New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-08-22

| accounts of the injurious working OF aihhohi"'o
snperphosphates. The opinion has been expreSse"
that under certain circumstances, especially I'D BULLS
moor in lime, the phosphoric acid may have cor
| rosive action upon the plants. 1t seems propape'
however. that the trouble does not come from the
pbosuhoric acid at ALL but rather from the supho-
| cvanic acid in the suphate of ammonia which IS
often used in the preparatian of the so-called am
nominated superphosphates" The sulphate OF ammo
mia. which is made as o by-prOduct OF the manu-
facture of coal gas and largely used for this pur
pose, often contains sulphocyanide OF ammonia.
Investigations by number OF German spt no;son
| ers indicate that this works rs violent polsom
for vegetation. 1t is well, therefore, " ue 30
that it is not present in ammonia sles use co,"r
fertilizers. 1t IS easily detected by the req cooa
| which results from its solutions with those OF salts
| of peroxide OF iron.
C.ppov,z ALTON OF HARDWOOD STUFF.-Two pro
| cesses the so-caed dry and wet, are employed 1or
| the remoyal of the cotton from haf-wool materiai
in the manufacture of shoddy. The first consists III
bringing the material in a suitably constructed iron
| carriage. with coarse sieve bottom, running on
rails halfway up, into closed furnace constructed
| of granite. the bottom of which Is heated by ire
| beneath it to such degree that the hydrochlorc
acid is vaporized rapidly while the draft Oh the hre
crculates around it that it is warmed on all soes'
After half an hour the carriage is run out, the rags
are turned about. and it run in again the opera
ton being repeated until upon testing the rags with
the fingers it is evident that the cotton is entirely
disintegrated. The rags are then neutralized IN
| water containing whiting, and afterward DRIED.
With woven material it is better to carbonize 1t by
| working it half an hour in sulphuric acid OF To-
| Baum6, containing two pounds OF oXallc acld ana
two pounds of common salt, well stirred together
| and warmed and then allowing it to remain In the
bath without working for II hours and after letting
it drain removal from this bath drying III az 10
to 1922 and mmersing it in weak solution OF sooa
to peutraze the acid, and finally washing IL III pure
| water and drying.
| RUSSIAN VERSUS WELSH CoALs.-Chief Engineer
sherwood of the United States Navy, in report on
the investigation of the value of Russian coal IRON
The basin of the River Don states that the deposits
| of this coal which are now being mined, are i'm
mense Some of it has an exceptional purity, yield
ing only two three per cent of ASH The calorlhc
effect has been carefully investigated, the result
| being to disprove the accuracy OF the law OF
DuloDg which assumes the calorifc effect OF coal
free from moisture to be the sum of the calorlhc
effects of all its combustlble elements less the pro-
portion of hydrogen required to form water with
the whole of its oxygen. The Goals in question gave
-experimentally-a caloriic effect from three 10
twelve per cent higher thah tat CD' ,nnpS y the
numerical values quoted by sherwood, the following
are of interests: , $3.50 %
FAIR in temperature by the burning of one pound OF
crude coal ignite found by direct experiment. was
The Groucheaski anthracite. ...-.1 41s9
The Galoueosk coal............--.IS 1899 5oS
These nnmbers being in ali cases as above stated con.
sideraby less than those calculated according to
The Welsh Goals, ordinarily used in the British navy,
are Bwef and the Powell which respectively have
caorc effects of 1884 and l6lOS OF the above UNITS
PERIODICAL Flow OF SAP IN TREEs.-Baranetzky,
of the Observatory at Kief, has investigated the
periodcity of the bleeding of certain plants and its
cause Hofmeister the first who recognized that
this phenomena was one very widely observed among
forest trees and the daily and annual periods OF this
flow of sap have been examined into by several per-
sons. Among the newer results arrived at by Baran-
etzky it may be mentioned that he has been able to
show that the daily variations of temperature had
| but little to do with the flow of sap the latter
being as decided in trees protected from tempera-
tre variations by being incosed in the lighthouses
of the botanical gardens in the trees OF the open
air. The variations are perfectly regular, attaining
| their maxima and minima on the same day and at
the same hours and seem to him to indicate that the
influence of temperature on the perlodicty OF the
bleeding s at least by certain plants not direct and
immediate but of such nature that it at first be-
| comes manifest some time after the action OF that
| which causes it. BY introducing artificial tenn
perature variation this idea was brought to severe
| test and it was shown that the temperature had
really but little to do with the flow OF sap, although
il would be hasty to conclude that IL had no lniiu
ence whatever. 1t is only in the case of great tenn
perature variations flor instance a change OF 20
Fahr that the normal rate OF How OF sap is senslDly
| disturbed.
| EXPERIMENTS on DIGEsTIBnITY OF HAY BY
| SHFEp-In the experiment station at Hohenheim,
in Germany, under the direction of DR.. Won Woli,
series of experiments has lately been performed to
determine the influence which the addition of diff
rent kinds of beets and turuips to ratons OF bean
hay and aftermath exercise upon the digestblty OF
the latter The effect of easily digestible materials.
as grain and ootfruits, upon the digestion of hay
aud straw by domestic animals, has been made the
subject of large number of Investigations in the
German experiment stations. In the series here re-
ferred to sheep were the animals and young succu-
| lent bean hay aftermath from meadow, and beets
or turnps the fodder employed. The animals were
fed for certain period with the aftermath or beam
hay alone during another period turnips were added
In each case the amounts of the different ingredi-
| euts of the hay or aftermath dgested by the ami
mails were determined. and thus the effect of the
turnips upon the digestion became known. 1t
| was found that, when turnips were added In the
proportion of 16 to 2S pounds to 100 pounds of dry
substance in the bean-hay, 81 to 81 per cent less
organic substance of the hay was digested than
when this was fed alone. An addition OF like pro-
portion of turnps to the aftermath caused decrease
of q to 81 per cent in the digestion of the dry sub
stance of the latter 1t must be borne in mind that
bean-hay is very rich, and turnps very poor in
nitrogenous material, while the aftermath, like
binary hay holds medium position in this respect.
Since the heterogeneous material constitutes the most
valuable part of the food its digestiblity in ration
is of very great Importance. The decrease in diges-
ton of nitrogenous material, produced by the addi-
ton of turnips to the ration, was less with the bean
hay than with the aftermath. These results accord
with those Of previous experiments performed at