This section is from the book "The Gardener's Monthly And Horticulturist V21", by Thomas Meehan. See also: Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long.
There are a few persons who don't like statistics, - we propose to afflict them. There are over thirteen million cows in the United States, or a cow to every five persons throughout America; three thousand factories for making cheese, or three hundred and fifty million of dollars for cheese and butter. But what shall we say to the amount of perfumery used by people of cultivated or uncultivated noses. It can only be understood by glancing over the figures relating to this great scented subject. Europe and British India alone consume about 150,000 gallons of handkerchief perfume yearly; the English revenue from French eau de Cologne of itself is $-10,000 annually, and the total revenue of England from other imported perfumes is estimated at $200,000 each year. There is one great perfume distillery at Cannes, in France, which uses yearly about 100,000 pounds of acacia flowers, 140,000 pounds of rare flower leaves, 32,000 pounds of jasmine blossoms, and 20,000 pounds of tuberose blossoms, together with an immense quantity of other material used for perfume.
The value of perfumes to countries adapted to their production may be gathered from the following estimate of their growth and value per acre : An acre of jasmine plants, 80,000 in number, will produce 5,000 pounds of flowers, valued at $1,250; an acre of rose trees, 10,000 in number, will yield 2,000 pounds of flowers, worth $375; 300 orange trees, growing on an acre, will yield, at ten years of age, 2,000 pounds of flowers, valued at $250; an acre of violets, producing 1,600 pounds of flowers, is worth $800; an acre of cassia trees of about 300, will at three years of age, yield 900 pounds of flowers, worth $450; an acre of geranium plants will yield something over 2,000 ounces distilled attar, worth $4,000; an acre of lavender, giving over 3,500 pounds of flowers for distillation, will yield a value of $1,500. But how small all this sounds after a statistic or two from Washington, about tobacco culture. In 1770 the quantity sent out of the country was 22,000,000 pounds. In 1877 the total amount exported and manufactured was over 463,000,000, the whole crop being estimated at 490,000,000 lbs. The culture is extending to new grounds; even Pennsylvania finds it succeed.
To continue a little, we answer the query of a correspondent: An acre of good land at the South, well tilled, will yield a bale of cotton weighing 450 lbs, worth $45 - possibly $55. Of whisky statistics it is unnecessary to give any calculation, as no really good gardener is ever produced under its influence.
It is confidently stated that the railroads in the United States reach the length of ninety thousand miles, and that they require forty millions of railroad ties yearly. What resources are there to permanently supply this and an increasing demand? Iron is proposed as a substitute. Straw paste-boards was once suggested.
The polishing stone called tripoli, is composed of fragmentary shells. Similar infusorial formations are found in several places, Bohemia, etc. The layer at Bilin is fourteen feet thick, and Ehrenberg has estimated that it contains 41,000,-000,000 shells in every cubic inch, while all are united and imbedded by an amorphous silicic substance forming compact masses of rock. Similar deposits appear in many parts of the world.
 
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