PRICE, $1.50, by mail, postpaid. Address PRAIRIE FARMER PUBLISHING CO., Chicago. * * * * * $2.00. FOR THIS AMOUNT WE WILL send a copy of THE PRAIRIE FARMER for one year, also a handsome Colored Map of the United States and Canada—size, 4 × 2½ feet. * * * * * REMEMBER _that_ $2.00 _pays for_ THE PRAIRIE FARMER _one year and, the subscriber gets a copy of_ THE PRAIRIE FARMER COUNTY MAP OF THE UNITED STATES, FREE! _This is the most liberal offer ever made by any first-class weekly agricultural paper in this country._ * * * * * SCIENTIFIC. The Brilliant Sunsets. Few of our readers, probably, have failed to note the fact that brilliant sunsets have been unusually frequent since the latter part of November. Now a highly colored sunset is not, in itself, a remarkable phenomenon, and it may occur at any time of the year, and owe its origin to any one of several causes, very simple in themselves, as refraction by the atmosphere of the sun’s rays, which are thrown upon the sky after the orb itself has passed from sight, or a peculiarly humid condition of the upper air, or a remarkable electric condition, such as sometimes precedes a thunder storm. But the late brilliant sunsets do not belong to the category of ordinary phenomena. In the first place, they have not shown gorgeously hued clouds, as in usual sunset displays, but skies of dazzling tints and colors. In the second place, they have been prolonged for weeks, and have been seen, at intervals, over nearly every part of the globe. Evidently, some unusual circumstance must have given rise to these unwonted phenomena, and scientists in both hemispheres have been interested in seeking an answer to the problem. As it seemed very plain that no condition of humidity could account for such remarkable refraction, it was universally concluded that some substance, as dust, must exist in the upper air regions. This being accepted as probable another theory was needed to account for the presence of this dust. The first theory put forward by scientists in this country suggested the hypothesis of meteoric dust.