A Subscriber, Hobart, Ind.—The proportion of butter in milk varies with the breed of cattle and their food. The average is about 5 per cent in good milk. It is nearer 6 per cent in the milk of Jersey cows on good feed. The proportion of butter in cream also varies considerably. It will average about 5½ pounds of butter to ten of cream.
C. S. Hasbrouck, Mendon, Mich.—The ancient language of the Irish was of Celtic origin, and specimens of it are still extant in old legal documents. As a living written language it no longer exists, but a corruption of it is still spoken among the natives of the mountain districts.
S. M., Moline, Ill.—Northwestern Arkansas has been partially described in another part of “Our Curiosity Shop” to-day. The more common trees are the poplar, oak, pine, sycamore, ash, elm, and hickory. This part of the State is watered by the White and Arkansas rivers, and their tributaries. The principal railroads are the St. Louis and the Little Rock and Fort Smith. Upon the former the important towns are: Van Buren, population, 1,029; Fayetteville, population, 1,788, and Bentonville, population, 784; on the latter, Ozark, population, 824, and Clarksville, population, 656.
A. B., Chicago—At the census of 1880 the “West Side” division of this city had the largest population. The Fourteenth Ward contained the most inhabitants, 56,464; the First Ward, the business center, the fewest, 14,770.
E. H. Topper, Greensburg, Pa.—Historians disagree as to the number in Xerxes’ army when he invaded Greece, but no one of them was ever so insane as to assert that he had 35,000,000 men. According to Herodotus, the whole number of fighting men in the military and naval force was nearly 2,500,000. He supposes, and it was evidently a wild guess, that with the raw recruits picked up in passing through the territories of Thrace, Macedonia, Magnesia, and other half-savage districts, who hoped to share in the spoils of Greece, and the servants and camp followers, there was a total multitude of about 6,000,000 persons. Other Grecian writers regard this as a gross exaggeration.