Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 26.djvu/436

422 standard meridian that passing through the center of the transit instrument at Greenwich," was then adopted, every state represented voting in favor of it except San Domingo, which dissented from it, and France and Brazil, which did not vote. The next resolution, recommending the counting of longitude in two directions from Greenwich, up to 180°, east longitude to be reckoned plus and west longitude minus, was adopted by a small majority over the proposition to count continuously in a single direction to 360°. A fourth resolution proposed "the adoption of a universal day for the purposes for which it may be found convenient, and which shall not interfere with the use of local or other standard times where desirable." The fifth resolution recommends "That the universal day is to be a mean solar day, is to begin for all the world at the moment of mean midnight of the initial meridian coinciding with the beginning of the civil day and date of that meridian, and is to be counted from zero up to twenty-four hours"; the sixth, "That the Conference expresses the hope that as soon as may be practicable the astronomical and nautical days will be arranged everywhere to begin at mean midnight"; the seventh, "That this Conference expresses the hope that the technical studies to regulate and extend the application of the decimal system to the divisions of the circle and of time shall be resumed so as to permit the extension of this application to all cases where it presents real advantages."

Characteristics of North American Flora.—In a paper read in the British Association on the characteristic features of North American vegetation, Professor Asa Gray spoke of the resemblances and differences between the flora of North America and that of Europe, and their causes. The trees of the Atlantic border are similar to those of Europe. Many plants—among which are species of rhododendron, cypripedium, and coreopsis—may be found growing wild here, which are cultivated in the gardens of Europe. America is remarkable for its wealth of species of trees and shrubs. Besides the variety of leguminous trees and the wealth in species of Compositæ noticeable in America, there are many tropical plants which extend northward into the United States.

The Cotton Production of Alabama.—Some curious facts are brought out in Professor Eugene A. Smith's report on the "Cotton Production of Alabama." This State stands fourth in the United States in the total production of cotton, and also in the product per square mile (13·6 bales). The highest product per acre in the State is reached in Baldwin County in what is agriculturally styled the "long-leaved pine region," and the next highest in Cherokee County, in the "Coosa Valley region." In a larger sense, the highest rate of production is obtained in the central belt, having an area of less than seventy-five miles, which gives from seventeen to forty-three bales per square mile; the next highest, in the "Tennessee Valley region," which gives fifteen; and next, the Coosa Valley and the "oak, hickory, and long-leaved pine" regions, which give thirteen bales each to the square mile. The product of the State as a whole is equivalent to a little more than a bale for every two of its inhabitants. More than fifty-five per cent of the colored population of the State is found in the central cotton belt, where sixty per cent of the cotton is produced; and it is observed that so closely "does this class of the population follow the best lands, that the density of the colored population of any region might almost be taken as an index of the fertility of its soils," while the whites are much more evenly distributed over good and poor lands alike. This, however, is not strange, when we remember that the colored people were introduced as agricultural laborers, and put where they could be most advantageously employed. What should be the best cotton-lands begin to show signs of exhaustion through long and improvident cultivation. This is a logical result of the character of the laborers, who are unintelligent and not interested in keeping up the quality of the land, and of the inability or indisposition of owners to invest in improvements looking beyond the present year's crop. The general custom of depending upon advances of credit on the faith of the next year's crop has its influence in promoting deterioration of the soil. As cotton is the only crop which will always bring ready money, the planting of that staple is usually insisted on by the merchants making the advance, and it is also selected