The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1891-05-10
SCIENCE AND anpusrRY.

SSsAtN66 ANY,
Parties at Santa Cruz, Cal, are en-
gaging In sailing and packing maokerel
Tor the hrst time in the history Of the
town.
One thing especially noticed in Maine
Is the Impetus given to the apple can
ming business by the partial failure of
inc apple crop. Fruit that was formerly
considered only good enough for cider
escaped tho press this year and has COMO
into cans to help to furnish the world
with apple sauce.
"A year ago the average daily pro-
duction OF petroleum in Pennsylvania,
according to the Philadelphia Times,
was 10000 barrels. Now it is $1,000.
The primo cause of this increase was
the advance to dollar per barrel in
price when the production fell to 60, 600
barrels and the effect of tho increase to
So, 600 is drop in prices to 20 cents
"A remarkable fact has been con-
clusively demonstrated in regard to beet
culture in Germany, that the longer the
variety of beet root the smaller the per-
centage of sugar have the smaller roots.
A poor crop, as it might be called, pro-
vided it is Of variety naturally with
small roots, does not Indicate a moor
crop Of sugar.
"A London merchant rejoices be-
cause he tried music rs a medicine. His
boy, six years old, was dying with ty-
phoid, and was quite insensible with no
appearance OF being able to live through
the night knowing his sons fondness
for music, the father procured largo
music box, and caused it to play, with
fhr Il
aroused and his life saved by the reac-
ton.
The most complex Of all the animal
tissues is tho brain. The fibers in ono
single optic nerve have been counted
under microscope to the number of
about 100000. When you consider that
the brain is largely made up of fbers
you see how vast this number becomes
So with regard to cells; they arc count
less. No method of science has been
able to count the cells in single square
quarter of an inch of the outside cover
ing of the brain.
Tho Ministry Of Imperial Property
has decided to take energetic measures
to develop the resources of the districts
of Bntum and Karsk on tho Black Sea.
There is enormous mineral wealth in
those districts, and the woods and tho
lands that can be made arabic would
yield large returns to the government
II properly managed. The forests of
those two districts occupy no less than
10000 dessyatins, about 200, 900 acres of
land.
1t seems probable that tho great, at
least tho immediate, future of astronomy
lies In tho judicious use of spectroscopy
and photography, rather than in the in
crease OF optical power by the construc-
ton of largo telescopes. Give small
telescope with plato attached to it
timo enough and it will SEQ as much
as q big one will show to tho most
sensitive eye AS dry plates will retain
their constituencies, exposure can DO
continued for days, shutting Off tho
light when the object has sunk too low
In the west, and recommending it when
itshall be high enough in the east again.
IN. y. Commercial Advertiser
"A correspondent of the London
Times says that on September 80 he and
his party saw a rainbow which formed a
complete circle, visible for nearly half
an hour during their ascent of tho Fin
storaarhorn. There were" he says,
heavy clouds lying some 1000 feet be-
low, on tho Aar glacier, and it was on
those that the beautiful, brilliantly col
ored ring lay. A secondary circle was
also visible. We wero near the summit
of the peak when we first observed it,
and from that point the face of the
mountain on tho Grimsel side is almost
perpendicular.
Even now We have some active vol.
canoes of no little energy on our earth,
and we know that in former DAYS the
volcanoes must have been still more
powerful; that, in fact. the Vesuvius of
the present must be merely q pop gun
in comparison with volcanoes which
have shaken the earth in those print
tive days whom it had just cooled down
from its originally fiery condition. 1t
seems not impossible that some of those
carly volcanoes may in tho throes OF
their mighty eruptions have driven up
pieces OF iron and volcanic substances
with violence great enough to shoot
them off into space.
ORNAMENTAL FERNERlES.
An Attractive Oh,ant for uou,.,..,.,