The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1891-11-13
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.


pays for the privilege of collecting the
smoke from a number of blast furnaces.
The smoke is passed through several
miles of wrought iron tubing, and yields
a profitable product of oil
Analysis of individual beets indi-
Gates that maturity, more than size,
! determines the sugar contents of the
beet. A high weight of leaves as com
pared with the roots was no evidence of
higher sugar content, but rather the re-
verse.
Several specimens of a new stone
have been found in Nevada 1t is dark
green and susceptible of high polish
The state mineralogist calls it sariscite
or composition of hydrous phosphate
of aluminium. 1t is very rare and is
found scattered in nuggets of not more
than fifty pounds embedded in silver ore
German foundries are using an al
10y of 20 per cent. copper to 80 per cent
manganese, as a valuable addition to
brass or bronze. 1t increases the tcnac-
ity and ductility of the metal if the pro-
portion of 3 per cent. of alloy only be
added. An excess of manganese makes
the bronze almost as hard as steel
London Discovery.
The Japan Herald is authority for
the figures of gold output in Siberia
from 1884 to 1887 inclusive: 80, 600, 900
ounces, G12O00 900, or 5000, 600, 900, and
this with but little machinery, efforts
| rudely systematized, and much stealage
When the great Siberian railroad is
completed from the Caspian Sea to Via
livestock on the Pacific, the output of
Russian gold will be greatly increased.
"A very fine bunch of bananas,
grown in Galveston~ Tex. was cNhib-
mercc last week. The bunch carried
sixty-seven full-grown bananas of eX-
cellent quality. The feasibility of
growing bananas outside the tropics
has often been doubted, and all our sup
ply at present comes from the torrid
| zone, but Texas is going to try to es-
tablish a new home industry.
The abundant flow of sap through a
maple tree in the spring is due to the
fact that the tree is not only filed with
sap, but this is placed under some pres
sure by the force of capillary attraction
As the tree contains no leaves at this
season there can be no evaporation to
relieve the pressure. The sugar of the
sap is chemically formed in the tree,
out of the starchy substances stored
during the previous autumn.
The river, shore and sea fisheries of
the Pacific Coast represents a great in
dustry. The number of men employed
in 1879 made total of COS. In 1883
the capital employed was So, 494, 239.
The salmon fisheries are the most i'm
portant, and of these Alaska has by far
the largest share, a fact owing partly
to the large capacities of the canneries,
but chiefly to the greater productive
ness of the Alaska rivers. This seems
to Indicate that Alaska is to be the
great salmon region of the future.
Some German scientists, interested
in forestry, have recently furnished in
formation in regard to the ages of trees.
They assign to the pine tree 500 and 700
years as the maximum, 425 years to the
silver fir 275 years to the larch, 245
years to the red beech, 2l0 to the aspen,
200 to the birch, ITO to the ash and AS
to the alder and 100 to the elm. The
heart of the oak begins to rot at the
age of 800 years The holly oak alone
escapes this law, it is said, and there is
in existence near Aschaffenbur in
Germany, a tree of this kind which has
attained an age of 40 years
"A plantation of India rubber was
CO 4
1878, in forest at the foot of the Him
alayas. Seedlings were planted in the
forks of trees, and by 1855 they had
reached the ground The trees were
subsequently placed in beds, 40 feet
wide, protected by the surrounding
forest. In 1890 the plantation extended
over 100 acres, and contained 1864
healthy plants besides $1,000 seedlings.
The experiment will not begin to be
profitable until after several years
more.
Doctor Cold, q German specialist, has
recently pleaded for giving young people
more sleep. A healthy infant sleeps
most of the time during the first weeks;
and, i'll the early years, people are dis
posed to let children sleep as much as
they will But from six or seven, when
school begins, there is comp etc
change. At the age of ten or eleven,
the child sleeps only eight or nine
hours, when he needs at least ten or
eleven, andes he grows older the time
of rest is slortened. Doctor Cold be-
lievcs that, up to twenty, youth needs
nine hours sleep, and an adult should
have eight or nine.
The Value of n Note Book.
Ever since he went into business as n
| boy John l. Blair, the millionaire rail-
way magnate, has made it a practice to
| iot down in a note book carried for the