The Republican., 1891-12-04
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

| Marlborough, n. V, made 200 900 gift
crates this year. in addition to the large
number intended to be returned to the
shippers of the fruit crop of the Hudson
| Valley.
There IS cactus tree in the Yuma
desert whose fiber is suitable for max
ing paper. team be had by the million
tons for the hauling, but the lack of
water has prevented the esta blishment
of paper mills in its vicinity.
A French geologist has made
careful calculation of the amount of
solid matter carried from the surface of
the land into the oceans of the earth,
and has reached the conclusion that at
the rate 1t is going it will take only
100000 years for all the land to slide
off into the water.
by new process superior guam
tity of illuminating gas is made from
wood (maple preferred) and crude oil.
1t is called the Ramsdell process, and
the inventor is said to have expended
$40 200 in perfecting it. Charcoal is the
residue from the wood after extracting
the gas.
The census Office announces that
there are in the United States 4,51O
nurseries, valued at S41, ,97S, ,SS5. so and
occupying 172,S sos acres of land, with
an invested capital, of $50, ,425, 669. 81,
and giving employment to 1851 men,
2,279 women and II, ,210 animals.
"A French manufacturer has discov-
cred substitute for celluloid, which he
haS IL
very great advantage of being non-in-
hammable. 1t is composed of colophone,
lac, copal Dammara resin, essential oil
of turpentine, and gun cotton, and is de-
scribed as grainless, odorless, trans
parent and tenacious
The census bureau gives California
10000 orange trees. A careful canvass
just completed by the state board of
horticulture shows that California has
1000, 900 orange trees, of which 1, ,0O0 600
are in bearing. There are more than
three million lemon trees in the state.
This report shows that oranges are
growing in thirty-eight out of the fifty
two counties
In relation to the influence of in
sccts in producing color in flowers Il
writer in the Botanical Gazette contends
that there could not be distinct things
in nature without color-that color is
just as important in producing variety
in nature as form; and therefore there
would of necessity be as much color in
flowers as now, though never an insect
had appeared on the scene.
According to the British consul at
Nice, "A method of detecting the admix-
ture of other oils with the genuine olive
oil from Nice has been discovered. The
process consists in the mixture of nj
trate of silver and alcohol with the oil,
which is subsequently boiled and
changes color, becoming reddish or
brown, instead of retaining the green
iSh-gold of the pure olive-oil The in
ventor Of this process has also applied
it with success to the detection of mar
garine in butter, and much attention is
being directed to it in the Nice district.
Why trees or other plants grow
erect, has never yet been definitely de-
termined. 1t has been supposed to have
some relation to the action of light.
Certainly plant usually growing erect
turns toward any opening for light in a
dark cellar; but when there is no light,
they grow erect DIR. Maxwell S. Mas
ters has recently called attention to
some cases in an English coal mine,
LOCO feet deep. Some props made from
green posts pushed out into growth;
and, though in absolute darkness, they
were perfectly erect, and perfectly
blanched-N. Y. Independent.
DIR. L. Webster Fox is of opinion
that savage races possess the percep-
ton of color to greater degree than do
civilized races In lecture lately de-
livered before the Franklin institute,
Philadelphia, he stated that he had just
concluded an examination of 25O In
dian children, of whom 100 were boys.
Had he selected 100 white boys from
various parts of the United States, he
would have found at least five of them
color-blind; among the Indian boys he
did not discover single case of color
blindness. Some years ago he exam
ined $50 Indian boys and found two
color blind very low percentage when
compared with the whites. Among the
Indian girls he did not find any.