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4 THE SOUTHERN WORLD, OCTOBER 15, 1882. that hare been Introduced from abroad, those only have been successful that were brought from the Mediterranean sea coast— countries farther south. The true theory is, to look to the south of us, to Mexico, Central America and the central and northern states of South Amer ica for varieties of wheat and oats that will suit our climate, and we think it would be wise in the U. 8. Commissioner of Agricul ture, to devote attention and money to the introduction of wheat, oats, etc., from those countries. The seed distributions of the Washington Department have been of very little value to the South—whatever they have been to the North—except to confirm the truth that Russia, and other northern European countries is not the source from which to get seeds for the South. R, Winter Comfort. Editor Southern Would: What is the meaning of the following, as found at the be' ginning of Genesis (Bible)? Julian Period 0710; Cycle of the sun, 0010. Dominical Let ter B. Cycle of the moon, 0007; Indiction 0006; Creation from Tisri, 0001. W. L. M. Crayton, 8. C. Answrb.—The figures in question have reference to the old system of chronology (dates) established by the Emperor Julius Ciesar. A cycle of the sun is 28 years, after which time the days of the month fall on the same days of the week as at the beginning of the cycle. A cycle of the moon is a period of 10 years, after which the new or full moons occur on the same day of the year (counting from New Year’s day,) as at the beginning of the cycle. Dominical letter is one of the seven letters, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, used in at manacs to mark the Sundays throughout the year. The first seven days of the year were marked by these letters in order, and kept up throughout the year, thus enabling one to find on what day of the week any day of the month falls in a given year. Thus if the first Sunday of the year falls on the second day of the year, it will be noted by the sec ond of these letters, B, and the latter will be the Deminical letter of such year. The cycle of Indiction was a period of 15 years, at the end of which every Roman citizen was re' quired to pay a special tax for the payment of the Roman soldiers. The Julian Period is a cycle of cycles, or a period at the end of which all the previous cycles agree. It was found by multiplying the solar cycle, 28 years, by the length of the lunar cycle, 10 years, and the product by the Indiction, 15 years. Thus, 28x19x16=7080 years, or the full Julian Period or cycle. The beginning of tills period was fixed so that it will expire at the same time as the other three periods on which it is based. The year 4713 B. C. was taken os the first year of the Julian Period, therefore the year A. D. 1, was the 4714th year of it, and the present year 1882, is the 0595th. Then as the creation of man is generally assumed at 4094, B. C., then 4714— 4004=710, the year in your Bible, By calcu lating backwards it was found that A. M. 1, the Year of the World, was the 10th year of the solar cycle, the 7th year of the lunar cy cle, and the 6th year of the Indiction. Tisri was the name of the first Hebrew month of the civil year, and of course the first year of creation was within one year from that month. These dates are all cal culated backward, as, of course they were not used until within four to six hundred years B. 0. R. The Coming Indnatry, In publishing the letter of Miss Nellie Lincoln Rossiter to Thx Southern World on Bilk Culture, our vigorous and popular con fre re, the National Clothing Journal,ot Chicago, says: " The letter will be perused with interest by our many readers who have from time to time had the privilege of reading the several articles on silk culture which have appeared in our columns. The suggestions advanced by her are most timely, and in advising the people of the South to turn their attention to the produc tion of silk, we can but feel that in case even a small proportion of the readers of The World take her advice, we shall soon see the raising of silk worms carried on to a most remarkable degree, and open an avenue of industry which will within a few years be come one of the most profitable as well as one of the most pleasant occupations which could be indulged in. As stated by her, the climate of the South is especially adapted to the growth of the silk worm, and experi ments made by manufacturers in working up the silk produced in that section have been particularly gratifying, and show be yond a doubt that we can in this country produce as fine grades of silk as in any other on the face of the globe.” The “ sear and yellow leaf" and cool days and nights of October admonish us of the ap proach of winter—the “winter of discon tent" It will prove to man and beast if arrangements and provision have not been made for convenience and “creature com fort.” We have written several times on this line, but not before, we believe, to the readers of The World ; and we only wish to drop them a very few and gentle reminders of what ought to be done before the bad weather comes. First of all, a man who has a family should provide for the comfort of his own household; not by laying in a sup ply of fine clothing, or costly furnishings, or rich provision of any kind, (unless he be fully able to do these things,) but by atten tion, biforehand, to do all those things of which we are never more forcibly reminded than when they have been neglected and the discomfort is upon us. Among these are at tending to the home building itself. To pro vide repairs where needed for comfort or looks, to see that every window or door is properly adjusted, the floors tight, the “ fire place” in good order, the roof rain-proof. Next the supplies of wood or coal, that they be convenient, sheltered and dry, ready for immediate use, and sufficient to last through the winter. It ought to be looked on as an abomination—the custom so common of sending to the forest for green wood, a load at time and as needed, throughout the winter and spring, and then the practice of cutting wood as needed for fires for heating and and cooking. The farmer who does not keep his house and kitchen supplied with good seasoned wood ought not to have any sugar or cream in his coffee. (Housewives take this hint and assert your rights). The old-time style of kitchen in one corner, smoke-house in another, wood-pile in the " back-yard ” and water “ at the spring "—with all that is unsaid but suggested, is rapidly going out of date; but there are still a few farmers whose wives are compelled to do a great deal of un necessary work and suffer unreasonable in convenience through want of a little fore thought and less regard for the good old way. It is not necessary to enumerate all that might be done for indoor comfort. If our wives will read this article and will speak out, they can tell very quickly what has been left out that might have been put in, and will not be slow to remind their hus bands or “big, grown up boys” of what is wanted for the comfort and convenience of the family, if they have the slightest encour agement to do so. Without neglecting other things, the com fort and well-being of the horses, mules, cat tle and other dumb creatures, should receive prompt attention. Thier helpless condition appeal to our better feelings, but the appeal to our pockets is apt to be more convincing and effective. It is the poorest kind of economy to save a few dollars worth of lumber and nails and a few days labor, Jby leaving live stock exposed to the weather, or only parti' ally protected by leaky roofs overhead, while the winds and rains of winter beat under the eaves and mako a mire of mud and filth for their beds. It is not economy at all, but wasteful neg lect, or short sighted parsimony, or some thing worse. A man does not deserve to have a kind, gentle horse, or a strong, active, do cile mule, or a meek-eyed cream-pot cow, and has no good right to expect faithful and prompt and vigorous service, or profitable returns, from these valuable animals, unless he is willing to provide for their comfortable existence by erecting good, warm, dry sta bles and sheds. Now is the time to think of these things and others that will readily occur to the the mind, and make preparation in advance of actual demand. R. have no use for; he lives in habitual caU' tion, with an eye always to the main chance. Thus he refines and enhances the natural discretion which doubles the weight and value of every other gift, and yet keeps them on an unobtrusive level, leaving it self the most notable quality, till he is uni' versally pronounced the man to go on by people who do not know that it is steady will that has made him what he is.” Written specially (or the Southern World. COMETH. The Phenomenon of their Tails—Why New Ones are Constantly Discov ered—Their Origin and Purpose, The man that talks of the great things that may be achieved by a determined will —forgets that this power of willing strongly is, to a large extent, a gift of nature, and as rare as any other good thing in the world. As a sensible writer says: "A man starts on his career wltha tacit understanding with himself that he is to rise. It is step by step progress. He probably has no distinct aim. It is only in books that he resolves from the first dawning of ambition to become owner of such an estate, or bishop of such a see. But he means to get on, and labors to that end. He fixes his thought beyond all im mediate self-indulgence, chooses his friends as they will help the main design, falls in love on the same principle, and habitually referring to a vague but glowing future, learns to work towards it, and for it, is self- denying and long-sighted. His instincts quicken; he puts forth feelers which men who take their pleasure from hand to mouth Ten years or more since I showed that these bodies constantly distributed along their paths the meteors they gathered in space, or threw off, as they passed their per ihelia, and as constantly re-gathered what was successively lost along their orbits un til it became in ages, perihelioned. Of course it will be observed that in case any of these erratic strangers pass through our system only, in their flight to distant regions, as maintained, much of their unperhelioned matter is lost to them. But portions of this is gained in our system to be utilized in time in the scheme of its solar structure. The August meteors, which recently at tracted so much attention and were the sub ject of so much comment for a time, it is as serted belong to a meteoric girdle. Scien tific writers speaking of this girdle or zone, says: "It is mysteriously associated with the second comet of 1872.” I believe this is known as Temple’s comet. The discovery of this fact is attributed to Schiaparelli, and is a corroboration of what had been main' tained by me in relation to the meteoric rings of our planetary system; for, if Tem ple’s comet distributes the indraught of its meteors in a zone around the sun, in like manner it must be held that all comets of un-perihelioned volume do so, unless we at tribute this result entirely to indraught of unexplored realms upon which our Bystem is constantly entering. But both positions aro undoubtedly correct, as the comets probably take on more of this matter than they throw off after their first voyages as embryonic worlds around the sun. It must now be obvious, admitting this view, acknowledged on all hands to be sus tained by Schiaparelli’s observations, that, comets must be regarded in a different light from that heretofore. We are accustomed to view them as fiery balls with luminous trains following, or preceding, according to their position to the sun, when it must be quite evident that the vast volume of unper- ihelioned matter which surrounds them is invisible, except in the different positions they occupy to the sun. Instead of now re garding these bodies as a nucleus of nebu lous mass, sometimes with fiery appendages before or behind them, it would be more consistent with the facts already disclosed, to assume that the nucleus is the central for mation of an elliptical shaped volume—ex tending in every direction—of unperihe- helioned mass, only rendered visible at different points of these bodies to the sun. The appearance of new comets into our sys tem is treated as a mystery. I regard the whole subject, like everything in nature, as profoundly mysterious; but with the facts revealed so constantly in the heavens for our instruction on this point, I do not under stand why it should be clothed.with greater mystery than other wonderful rela tions not so regarded. The appearance of new comets is a matter of course as long as there is material in the heavens to con struct them. Just how they are constructed is a question. But if we are prepared to ad mit that countless fields of meteors exist in apace, there is not that difficulty about the problem of new comets that we think. We do know, however, that clusters of meteors exist, and in addition we know that every now and then, a new comet makes its ap pearance. There are other facta equally as well established in this connection that it is unnecessary to allude to in support of this proposition of these new formations. It is impossible for these meteoric clusters to move around the sun without being Infringed upon more or less by the planets. A few meteors falling from the same radiant point in the heavens into the earth’s atmosphere indicate a cluster of greater or less proportions passing our planet. The planets occupy but a small space comparatively, and if they intercept these nebulous drifts, how much more likely is it that the latter intercept each other— especially are the chances, so to speak, ren dered less remote or implausible at the crowding points of their perihelia. We can easily conceive how two or more rich fields of this invisible nebulous matter might sud denly become visible by contact. There are many comets with no defined nuclei. It is evident that their formation is more recent than others of greater compactness about the head. The layers are also evidence of subse quent collision with new fields of this mat ter. If we suppose a large comet, with its elliptical volume sweeping space at consid erable distances on all sides, moving directly towards the sun, it is quite philosophical to conclude that,in wedgingitspassage through a number of these drifts, the impact with its own volume hurls millions of meteors on its surface at each round. Thus we see in this way, also, that comets already moving in or bits around the sun, and which have not yet been sighted from the observatories, may be come so enlarged by sudden agglomerations from these sources os in a subsequent return to their perihelia to be rendered visible. In this way, too, comets lose their identity. Those of short periods are easily recognizable from features connected with them and their periodical return, but those of longer periods undergo changes which often render tlieir identity doubtful. It is not unlikely that these meteoric fields tend to increase or re tard the motion of these bodies in space- more often than otherwise—offering a resist ing medium to them. Any one who has ever observed the impact of their tangent to the earth’s atmospheric envelope, could not fail to have noticed the great difference of their velocity. In the study of this subject this is a remarkable feature. When observed in any number, radiant from the same point on the same night, their velocity is usually uniform, whether sluggish or rapid. But certainly one fact is disclosed, that while on one occasion their motion ap pears slow, on another they move tfith a rapidity that is startling. The inference is clear that where no difference is detected in their velocity at the same observation they evidently belong to the same field. But where a difference is detected at the same observation in their velocity it is patent that more than one swarm is in the neighborhood of each other. On the other hand, if the meteors move with a sluggish motion on one night, and several nights thereafter they are observed again with a more rapid motion, it may reasonably be inferred that those first observed were nearer the vortex, while the last were nearer the periphery of revolution of the same cluster. Again to identify them us belonging to the same cluster they must move in the same direction at the same observation, making allowance for a few whose direction of motion may be inter rupted by contact with each other. If these are observed for nights in succession their identity may further be established by any deviation which takes place in their direc tion of motion. Whatever may be the facts wanting to sus tain the assumption, it is a forcible conclu sion of mine that no one can study the rela tions which appear to exist between the comets and meteoric fields without the im pression that the origin of the former finds its solution in the primordial conditions of the latter. In other words, my own opinion, for a long time, has been, that in a comet we see the second visible step in the process of creation—that here, Indeed, we observe only a more condensed field of meteors swarming and massing about a given point, called the head. Encke’s comet is an illustration of the process nearly completed. All comets of short periods indicate a like result. But I must reserve the further consideration of the subject for another article. Geo. R. Cather. AshvtUe, Ala. Few persons possibly have any conception ot the vast amount of capital invested in railroads in this country. It is authorita tively stated that the total invested capital in American railways, January 1,1882, was $6,314,000,000, or more than three times our national debt. The total earnings were, for 1881, $725,325,119. The net earnings were $276,654,110. Of this $6,214,000,000, $3,319,- 000,000 is controlled by nine great corpora tions, as follows: The Pennsylvania com pany, $629,000,000; the Gould associates, $565,010,000; the Huntington combination, $321,000,000; the Jewett and Erie combina tion, $347,000,000; the Garret (Baltimore & Ohio combination), $194,000,000; Pennsyl vania coal roads, $508,000,000; Mitchell man agement, $129,000,000; Garrison manage ment, $62,000,000. There is a counterfeit olive tree in Pales tine. It is called the wild olive, or oleaster. It is in all points like the genuine tree, ex cept that it yields no fruit. Philadelphia has discovered that women live the longest