UNIVERSITY COURIER.
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effort, but this is nothing. There is an old saying, "Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well." Nothing is so small that it may be safely neglected. Work, then, thoroughly, earnestly. In the words of a book not quite out of fashion: "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do with thy might." P.R.B.
INDUSTRY AND CROPS.
The prosperity of this country depends in a large measure upon the crops. The unlimited area of fertile land has made agriculture the leading industry, and sixty per cent. of the people of the United States make their living directly by farming. Manufacturing, which is yet in its infancy, depends largely upon the products of the soil for the raw material. If the wheat crop is poor the flour mills have less to do and numbers of men are thrown out of employment. If cotton is a failure, the owners of cotton mills and their employees must suffer. Besides lessening the demand for labor, the cost of living is increased and "hard times" result. If farmers have but little to sell, they can buy little, consequently the merchants are affected nearly, if not quite, as much as the laborers. Our exports consist almost entirely of agricultural products; when they are cut off, gold ceases to flow into the country and money becomes scarce. But when crops are good, food is cheap and plenty, mills and factories are busy, labor is in demand and wages are good. J.L.M.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES.
Additions to cabinets in Natural History Department during the past fortnight:
Specimens of the "long" and the "short" kinds of cotton in the ball, from Georgia. Presented by Prof. Boles.
One pre-historic stene ax from the historic New Mexico, by Prof. Patrick.
One exquisite "Tragidion fulvipenne," by Mr. Bert Casmire.
Collection of Coleoptera (beetles) from Old Mexico, by Frank Thompson, of '84.
One atlas bone belonging to the genus of fossil gigantic proboscidian pachyderms. It was found in the bed of the Kansas river ten miles above Lawrence, at Williamstown. Though one of the smallest of vertebral bones its horizontal and vertical diameters are respectively 17 and $ 10\frac{1}{2} $ inches.
A portion of the lower jaw of some ancient mastodon of the Solomon valley. The mastodon, though much larger, was nearly allied to the elephant, but had simpler grinding teeth adapted for bruising coarser vegetable food. The teeth were roughly mammillated, hence the name, meaning "teat-tooth."
One handsome specimen of sulphate of soda (glauber salts) about six inches square, found in Wyoming, where it is said to occur in vast deposits from two to three feet thick. Presented by Col.E.C.Smeed, chief engineer of the Union Pacific railroad.
Notes from Chemical and Mineralogical Department: About sixty-five students report to Prof. Patrick in the chemistry class. What a scattering of molecules and testing of test tubes there will be when they all get in the laboratory.
The department has just received a box of minerals from Peru. The Professor pronounces them "handsome and interesting." Presented by ex-Gov. Thomas Osburn.
The result of Prof. Patrick's summer work, a ton or more of choice minerals collected in New Mexico along the Rio Grande and from near Chihawhaw (Chi-wa-wa). Old Mexico, 200 miles south of El Paso, will soon be on exhibition in his department. They were loaned to the A., T. & S. F. Co. to exhibit at the Denver exhibition, which is about closing.
From the report made by Sergeant J. P. Finley, signal corps, U. S. A., on the nature of Six Hundred Tornadoes, we collect the following observation:
No season or month of the year is exempt from the occurrence of tornadoes.
Summer is the season and June the month in which they occur most frequently.
They have occurred at all hours of the day and night except between 5 and 6 o'clock a.m.
The state in which the greatest number occurred is Kansas; number reported is sixty-two. In the Indian Territory, just south of us, but one.
One hundred and ninety-three occurred during the afternoon, of which 102 took place between the hours of four and six.
They all come from a westerly direction. Mount Oread would form a considerable protection for Lawrence.
Average width of path, one thousand and eighty-five feet.
The velocity of progression, from twelve to sixty miles per hour.
The velocity of the wind within the cloud vortex estimated at from seventy to eight hundred miles an hour.
The rotary movement invariably from right to left, the opposite of the hands of a watch.
Of 234 cases in which the form of the tornado cloud was observed, 207 were designed as "funnel-shaped;" 10 "cone-shaped;" 7 "inverted funnel;" 4 "inverted cone;" 2 "hour glass;" 1 "basket-shaped;" 1 two inverted cones point to point;" 1 "serpent-like column;" and 1 "like a balloon."
Length of track varies from two to two hundred and fifty miles.
In seventy cases electricity in the tornado cloud was reported. The cloud appeared as if filled with balls of fire, the strangely luminous light in several instances being the color of red hot iron.
In forty-six cases a remarkable noise, in kind and intensity, was reported as accompanying the progress of the tornado cloud. It was described in various ways, as a "terrible or deafening roar," "continual rumbling," "terrific crash," "roar of a thousand trains of cars," "the din of innumerable pieces of machinery," etc.
One hundred and thirty-four tornadoes were reported as unusually destructive, of which twenty-five occurred in Kansas, fifteen in Illinois, twelve each for Missouri and Iowa. In nineteen other states and territories from one to seven were reported.
Bates & Field would respectfully call the attention of lady students to the fact that they have added another department to their business, and now run a full and varied line of artists' materials.