The Fort Worth gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-189?, 1891-04-02

that swhen worknen were drilling the
artesian well at Centreville. Iowa, they
tapped a subterranean passage which
seemed to be completely hllcd with bats,
not dead or petrifed bats, but those of the
real live kind; this at depth OF nearly
900 feet below the surface. Twenty-Five or
thirty of them were brought out alive and
well. They seemed to be Of the corlnOn
gray species. but were much larger" The
papers seem to regard this Is something
extremely wonderful, but there Is nothing
really wonderful about it. Four or five
miles in from the mouth Of the great
WyaudOtte cave of Indiana there IS a
room so thicl;ly hung with bats through
the winter season that visitors passing 10
must use great preclution not to disturb
and start the bats flying. They are not
dormant, though they hang from the rocks
in immense lunches and do not move
unless disturbed. The guide invariably
cautions the visitors under his charge not
to disturb the bats, as once set fying they
would knock out all lights in Z moment
OF course the thinking person Will readily
understand that this Iowa We'll has simply
struck some such bat chamber IN Il
cavern somewhere communicating with
the outer world. The bat chamber in the
Wyandotte cave Is six Or seven hundred
feet beneath the surface OF the country.
Speaking of the bat leads Us TO think Of
the fact that has q sense not voUchsafel
10 other amin Is. Il IS wholly without the
sense Of sight, Yet 1t flies through small
openings 1T full speed. and traverSeS these
long and totally dark caverEs with as much
ease and safety as the mOclung-blrd would
find flying across the garden At midday, Il
has L sense which enables it TO locate Oh
jects the same as if it could see. SO far
this IS something that natUraliStS DO not
appear to have worked upon. II is some
al nv ~ ont
doubtedIy.
Not few persons have q disposition to
kill the bat when ii comes into the house Ut
night. This is wholly wrong. for no Great
ure could be more harmless and few mora
useful When 1t pays Us = visit II IS after
or flies and mosquitoes. If YOU treat IL
kindly it VIII soon get 10 coming in regu-
lariy. and viii Keep your house pretty clear
of flying insect pests. The old foolish no
tion that it means bad luck OF breeds bed
bugs IS simply nonsense unworthy III en-
lightened age like the present
Tall chimneys of solid masonry shake or
osrillate to every passing brte,e-such
chimneyS is the one at the Forr Worth
brewery. for instance. NJ Van G8ult Of
France has lately been making solns oDSer-
vatiOnS with reference to such ChiEneyS
He got at the oscillation by observing the
q
ground. One of his special studies WAS a
chimney 10 feet hi and four feet in d.
ameter externally At the top BY carefully
watching the shadow he found that in an
ordinarily high wind the oscillation Of that
chimney at the top was little over twenty
inches He found the average about the
same in all good chimueys. By him the os-
cillation IS accepted rs 4 good sign. telling
Of perfect masonry and such hrmnesS OF
structure as 10 render it springy.
According to Professor \. c. Alice, the
genesis of a new plant from seed IS
complicated, and rather mysterious pro
cess too complicated to admit of hrief eS-
PLANTATION. Suffice it to say that in the
uvary of every perfect flower there are one
or more little sacks filed with water in
which floats vcgetabe cell This cell will
perish with the flower unless II IS fortified
by a pollen cell from the anther Of this, or
some neigboring flower OF the same OF some
nearly allied species. In this event the
germinal cell in the ovUle begins Il process
of development which enus in the germ ola
new plant. which may lie dormant in the
seed for an indefinite period, till favorable
circumstances call it into activity, and 1t
begins the work OF vegetable ufe-a new
individual. -
Some horticulturalist claims to have dis
covered 4 new method of setting buds in
propagation Of trees, which he holds to be
much better than the old way. 1t consists
in making the cross cut on the stock
at the bottom. instead Of the top of the
vertical cut and showing the bud III upward
under the bark, instead of downward
as on the old plan. This he says causes the
bark to better shelter the bud from rain
than in the old way, and hence largely in
creases its chances for success. The thing
appears entirely reasonable. We suppose
the cut for the bud would need to be little
Il = ont he
more wood and bark ah1krhan below. OF
course the bud must the same end up
bs on the old plan.