on the farm. -A late steamer from San Francisco for China took out 200 tons of mining machinery and six skilled miners to aid in the mineral development of that country. -Messrs. Alvan Clark & Sons, the great astronom. ical instrument makers of Cambridge, Mass., have just received from Europe a monster lens for the Lick Observatory, California, to replace the one which was broken by an accident about two years ago. It cost in the rough about $4,000, and when ground and polished will be the largest and finest lens ever cast. It will take about two years to prepare it. -Pittsburgh from being the sootiest of cities is the cleanest from its substitution of natural gas for bituminous coal. -The assessed value of the property of the South has increased over $800,000,000 in the last seven years, or about $125,000,000 a year. -The Salvation Army recently needed $25,000 for its work, and raised the amount in one week by what is called "A week of self-denial." It didn't have a single ice cream party or sacred concert or supper. Is there not here a practical lesson? -Over 7,000 Finns arrived at Castle Garden, New York, during 1887. They are spoken of as a thrifty class of immigrants. -The rabbit plague has appeared in Florida. The animals are playing havoc with the green peas and cabbages in the southern section of the State. -The new silver vault in the Treasury building at Washington is finished. It will hold 100,000,000 standard dollars. George E. Spalding, P. F. Delancy A. J. Armstrong, H. G. Youngblood, DATE. VIRGINIA, $70.50. Richmond, Hartshorn Mem'l Coll. : 7.00 15 25 10 15 I 25 27 05 16 50 21 65 7 76 22 43 665 50 00 50 00 10 CO MASSACHUSETTS, $7,662.11. Boston, Collections by Rev. J. N. Williams... Dorchester Temple Ch... First Ch. Chelsea, First Ch.. Wakefield, Mrs. B. B. Wiley.. Brooklyn, Sixth Ave. Ch.. Angelica Ch.... Potsdam Ch.. Binghamton Ch.. 20 33 Fort Covington, Woman's Mis9 08 sion Society. 100 00 Fitchburg, First Ch.. First S. S... 163 00 Cambridge, North Ave. Ch 1,269 46 Merrimac, "Merrimac 2 50 Danvers, First Ch.. 30 00 Buffalo, Michigan St. Ch., in add. Smith's Valley, Branch of Lebanon Ch.. Saratoga Springs, First Ch. Alps, Mr. and Mrs. John H. Coon Miss Fannie E. Coon. Miss Lottie J. Coon. Deposit, Rev. L. J. Smith New Rochelle, Salem S. S.. Elmira, A. G. Wooster.... *For Florida Institute: Sandy Creek, Mrs. O. S. C. E. F. New York City, Collections, per Mrs. L. A. Mikels, for Ch. at Sassafras, Va No. Granville, O. T. Mason and wife, for Ch. at Salt Lake City... Band 650 *For Wayland Seminary: A Friend LEGACIES. 50 00 |