The Cabinet at the beginning of 1897 was composed as follows: President of the Council and Minister of the Interior, Dr. C. Stoiloff; Minister of Foreign Affairs and of Worship, G. D. Nachevich; Minister of Public Instruction, C. Velichkoff; Minister of Finance, Ivan E. Gueshoff; Minister of War, Col. R. Petroff; Minister of Public Works, J. Madjaroff.

Area and Population.-The area of the original principality is estimated at 24,360 square miles, and that of Eastern Roumelia, now called South Bulgaria, at 13,500 square miles. The total population at the census of Jan. 1, 1893, was 3,309,816, of whom 992,386 lived in South Bulgaria. The total population comprised 2,504,336 Bulgars, 569,728 Turks, 60,018 Greeks, 51,754 gypsies, 27,351 Jews, 3,620 Germans, and 1,379 Russians. Sofia, the capital, has 47,000 inhabitants, and Philippopolis, the capital of Eastern Roumelia, 36,033. The number of marriages in 1893 was 31,640; of births, 141,320; of deaths, 92,100; excess of births, 49,220. The lation was divided in 1893 in respect of religion into 2,605,905 Greek Orthodox, 643,242 Mohammedans, 27,351 Israelites, 22,617 Roman Catholics, 6,643 Armenian Gregorians, and 2,384 Protestants. There are 3,844 elementary schools, where free education is provided for children between the ages of eight and twelve, the expense being borne in equal shares by the state and the communes. Fewer than half the boys and not one in six of the girls of school age attend school.

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Finances. The revenue for 1896 was estimated at 91,439,100 lei, or francs; the expenditure at 90,957,609 lei. Of the revenue 33,777,895 lei were derived from direct taxes, and direct taxes produced 34,260,000 lei. The chief expenditures were 22,474,671 lei for the army, 18,174,709 lei for the public debt, 9,242,924 lei for education, and 8,326,160 lei for the interior. The preliminary estimates for 1897 make the revenue and the expenditure balance at 83,320,000 lei. The public debt on Jan. 1, 1897, amounted to 169,814,404 lei, against which the Government shows assets in railroads, harbors, etc., valued at 157,200,806 lei. The debt statement does not include the debt of £1,000,000 due to Russia on account of the war of deliverance, nor the unpaid East Roumelian tribute, nor the Bulgarian tribute, of which none has been paid, nor the share of the Turkish debt to be charged to Bulgaria.

The Army. All able-bodied Bulgarians are liable to be called into military service. Of about 40,000 who reach the age of twenty annually 16,000 are taken by lot, and are required to serve two years in the infantry or three years in the other arms. The peace effective is 39,320 officers and men. The war strength of the army is about 175,000. The infantry arm is the Mannlicher rifle. The artillery is armed with 144 field guns and 12 mountain guns on the peace footing, with an equal number of field guns and twice as many mountain guns in reserve. Commerce and Production.-The Government retains the legal title to the land, as under the Turkish régime, and the landholders have perpetual leases, descending in their families by inheritance. They pay to the Government a tithe of the agricultural produce, often collected in kind. Most of the farms are less than 6 acres. Pasture and woodland are attached to the communes and used in common. There are 9,770,700 acres under culti vation and 13,651,000 acres more suitable for cultivation. Wheat is raised extensively for export. Other products are wine, tobacco, flax, and silk. There were 7,060,300 sheep, 1,453,500 goats, and 441,000 hogs in 1892. Coal, iron, and salt are the principal mineral products. All mines belong to the Government. Greek, Roumanian, and Austrian merchants have most of the foreign trade. The

chief imports are textile goods, iron, and coal. The total value of the imports in 1895 was 69,020,295 lei, of which 22,552,000 lei stand for textiles, 7,805,000 lei for metals, 4,508,000 lei for colonial goods, 4,248,000 lei for timber and furniture, and 3,961,000 lei for machinery. The exports of grain to England, Germany, France, and Turkey amounted to 60,473,000 lei out of the total sum of 77,685,546 lei for all exports. The exports of live stock amounted to 5,082,000 lei. The attar of roses of commerce is largely made in Bulgaria. Other exports are butter and cheese, skins. flax, and timber.

The trade with foreign countries in 1895 is shown in the following table, which gives the values in lei:

Navigation. There were 767 vessels, of 457,902 tons, entered at the port of Varna during 1895, and 773, of 455,411 tons, cleared; at Bourgas 575, of 279,128 tons, were entered.

Communications.-There were 522 miles of railroad in 1896. The state telegraph lines have a length of 3,034 miles, with 6,042 miles of wire; in 1894 the number of messages sent was 1,203,094. The number of letters, newspapers, etc., that passed through the post office in 1894 was 9,617,000. The receipts of the postal and telegraph services were 2,303,474 lei, and expenses 2,534,264 lei.

Political Events.-While the trial of the murderers of Stambuloff was proceeding the widow of the murdered statesman, when brought reluctantly into court to testify, demanded why, instead of the miserable tools, the real assassins, the men who form the present Government of Bulgaria, were not placed on trial. The trial was concluded at the beginning of January, 1897, with the conviction of the actual perpetrators. On Jan. 2 the Sobranje passed a decree granting an amnesty to all Bulgarian officers who deserted and took service under the Russian flag after the deposition of Prince Alexander. A bill introduced by the Minister of War restores their pensions to officers who entered the Russian service subsequent to Aug. 9, 1886 and have served ten years in both armies. Pending the coming into operation of the new customs treaties on May 1, 1898, a provisional import tariff was imposed on all goods coming from abroad. The Minister of Finance, in presenting the budget, said that Bulgaria had no floating debt, and was under no necessity of contracting new loans, although an additional railroad would be built which will serve as a supplementary guarantee for the whole debt. consisting of the Russian occupation debt, the East Roumelian tribute, and three loans amounting to 169,814,404 francs, of which Bulgaria had received the net sum of 152,310,500 francs. The total assets of the state were 157,200,806 francs, consisting of completed railroads worth 92,368,523, railroads and harbors in the course of construction on which 22,846,430 francs had been expended, and 41.985.853 francs invested in the National Bank and laid out on public buildings.

During the Greek war some bands of Bulgarian

insurgents crossed the Macedonian frontier. The Government took prompt steps to check the agitation. The Bulgarian Government declined to recall its representative from Athens when called upon to do so by the Porte as suzerain. The Bulgarian agent in Constantinople demanded the issue of berats for five more Bulgarian bishops in Macedonia, threatening in the event of refusal that the Bulgarian army would be mobilized at once. The Sultan promised to grant the berats, but asked the Bulgarian Government to have patience until the termination of the war with Greece. The influence of Russia restrained Bulgaria from taking any advantage of Turkey's difficulty. When the war was ended the Austrian and Russian governments addressed an identical note to the Balkan states expressing satisfaction at their correct attitude during the crisis. In August Prince Ferdinand visited the Sultan in Constantinople, and received from him satisfactory assurances regarding the

CALCULATING MACHINES. Machines for simplifying arithmetical processes and for performing the mechanical work incidental to addition, multiplication, division, and subtraction have been employed for many years in astronomical observatories, institutions of learning, and business houses. The basic principle of mechanism in nearly all these is the gearing of wheels to the ratio of one to ten. Sometimes figures, from 0 to 9, are placed directly on these wheels and brought to an opening, so that the answers may be read; sometimes they are arranged to print at a certain point, so that the answer appears on a slip of paper; and sometimes the wheels direct pointers on dials to give the required visual results. The illustration shows a mechanism of the first-named character.

The gear wheels, a, b, and c, each have 100 teeth and bear 100 pins, p, p, p, on their faces. The pinions 1 and 2 each have 10 teeth, as do also the pinions 3, 4, and 5 of the figure wheels, and the idle gears 6, 7, and 8. Circular graduated scales or dials are indicated at d, d, and d. One tenth of a rotation of the crank a' turns a one tenth of its circumference and brings 10 pins in contact with the pinion 3, causing the figure wheel a" to make a complete rotation; at the same time the pinion 1 turns the gear b one tooth, and a pin on b turns the pinions 6 and 4 and causes the figure wheel b" to turn one figure. A complete rotation of a' is required to turn the figure wheel c" one figure. The figure wheels may be arranged with springs and stops so as to make one tenth of a rotation instantaneously when a pin bears on the pinion, so that

berats. The Prince had previously visited other courts and had conferences with the Kings of Servia and Roumania. Capt. Boitcheff, the Prince's aid-de-camp, was convicted of murdering an Austrian actress, and a few days later newspapers printed interviews with Dr. Stoiloff, imputing political animosity as the motive of the Austrian Government for insisting on his punishment. The Austro-Hungarian agent, Baron Call, was consequently withdrawn from Sofia until the Bulgarian Premier denied the offensive expressions. A ministerial crisis was settled by the reconstruction of Dr. Stoiloff's Cabinet on Sept. 7. Gueshoff, Minister of Finance, retired, and Theodoroff, previously Minister of Justice, took his portfolio, being sueceeded by Zgureff, his chief subordinate, while Velitchkoff was appointed Minister of Commerce and Agriculture, transferring the portfolio of Public Instruction that he held before to Vasoff, a Deputy.

c", which represents hundreds, will turn only at the completion of 10 turns of b" instead of turning one tenth of a figure at each turn of b. If it be desired to add, say 149 and 546, with these wheels, they are first set at 149, as here illustrated, and the dial of a' is set at zero. If, then, b' be turned around five times (or c' be given half a turn-either scores 500), and then b' turned to 46 on its dial, the figure wheels will be so rotated as to have carried around 546 more points, or to 695, which is the anIt will be apparent that subtraction may be accomplished by a reverse process. By an extension of this principle some of the most difficult arithmetical problems may be solved mechanically.

swer.

One of the best known of these machines of recent design is that introduced by Dorr E. Felt, of Chicago, in 1889, and improved in 1896. This is in use at Cornell University and other scientific institutions. The operation is made extremely simple by the introduction of a keyboard, which may be manipulated like that of a typewriter. The keys are placed so as to form rows in two directions, numbered from left to right, and also to and from the operator. This machine will not only perform the four principal arithmetical operations, but will also extract a cube root. In no case is it necessary to strike more keys than there are figures in the problem given to the machine to solve, and in the latest machines the answer is delivered on a printed card. If there is any doubt in the mind of the operator as to whether he struck the keys correctly in setting up the problem, he has only to repeat the operation, and see whether he gets the same result. In adding, one set of figures is struck on a row in one direction, and the other set on a row at right angles. In multiplying three figures by three figures the operator has only to select three certain keys, which may be done very promptly as soon as the keyboard is memorized.

The Thomas machine is commonly used in France, and the Tate machine, which is an improved form of the Thomas, is much used in Great Britain. The Odhner machine has been used to some extent in Poland. Babbage's difference machine, which cost £20,000, is used in England for trigonometrical and logarithmic calculations. The machine devised by George R. Grant, of Cambridge, Mass., has found considerable sale. This, like most of the foreign machines, is operated by a small hand crank. It employs a series of adding rings, registering wheels, and pointers. Both add

ing rings and registering wheels bear numbers from 0 to 9. In multiplying, the adding rings are set to read the multiplicand and the registering wheels the multiplier and then, by rotating the crank and shifting slides in accordance with certain rules, the answer may be read on recording wheels.

The Scheutz machine is used at the Dudley Observatory, Albany. It operates on the method of differences, and calculates to the fifteenth place of decimals, and can express numbers either decimally or sexagesimally, the answers being delivered in printed form.

The Hollerith electric tabulating mechanism is used in computing results from the United States census returns. The system includes three machines-one for punching holes in cards, a second for tabulating them according to the holes punched, and a sorting box. The punching machine has a keyboard of 240 characters, each representing one of the 240 answers to questions asked by census takers-as black, white, married, single, native born, foreign parentage. A pantographic guide is swung over the keyboard, connecting with a set of punches in the rear of the machine. A blank card being fed in to represent an individual in the return of some census sheet, the guide is placed over the proper keys, and the card is punched with holes, the position of which indicates the facts in the case of that individual. Although there are 240 possible facts in each case, the average to be recorded is but 15, so that the cards may be punched very rapidly as read from the returns. The cards of a single State are then fed into the tabulating machine, which has electric devices for making connections through the holes of each card and shifting the mechanism of dials as fast as the holes are thus noted. When a set of cards has been passed through the machine the dials record the totals of each of the 240 facts, so that it is only necessary to copy the records of the dials to know how many of the people in that State are blind, insane, married, foreign born, etc. The sorting box serves to obtain answers to all sorts of cross-questions-as, for instance, if it is desired to know how many State-prison inmates are of native birth, or how many single persons are white and how many colored, and so on through the whole range of possible combinations. Its work is accomplished by adjusting the electric connections to take note of every card in a set introduced which has answers to the two questions concerning which the cross inquiry is made. With this mechanism a great number of interesting statistics are compiled and added to the census reports at a nominal expense. The only chances of error are in the original punching of the cards, and such errors affect only one figure and not totals, so that the results obtained by this system of calculation are certainly more accurate than when clerical labor was employed in all the calculations.

CALIFORNIA, a Pacific coast State, admitted to the Union Sept. 9, 1850; area, 158,360 square miles. The population, according to each decennial census since admission, was 92,597 in 1850; 379,994 in 1860; 560,247 in 1870; 864,694 in 1880; and 1,208,130 in 1890. Capital, Sacramento. Government.-The following were the State officers during the year: Governor, James H. Budd, Democrat; Lieutenant Governor, William T. Jeter, Democrat; Secretary of State, Lewis H. Brown, Republican; Treasurer, Levi Radcliffe, Republican; Attorney-General, William F. Fitzgerald, Republican; Comptroller, E. P. Colgan, Republican; Superintendent of Instruction, Samuel T. Black, Republican; Surveyor General, Martin J. Wright, Republican; Superintendent of State Printing, A. J. Johnson, Republican; Insurance Commissioner, M. R. Higgins,

VOL. XXXVII.-7 A

Finances.-The following statement of the condition of the general fund was made in February: Balance, Feb. 15, 1897, $2,611,406.61. Anticipated receipts-property tax, second installment (estimated), $756.543.84; railway taxes, second, $48,083.11; State officers' fees, estimated, $15,000; pay for inmates of Whittier School, $12,000; pay for inmates of Preston School, $4,000; total, $3,447,033.56. Balance in available appropriations, Feb. 15, 1897, $1,527,575.88.. Appropriation for construction of débris dam, $250,000; estimated expenditure for orphans, etc., $250,000; Indian war bonds, $116,782.17; contingent expenses, Assembly, $20,000; contingent expenses, Senate, $12,500; salaries of Commissioner of Public Works and secretary for four months, $1,600; to meet ordinary expenses of State government for five months from July 1, at $250,000 a month, $1,250,000. Other items make the total $3,429,124.70. Balance, $17,908.86.

Two county treasuries, those of Sacramento and Modoc, suffered from peculations by officials; and it was charged that a loss from another, Sonoma, in December, 1894, supposed to have been by burglary, was by the dishonesty of the county treasurer.

Education. The school census, completed in July, shows a gain of 10,179 over that of 1896; the figures this year are 340,888. The amount of money apportioned to the schools in January from the State treasury was $1,904,883.84, being $5.76 per capita.

On July 1 there was in the State treasury, to the credit of the schoolbook fund, $3,297.83. In addition to this there were books on hand valued at $119,975.45. Deducting the estimated value of the unsalable books, left a total of $115,751.39 in cash and salable books.

The corner stone of the affiliated colleges was laid

March 27 on the college site south of Golden Gate Park. President Kellogg, of the State University, made one of the addresses, in which he said:

Years ago an effort was made to provide our colleges of law, of medicine, of dentistry, and of pharmacy with a suitable common home. A request for aid was made to the State Legislature. Twice it received favorable treatment from the two houses, but was not welcomed at the executive threshold. Two years ago this request was repeated, and an appropriation of $250,000 received the signature of Gov. Budd. Still a site was needed, and there was a further delay. Then came the offer of Adolph Sutro, which fixed the location of these colleges on this commanding and beautiful site."

The Board of Regents selected a site for the proposed Wilmerding Trades' School in the Potrero addition in San Francisco. There was lively competition between that city, Alameda, and Stockton for the school. The original donation of $400,000 has been well invested, and amounts to $435,000.

A deed of gift was made in February by Mrs. Jane Stanford to the university which bears her son's name, of her residence and grounds on the corner of California and Powell Streets, with all its valuable contents. Upon the deed becoming effective, the property "shall be dedicated and set aside as an affiliated college of the Leland Stanford Junior University, or as a library for the use of the students of the said university and the people of the city and county of San Francisco, or for some benevolent purpose for the instruction of the said students; but the same shall never be appropriated for the use of a clubhouse or boarding house, or place of undignified amusement." The residence and grounds are estimated as worth $250,000, and the whole donation may be put down as equivalent to $1,000,000.

The college of agriculture at the State University was destroyed by fire April 16. The flames consumed much valuable apparatus, records of many years' investigations, and manuscript and specimens representing the life work of Prof. E. W. Hilgard, head of the department and founder of the experiment-station system in the United States. Fire extinguishers were brought from various parts of the university, but were of no avail, from the fact that certain of the students, a few days before, for no further apparent reason than distinguishes many of their pranks, had emptied the contents and rendered the safeguards useless. The agricultural building is plentifully supplied with hose, but when the necessity for use arose it was found that none of it would fit the mains. The building was completely wrecked, and the loss, apart from valuable manuscripts and records, is estimated at $25,000 to $30,000. Prof. Hilgard's personal loss was great. It included his herbarium, containing over 10,000 specimens and manuscripts representing the work of forty-five years. The professor's geological data, gathered in the Mississippi valley and arranged by him for publication, the great work of his life, was reduced to ashes. A new building on the foundations of the burned structure was at once planned and was expected to be in readiness soon after the opening of the fall term.

State Institutions.-The appropriations for these were materially reduced in the legislative bill as it finally became a law. The State Board of Examiners passed a resolution in May declaring that for the forty-ninth and fiftieth fiscal years the various State institutions, commissions, departments, and offices must be supported by the appropriations made by the Legislature for that purpose, as the State Board of Examiners will not grant deficiencies in the appropriations made for their support or for any other purpose."

Abuses were alleged to exist at the Preston School of Industry, at Ione, and an investigation was made by the Secretary of State, who reported that "it would be a great deal better that the school were abolished than allowed to go on as it is. There were two factions among the employees. Though called an industrial school, it has no machinery, tools, or implements for teaching useful trades."

The prisoners at San Quentin Penitentiary, of whom there are about 900, revolted in June and refused to work in the jute mill, demanding less work and better food. After several days' trouble they were subdued, those who were most refractory being brought to terms at last by the guards turning a hose into their cells and playing water upon them until they promised to return to their work. The revolt was said to have been incited by the opium eaters among the prisoners, from whom the rigorous rules recently enforced have shut off their supply.

Banks.-The reports of the Bank Commissioners show the condition of the banks, Feb. 27, to have been prosperous.

The total assets and liabilities of the 10 savings banks of San Francisco is $110,343,677.47. The liabilities are as follows: Capital paid up, $4,260,000; reserve and profit and loss, $4,896,815.86; due depositors, $100,049,095.11; other liabilities, $1,137,766.50.

The total assets and liabilities of the 16 commercial banks of the city is $62,773,707.98. The liabilities are: Capital paid up, $14,317,883.67; reserve and profit and loss, $10,701,993.70; due depositors, $30,983,633.14; due banks and bankers, $4,427,787.56; other liabilities, $2,342.409.91.

The 20 private banks of the State reported: Total assets and liabilities, $2,420,349.24. Liabilitiescapital paid up, $1,018,762.90; reserve and profit and loss, $330,731.23; due depositors, $956,088.72; due banks and bankers, $24,199.31: State, county, and city money, $49,135.71; other liabilities, $41,431.37.

The 46 savings banks outside of San Francisco reported: Total assets and liabilities, $31,372,061.97. Liabilities-capital paid up, $3,894,025; reserve and profit and loss, $1,326,328.28; due depositors, $25,834,140.43; due banks and bankers, $43,606.92; other liabilities, $273.261.34.

The 157 commercial banks outside of San Francisco reported: Total assets and liabilities, $53,143,603.98. Liabilities-capital paid up, $19.139,847.50; reserve and profit and loss, $6,811,118.81; due depositors, $24,983,873.02; due banks and bankers, $1,515,260.84; State, county, and city money, $4,423.83; other liabilities, $689,080.98.

The Randall Banking Company, of Eureka, failed in April, with liabilities of $212,000.

Railroads.-Ground was broken in October for the Randsburg and Kramer road, which is to give Randsburg and the adjacent mining country access to the markets of San Francisco and Los Angeles. Starting from Kramer, a station on the Santa Fé Railroad, 35 miles southeast of Mohave, it runs over a gently undulating prairie 28 miles to Johannesburg and Randsburg.

The Sierra Pacific Railway, from Oakdale to Jamestown, was finished, and the event was celebrated Nov. 10.

The work on the San Joaquin Valley road has been pushed rapidly during the year. Ả long tunnel is to be bored on the section between Point Richmond and Stockton, a work which, it is estimated, will take not less than five hundred days.

Water Ways.-The board appointed by the President to decide upon the location of a deep-water harbor for commerce at either San Pedro or Santa Monica made its report to the Secretary of War

March 2. It definitely locates the harbor at San Pedro, at an estimated cost of $2,901,787. The improvement contemplated is a stone breakwater beginning about 2,100 feet from the shore and extending in a straight line 300 feet; thence on a threedegrees curve about 1,800 feet; thence in a straight line 3,700 feet to the end.

The naval appropriation bill carried a large amount to be expended at Mare Island Navy Yard, of which a part was for dredging and work upon the sea wall.

Congress appropriated about $60,000 for improvement of the San Joaquin river, for widening and deepening two cuts which have been a source of trouble to steamboat men.

Mining. According to the report of Charles G. Yale, statistician of the branch mint, the State produced in 1896 precious metals to the value of $17,604,026.30, of which $17,181,562.70 was gold, and the remainder silver. Compared with the product of 1895, these figures show an increase of $1,847,245.01 in gold, and a decrease of $177,353.10 in silver.

The number of counties producing $1,000,000 or more has increased from five to seven, the new comers being Siskiyou with $1,091,917.47, and Tuolumne with $1,070,470.13. The best showing is made by Nevada County, whose product of $2.389,340.42 not only maintains that county in the first rank, but indicates an increase of $599,124.76. Tuolumne comes next in growth, with an added product of $403,403.36.

There is a discrepancy between the figures given above and those of the director of the mint, R. E. Preston, who placed the total field of gold at $15,535.900. He based his estimates on the deposits of crude gold at the mints and assay offices, identified upon information given at the time of deposit as produced in California, and from the reports received from private smelting and refining works in the United States, giving the amount of their product derived from ores mined in California in 1896. It is claimed that even the larger figures fail to give full credit to all the counties, and fall short of the actual total.

The Randsburg district in the south continues to attract miners and prospectors, and rich strikes have been reported at other points, notably in Trinity County. A nugget was found in the Blue Jay pocket in that county worth about $42,000. This is the most valuable one ever found in the State, with the possible exception of one found in Calaveras County in 1854, which was reported to have weighed 195 pounds troy, and to have been worth more than $43,000.

The total mineral product of the State in 1896 is given as $24,291,398. The minerals whose value rises into the millions, aside from gold, are petroleum, $1,180,793, and quicksilver, $1,075,449. The value of borax reported was $675,400; of brick clay, $524,740; of macadam, $510,245; of asphaltum, $362,590; of mineral water, $337,434.

report of the gold mills by the State mineralogist gives the following statistics: There are in operation in California 754 mills and 109 arastras. These mills contain 6,221 stamps, an average of a little over 8 stamps per mill. The total number of concentrators in use is 757. Five mills are worked by electricity, 300 by water, 185 by steam, 2 by gas, 4 by gasoline, and 2 by horse

for a sixth term. It was resolved that measures be taken to have plans made without further delay for expending the State and Federal appropriations for impounding dams and improvement of the navigable rivers, in order that hydraulic mining may be restored without injury to the streams or adjoining lands. Steps were taken toward the preparation of exhibits at the Omaha Exposition and at the Paris Exposition of 1900.

Other Products.-The following statistics of farming operations in the State were given for 1896:

The area seeded in cereals was about 10 per cent. greater than in 1895. The wheat crop of 1896 is estimated at 29,000,000 bushels, against 20,000,000 in 1895, showing an increase of 9,000.000. During the year India took 800,000 bushels of wheat from us, and Australia flour and wheat to the equivalent of 1,000,000 bushels.

In the horse market the report estimates a decrease of 10 per cent in the number of our horses compared with 1895.

In respect to the sheep industry the report notes its decline from 1876, when 7,000,000 sheep yielded 56,550,970 pounds of wool, which at 15 cents in San Francisco brought in about $10,000,000, to the present time, when about 2,500,000 sheep yielded a wool product last year of only 27,195,550 pounds, of a value hardly more than nominal.

In meats the report states that European demand has caused Eastern buyers to reach out much farther West than heretofore. The product of beet sugar in this State in 1896 is stated at 64,500,216 pounds.

The total pack of fruit in 1897 was estimated at 1,750,000 cases, or 42,000,000 cans, an increase of at least a third over that of 1896.

It is said that a citizen of Santa Rosa has found a method for producing at small cost a good substitute for India rubber. It is made from the gum of a tree which grows abundantly in Sonoma County and which has been named the Oleo elastica because of its yield of a considerable amount of this gummy substance. It vulcanizes readily, and can be put upon the market for less than one fourth the cost of the best rubber.

The wine crop of 1895 was about 16,000,000 gallons; that of 1896 was somewhat smaller; and that of 1897 was estimated to be smaller still. The crop of grapes tends to diminish year by year, as no new vineyards are planting, while the vine pests are constantly at work. Vine growers were discouraged by the low prices a few years ago.

Experiments with tobacco culture in San Diego County have proved quite successful. In one case lately reported three acres yielded $1,000 worth in

one season

The

Protection for Sea Birds.-At the solicitation of the Committee on Bird Protection of the American Ornithologists Association, the Lighthouse Board at Washington, which has the affairs of the Farrellones in charge, has issued a decree that the traffic in the eggs of the sea birds must cease. The mandate of the Lighthouse Board will bring to a close a unique industry of San Francisco. eggs of the murre, or foolish guillemot, have been shipped to the markets of the city in great quantities ever since 1849, at which date they were almost the only fresh eggs to be had, bringing over $1 a dozen. The birds were present in the breeding season from May until August on the islands in such countless thousands that although persistently taken their numbers seemed to show no appreciable diminution. In recent years, however, naturalists have noticed the effect of the annual persecution of the vast colonies and several had fears that they might become extinct.