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reduction is estimated to diminish the annual State revenue by nearly one hundred thousand dollars. An act had also been passed by both Houses reducing the State tax in general, but it was subsequently rescinded. An act empowering the Railroad Commissioners to regulate the practice of the steam - whistle, so called, with a view to its abatement. An act ordering fire-escapes to be made in all buildings where twelve or more persons are employed for work in one room. An act raising the jurisdiction of the Hartford and Fairfield courts, in civil cases, to one thousand dollars; and the judges' salaries to three thousand a

year.

The collective sums appropriated to public institutions by the Connecticut Legislature of 1881 amount to nearly a quarter of a million. Among them, besides the $75,000 before mentioned for a normal school at New Britain, are $50,000 for a hospital at Bridgeport, $12,000 to the Reform School for Boys, and $10,000 to the Industrial School for Girls.

In the early part of the session, January 18th, the two Houses separately voted for the election of a United States Senator from Connecticut, to occupy the seat of William W. Eaton, whose term was to expire on March 3d; the candidates in competition for that office being Joseph R. Hawley, the Republican nominee, and Mr. Eaton himself, renominated by the Democratic members of the General Assembly. The voting in either House resulted as follows: In the Senate-Hawley 16, Eaton 4, one of the Democratic Senators having been absent; in the House of Representatives-Hawley 161, Eaton 68. Joseph R. Hawley was elected.

At the election for members of the Legislature in November the Republican candidates were returned in far greater numbers than the Democratic. The Senate consisted of 24 members-Republicans 17, Democrats 7; the Lower House of 247 members-Republicans 148, Democrats 99. By these results the Republican majorities, as compared with those of 1880, are reduced-in the Senate from 11 to 10; in the Lower House from 84 to 49; and on joint ballot from 95 to 59.

COSTA RICA (REPÚBLICA DE COSTA RICA). Detailed statements concerning area, territorial division, population, etc., may be found in the "Annual Cyclopædia" for 1877.

The President of the Republic is General Tomás Guardia; the Vice-President is General Pedro Quiroz; and the Cabinet was composed of the following ministers: Interior, Señor S. Lizano; Foreign Affairs, Justice, Public Instruction, and the Poor-Commission, Dr. José María Castro; Finance and Commerce, Señor Salvador Lara; Public Works, Licentiate M. Arguello; and War and Marine, General V. Guardia.

The Bishop of San José is the Rt. Rev. Bernardo A. Thiel.

The Costarican Minister Resident in the United States is Señor Peralta; and the Con

sul-General of Costa Rica at New York is Señor José Muñoz.

The United States Minister (resident in Guatemala, and accredited to the five CentralAmerican republics - Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Salvador, and Costa Rica) is Dr. Cornelius A. Logan; and the United States Consul at San José, Mr. A. Morrell. The transfer of Consul-General Hall from Havana to Central America, as Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States, has been spoken of.

In the absence of later official returns relating to finance, commerce, etc., than those given in our volume for 1880, the following extract from a letter addressed by a Costarican bondholder to a London journal, in August, 1881, will be found interesting, as it contains a summary of financial, agricultural, and railway matters for that year:

Under the heading of "Trade and Finance," in your last issue, a paragraph is assigned to the President and the railway of Costa Rica, and, while you refer to rumors that the former is endeavoring to raise that the latter is distinctly pledged to them. Regardmoney irrespective of the bondholders, you justly add ing the railway, therefore, as the property of the holders of the loan, it might be well briefly to examine into the value of that property, should they be able to get it into their own hands. From Port Limon on the Atlantic, seventy miles of narrow-gauge line have been constructed, and now reach the Rio Sucio. From this point to the capital, San José, twenty-six miles have still to be made, and of these eighteen are over uneven and difficult ground. Up to the present time $17,000,000 have been expended on the railway, and it is estimated that $2,000,000 more will be required to complete it, so that the total cost will amount to $19,000,000. The commerce and agriculture of the whole republic are confined to four provinces, those of San José, Cartago, Heredia, and Alajuela, which together cover an area of only eight square leagues. They have no means of exporting their produce, or of introducing imports, except through Punta Arenas, on the Pacific coast; and the cost of carriage to and from that point, ranging from a minimum of $20 per ton to a maximum of $40, according to the season, sometimes exceeds the whole treight by sea to Europe, even by the expensive route of Panama. The imports and exports make together a very considerable tonnage, which, if brought over the line when completed, would form an item of importance in the traffic returns. From Europe the imports consist of cloths, iron, provisions, machinery, etc., and amount to 20,000 tons per annum; and from the United States 2,500 tons of corn, etc., are annually introduced. The coffee exported reaches 10,000 tons, and leather and other items 1,000. Consequently we have a grand total of imports and exports amounting to 33,500 tons, all of which will have to pass over the whole length of line, to or from the consuming and producing provinces already mentioned. The cost of freight per ton, via Cape Horn from Europe to San is at least £7 (835), and via Panama £10 ($50); conJosé, including the land-passage from Punta Arenas, sequently, considering the time that is lost by the former route, and the double transshipment by the latter, a charge of £8 108. ($42.50) per ton from San José to Europe via Port Limon would be extremely reasonable to the producer and consumer, and, allowing 308. ($7.50) per ton for the Atlantic voyage, we have £7 ($35) per ton for railway freight from San José to Port Limon. At this rate the line would give upward of 5 per cent on the whole capital, and I have not taken into account the enormous timber-trade bility of bringing it to the sea-shore, nor have I made that must be opened up as soon as there is any possiany allowance for any passenger traffic and other

pacity of the world could at a reasonable calculation be many times multiplied through the economies in production which can be obtained from improved methods and appliances that are already known. As a means of calling the attention of cotton-growers to improved methods in the cultivation and handling of cotton, Edward Atkinson, a statistician and expert associated with manufacturing industries in New England, suggested, through the medium of the

items, as against any results from these sources I should have to put the expenses of maintenance. These brief details may, however, serve to show my fellow bondholders that, in the railway of Costa Rica, there is a basis on which to found some hope for improvement in the value of the bonds they hold; and, as I am informed that President Guardia will be in London in the course of a few days, and that he holds full powers not only to negotiate, but to accept an arrangement, subject only to the confirmation of Congress, I am strongly of opinion that the bondholders should not lose the present opportunity, but should at once take energetic action. I do not fear that any negotiation can be concluded irrespective of the bond-press in 1880, the plan of holding a special holders, for in Paris and Amsterdam there are also Cotton Exhibition, in which all the products many persons who have invested in the loans, and and materials of the cotton industry, and all who would not permit any new advances to the Gov- the mechanical appliances employed from the ernment of Costa Rica unless their prior claims were planting of the seed to the turning out of the recognized. finished web at the mill, could be inspected and compared. Atkinson had primarily in mind the demonstration to the Southern growers of the advantage of more thoroughly cleaning the raw fiber before packing it for sale to the manufacturers and exporters, and proposed that the exhibition should be held in Atlanta in 1881. The business men of Georgia and other Southern States caught at the suggestion, wishing to show the advantages of the South as a cotton-manufacturing locality, which had been proved by the success of recently established factories, and to attract the attention of capitalists to the manifold other industrial capabilities of their section. (See EXPOSITION at Atlanta.)

In the article COLOMBIA, in the present volume, will be found mention of a treaty between that republic and Costa Rica, to procure European arbitration upon the question of the ownership of the disputed territory on the isthmus.

COTTON. The extraordinary increase which has taken place in the yield of cotton in the United States (see statistics in COMMERCE AND FINANCE, AMERICAN, IN 1881) is insignificant in comparison to the capabilities of the country for expanding the production of this staple. The United States produces now just about four fifths of the cotton grown in the world, and the product of the other countries, notably of India and Egypt, the largest producers, is rather diminishing than increasing at present. For the last six years the average cotton crop has been 5,000,000 bales; in 1880'81 it exceeded 6,500,000 bales. Yet, out of every hundred acres capable of producing cotton not more than two or three have been under cultivation; and the yield per acre is not half as great in quantity, and very much inferior in quality, to what it might be made. In 1879-'80 the cotton acreage was 14,441,993 acres; the yield was 5,737,257 bales, or an average of four bales of 475 pounds to ten acres. Under careful cultivation a bale an acre is commonly obtained, and two bales are often grown. The fertile Yazoo bottom in Mississippi yields, with the present imperfect cultivation and incomplete picking, three bales to every four acres. There are 3,000,000 acres of land in the same district which could be reclaimed by simply excluding the Mississippi overflows. This would increase the product of the Yazoo flats to 2,250,000 bales, which might be more than doubled by improved cultivation, and the State of Mississippi could produce on this tract and on the uplands as much as the entire crop of the United States. Texas is capable, when its entire cotton area is utilized to the best advantage, of producing ten times the present crop of the whole country.

A slight lowering of the cost has always the effect of increasing the consumptive demand for this universally desired commodity in an extraordinary degree. The consumptive ca

The need of some efficient mechanical device for the rapid gathering of cotton is urgently felt. The crop is nearly every year in danger, and frequently seriously damaged, while there is a constant waste of enormous aggregate amount, through lack of good harvesting machinery. The various cotton-pickers which have been invented may none of them be superior to hand-picking, since none has yet supplanted the primitive method. For the assistance of the laborer in sustaining the awkward position while picking, a pair of staves, fastened to the legs and holding a belt under the body, is a patented device which is sometimes used. A mechanical hand-picker has been invented, consisting of a rotating spindle which is kept moist, and winds the lint out of the boll, the spindle being turned by means of a crank. Another device is an endless toothed chain, driven by a sprocket-wheel and crank, with an appliance for stripping the cotton off the barbs into a basket. A simple hand-picker which has been lately patented consists of gloves with wire hooks, worn on both hands, and a brush at the waist to rub off the cotton into a bag below. An older and more complex device is a reciprocating tongue provided with barbs which detaches the cotton from the boll, the agitation of the tongue moving the cotton gradually up through an oblong box by the aid of an elastic plate provided with spines, depositing it at the end in a bag. A pneumatic tube connected with an exhaust pump or fan has been tried, the hose being applied to the bolls by hand. An electric cotton-picker was

patented in 1870: two endless rubber belts, electrically excited by friction, move vertically upward on each side of the row, and as the machine is driven along, the plants are violently agitated by mechanical means; the cotton which is shaken from the bolls adheres to the rubber bands, and is conveyed to a receptacle at the top of the machine. A pneumatic picker working automatically contains a horizontal fan which is actuated by the wheels on which the machine is drawn, the cotton being disengaged by a series of curved hoops inclosed within a hood and conveyed by the current of air into a wire-cloth receiver where the air finds exit. The stalks of the cotton-plant are cut, and the cotton beaten out into a wagonbox upon a grating of transverse wires, according to the method of a Louisiana inventor. An elaborate picker, patented in 1872, is a long cylinder covered with bristles, which revolves by the aid of one of the supporting wheels, and extracts the ripe cotton from the bolls, which are bent over to the brush by a reel in front; a cleaning cylinder removes the lint from the bristles and deposits it in the receptacle behind. A similar method has been recently patented, in which vertically revolving brushes, in contact with cleaning-combs, are arranged in two pairs, one pair of brushes working on each side of the cotton-row. Another mechanical harvester contains a series of barbed flexible rods which work up and down alternately among the cotton-plants, each in its ascent stripping the cotton from the descending ones, which is taken from the tops of the vibrating arms by endless bands.

The prevention of the ravages of the cottonworm has never been attempted with any success until within the last ten years. Statistical inquiries show that the annual loss to the country from this pest between the years 1865 and 1879 has been $15,000,000, while in some years it has amounted to double that sum. The natural history of the cotton-worm was explained at the Atlanta Exhibition by Professor C. V. Riley. The worm feeds on the under side of the leaves, and is seldom observed in the earlier part of the season, though its presence is detected by skilled eyes from yellowish and semi-transparent blotches on the leaves. It makes its chrysalis usually in a piece of rolled-up leaf. The moth, which is nocturnal in its habits, deposits its eggs on the under side of the lowest and largest leaves. The eggs are 6 millimetre wide, and are not easily detected, being of nearly the color of the leaf. The period of the phases of a generation varies according to temperature. The average time, taking the whole season together, is about one month. There are thus seven or more generations developed each season in the Gulf district. The first worms appear in the southern portion of the cotton belt between the middle of April and the middle of May. The cotton-worm is exceedingly prolific, the moth being capable of laying 600 or 700 eggs. The

worm is not present in destructive numbers before the third generation. The notion that it suddenly appears in midsummer is therefore natural. The insect hibernates only in the southern part of the cotton-region, and its extension north must proceed every season from thence. Staining and fragments of leaf in the cotton, impurities the most difficult to remove, are caused by the gnawing of the cotton-worm. The first effectual method of destroying the cotton-worm was recommended by Professor Riley, Entomologist to the Department of Agriculture at Washington, in 1873. This was the use of Paris-green. Appliances for the application of this and similar arsenical preparations were introduced in great variety between 1875 and 1878. They all had for their object the throwing of the poisons, finely divided in solutions or powders, over the plants broadcast. The subject of the prevention of the cotton-worm's depredations was made, in 1878, the subject of a special investigation by the Agricultural Bureau. The method of spreading the poison from below was found preferable. The dry powder is more efficacious in wet weather, but the wet method is ordinarily more expeditious and less dangerous. The cost of appliances for the wet method is greater. The punctured sprinklers and gauze sifters have been abandoned, as no means could be devised for keeping them from clogging. Slitnozzle sprinklers, which project the fluid in a fan-like sheet, that breaks up into a spray, are made with the fissures cut in different curves and angles to produce different kinds of jets. These are excellent where large sprays for broadcast sprinkling are desired. For obtaining small sprays for poisoning cotton from beneath, a form of nozzle has been devised in which the fluid is let into the nozzle-chamber at a tangent, causing a rapid whirling of the fluid against the inner surface and its slit; this washes away the particles which would otherwise accumulate and clog up the passage. Lip-nozzles spread the fluid in a shower by dashing the stream against an inclined surface. These may produce a jet in one sheet, or reflected in two or more planes, or spreading in a funnel-shaped spray. Rotary nozzles revolve by the force of the jet, causing a spiral movement of the fluid, which breaks it up into a spray. Rifling of a tubular nozzle produces the same effect. A form of rotary sprinkler, called the cyclone nozzle, is well adapted for under-sprinkling, as it produces the finest kind of spray; the round-nozzle chamber has a tangential inlet, and, at right angles to this, a central circular outlet.

There are four classes of machines for spreading poison-brush-throwers, rotary fan blowers, bellows-blowers, and squirting-machines. The latter is the most valuable form. Forcepumps have been tried, but they have been found too expensive for ordinary use. A device, called the automatic sprinkler, does away with the necessity of pumps. The barrel of

poison is elevated very high in the air, and the dust is released in such a manner as to spread it in an even shower. Gas-pressure has been successfully used to distribute poison. One of the best machines forces the liquid through a system of branching tubes ending in a trailing flexible fork which sprinkles two rows from underneath. With $10 or $15 outlay for machinery, and less than five cents per acre for material, and with the labor of one man and a team, 150 acres of cotton can be effectually poisoned in one day.

The only vegetable poison which has proved a protection against the cotton-worm is pyrethrum. The cultivation of the plants that furnish this powder, which is so remarkably deadly to insects without being harmful to other life, the Department of Agriculture is seeking to introduce in the United States.

The business-men of the South look forward with confidence to a rapid development of cotton manufacture in the Southern States, and the transfer to that section of the business of New England and of Great Britain to a considerable extent. Water-power is found in ample quantities throughout large portions of the cotton-region. The grounds on which they base their belief that cotton-milling will grow in their section, at the expense of the present great centers of the industry, where the investment of vast amounts of capital has apparently fixed it for ever, are that the entire cost of packing and of transport can be saved and added to the profits of the Southern manufacturer. The cotton is also said to be better and more easily worked before being compressed in bales; and the climate of the South, as compared with that of the Northern States, is said to be more favorable to the manufacture, which requires no artificial moisture, and is, hence, more healthful for the operatives. The difference in the cost of material to the Southern and the Northern manufacturer is estimated as follows on each bale: bagging and ties, $1; ginning and baling, $3; storage and insurance. 75 cents; drayage, 20 cents; sampling of two pounds, 20 cents; compressing, 75 cents; commissions and brokerage, $2; freight to New England, and insurance,

DAKOTA. The area of this Territory, according to the latest estimate of the United States Government officials, is 150,932 square miles. The previous estimate was 148,932 square miles. The population of the Territory was 4,837 in 1860, and 14,181 in 1870. By the census of 1880 it is 135,180.

The Territory lies north of Nebraska and west of Minnesota and Iowa. It was organized in 1861, and the first Legislature was convened in 1862. It is divided into ninety-five counties, of which only a part are organized.

$5; loss by stealing, dirt, storms, careless handling, etc., $3-in all, $14.90. This is equivalent to 1 cent a pound. The charges for baling, transportation, and the services of middle-men, paid by Northern and British manufacturers on their takings from the crop of 1879, amounted to not less than $100,000,000, or 40 per cent of the total receipts of the planters for the crop.

The average cost of water-power in the Southern States is $6 per horse-power per annum; while the steam-power used in some of the large New England mills costs $12. The Southern streams never freeze, and are seldom affected by drought to any material extent. The humidity of the Southern climate is almost constant, and the hygrometric condition most favorable to cotton manufacture prevails winter and summer, the range rarely passing the limits of 65° and 70°.

CYPRUS. This island, in respect to size, occupies the third rank among her Mediterranean sisters, and comes after Sicily and Sardinia. Its length is about 140 miles; its total surface is estimated at 4,000 square miles. It is crossed, lengthwise, by two chains of mountains: the northern one follows the sea-shore, fronting Caramania (the old Cilicia); the other includes, in the north, the group of Olympus or Troodos Mountains (6,621 feet of elevation). Two plains, Morpha and Messaria, extend between those two chains; the latter, watered by the Pidias, is very fertile. In the beginning of the Christian era the population of the island amounted to 1,000,000 inhabitants. number is now considerably reduced; and, although, for want of a correct census, exactness is out of the question, yet it is deemed quite safe to affirm that it does not exceed 170,000 inhabitants, viz.:

D

Greeks. Mussulmans.. Maronites... Armenians.. Catholics..

Total..

This

111,900

55,000

1,600

800

1.200

170,000

The principal cities are Lefkosia, 20,000 inhabitants; Larnaka, 9,000; Limasol, 7,000; and Famagusta, 6,000.

The capital of the Territory is Yankton, and the Governor is Nehemiah G. Ordway. The delegate in the United States Congress is Richard F. Pettigrew, a Republican. At his election the vote was: Pettigrew, 18,909; McCormick, Democrat, 9,182.

The state of agriculture in some of the counties shows a very rapid improvement. In Cass County is the famous Red River. The population is about 12,000, and nearly all the land of the county has been taken up. It is sold at from five to fifteen dollars per acre.

About

120,000 acres were under cultivation in 1881, of which 100,000 contained wheat. In the next year it was expected that the wheat-land would increase to 150,000 acres and the crop to 3,000,000 bushels.

The county north of Cass is Traill, and the county south Richland. Traill County has a population of 6,000 and Richland 3,300. A large quantity of railroad and Government land is in these counties and yet remains unsettled. It is good farming land, and for sale cheap. Goose Creek, Elm, Rush, Maple, Cheyenne, and Wild Rivers flow through this county, and it also has Red River on the east. The Cheyenne is the largest, and empties into Red River. It is one hundred and seventy-five miles long, and flows east for one hundred miles through a good country. Devil's Lake also empties a large body of water into the Cheyenne, which then flows southward ninety-six miles, cutting Barnes County in halves. The valley of the Cheyenne is narrow and picturesque, and very fertile. Its water-powers are unsurpassed.

Barnes County is less than five years old, but it already has a population of 3,000 inhabitants. In 1877, 3,000 acres were cultivated; in 1879, 27,000; and in 1880, 40,000. The land is good and very cheap. It is rolling prairie, the undulations at times rising into hills. This county is well timbered with oak, elm, and ash. Along the rivers are fine meadows, and the soil of the uplands is composed of black loam. North of Barnes County is Foster County, and on the south Ransom County. These are represented as being good counties. Near the center of Barnes lies the shire-town, Valley City, in the Cheyenne Valley. It is a pretty town, and is surrounded by a lovely and fertile country. The river flows by the town, and its banks are covered with a growth of oaks, elms, cherry, and box-elder trees. The town already has several hundred inhabitants, although it was only commenced in 1878. There are twenty-five business firms, mills, school-houses, hotels, a bank, and one fine brick block. There are quite a number of handsome private residences, and altogether the town may be said to have a promising future before it.

Adjoining Barnes is Stutsman County. This county has 1,300,000 acres of good land, consisting of prairie, meadow, and bottom lands. The land is subject to entry by pre-emption, as tree-claims and homesteads.

The James River divides Stutsman in twain, and with its tributaries waters the county amply. The James is a noble stream, flows through five hundred and twenty-five miles of country, and is estimated to be one thousand miles long. A steamer has been placed on it, and a company organized for its improvement and navigation. James Town is the countyseat of Stutsman, and is located on the James River, at a beautiful spot where the valley widens, and is surrounded by fertile knolls rising in terraces. The town has obtained a

fine start; has a bank, hotels, handsome courthouse, and many neat and attractive dwellings. Stutsman is one of the best grazing counties in Dakota, and cattle and sheep raising are carried on as one of its regular businesses. The railroad lands are sold at from $2.50 to $5 per

acre.

Kidder County is west of Stutsman, and contains 900,000 acres of land, most of which is extremely fertile. It is on the line of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and of easy access to settlers. About 2,000 acres are under cultivation, and yield well. Wheat-raising in this county will be one of the great businesses of its future, and the flouring-mills at Bismarck furnish a good market.

Burleigh County lies west of Kidder, and borders on the Missouri River. It contains 1,843,000 acres of good land, and is well settled. Bismarck is the shire-town, and for a long time has been known as the terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad. It contains about 3,000 inhabitants, and is now a commercial center. It has both railway and river transportation, and no less than forty steamers ply from this town, up and down the Missouri, to the settlements and military posts along its banks. Heavy freights are carried over the Northern Pacific east, and it has a stage transportation company running to the Black Hills.

The country around Bismarck is beautiful and fertile, and there are some fine farms. Wheat, oats, and corn are grown, and the land produces well. Of wheat, 25 bushels per acre were raised last year; oats, 50 bushels per acre; corn, 105 bushels. On some land 150 to 300 bushels of potatoes grew, and all the vegetables are abundant and of remarkably fine flavor. The wheat is of superior quality and makes good flour. Timber in this county is quite plentiful, and coal is near at hand, large beds of it having been found in the adjoining county, on the line of the Northern Pacific road.

Crossing the Missouri River at Bismarck, one enters the "Great American Desert." The first evidence of the sterility of this country is the smart little town of Mandan, containing 500 inhabitants. It is located on the bank of the beautiful Heart River, at its junction with the Missouri, and is surrounded on three sides by a rich agricultural region. More than fifty farms are bearing crops, and scores of new ones are being opened up. A broad plateau, surrounded by hills, lies back of Mandan, and the scenery is beautiful. Looking up the Heart River, a prospect meets the eye that reminds one of anything else than a desert. Hundreds of cattle are seen grazing on the hills. The groves of timber along the stream afford the cattle all the shelter they need, even in the coldest of weather, and not a mouthful of hay need be cut for feed. Numerous small streams empty into the Heart River, watering the country well. The Northern Pacific Railroad

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