Mercedes, the famous Holstein[r] cow owned by Thos. B. Wales, Jr., of Iowa City, died on the 17th inst., of puerperal fever, having previously lost her calf. Mercedes enjoyed the reputation of being the greatest milk and butter cow in the world. Her last year's calf it will be remembered was sold for $4,500. The cow and calf just dropped were valued at $10,000. The butter record alluded to was ninety-nine pounds six and one-half ounces in thirty days. The test was in 1883.
The Mark Lane Express in its review of the British grain trade last week says the trade in cargoes off coast was more active, but the supply bare. California was taken at 39@41s per quarter. Two cargoes have gone to Havre at 39s 11½d@39s 3d without extra freight. Seven cargoes have arrived, ten were sold, eight withdrawn, and one remained. Sales of English wheat for a week, 59,699 quarters at 37s. 7d. per quarter, against 57,824 quarter at 42s. 2d. the corresponding week of last year.
At the next American Fat Stock Show in Chicago, there promises to be an extensive exhibit of dairy products. The Illinois Dairymen's Association will have it in charge, and the State Board of Agriculture has decided to appropriate $500 as a premium fund for the Dairymen's Association. It is rather strange, yet nevertheless true, that Illinois has never yet had an exhibition of dairy products at all commensurate with the importance of the dairy interest of the State. It may now be reasonably predicted that this remark will not remain true after November next. We have heard nothing said about it, but it is to be presumed there will be no extra charge to visit this exhibit. The managers of the Fat Stock Show have not been satisfied, we believe, with experiments in this direction.
Many years ago a young Scotch gardener brought from Mexico to Kenosha, Wis., a specimen of the Century plant. It was then supposed to be about twenty years old. For more than forty years this man cared for his pet with unflagging faithfulness. Dying at the age of sixty-five he left it to the care of a little daughter of a lady who had shown him kindness. This girl grew to womanhood and to middle age caring tenderly for the plant. About two years ago the plant exhibiting signs of blooming, a gentleman joined with the lady and erected a building for it near the Exposition building, in this city. Here it has since been, but through carelessness it was unduly exposed to the terrible freeze of the first week in January last, and the plant is now past recovery. The lady had expended upon it about all the means she possessed expecting to reap from admission fees to see it a rich reward. Thus eighty years of care and constant expense came to naught in a single night. A neglect to order coal resulted in the fire going out just when the cold was the most intense. One can hardly imagine the disappointment and regret of the lady who had nursed it with such care for nearly a lifetime.