The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1891-03-19
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

I'm Mexico there is small euphor-
biaceous tree, named hurG crepitdRS,
which elects its seeds from the capsules
with very loud and disagreeable noise.
The belief that chimney-sweep's
cancer is disappearing from London
with improvement in methods of sweep
ing does not seem to be we'll founded.
DR.. Butlin shows from the registrar
generals statistics that the liability of
the sweeps to malignant disease is
about eight times as great as the aver
age liability of all males.
Two years experience at the Brook
lyn bridge upon the comparative cost of
cable haulage and of locomotive haulage
shows that, while the cost per car-mile
is in the case of cables but 3.77 cents
that by locomotive is 32.16 cents. 1t
must, however, be remembered that
Brooklyn bridge is especially favorable
to cable work.
In our Indian mail we find that a
German company has got the contract
for the first Siamese railway. The line
will be 165 miles long from Bangkok to
Koran. German rails and machinery
will be used,. and German engineers
will be mostly appointed. Mr.. Bathze,
in charge of the work, promises to lay
the line down for 81, 600, .-Engineer
ing and Mining Journal.
1t is stated that the cultivation OF
cotton is assuming large proportions in
Russia. The cotton manufacturers Of
certain sections of the empire are buy
ing large quantities of American cotton
seed and giving it to farmers for cultiva-
tion. Russian capitalists also are begin
ming to interest themselves to consid-
erable extent in cotton growing.
"A discoveryof petroleum is reported
to have been made at the foot of hill
named the Puy de la Polk, four miles
from Clermont, in Auvergne. The nap
tha which exudes from the rock is equal
to Baku or Pennsylvania oil. and geolo-
gists are of the opinion that it extends
in subterranean sheet over the vast
plain of Limagne, and is probably to be
found at depth of 1900 feet
San Diego County, California, is an
unusually productive region. Last year,
it sent out ten thousand tons of oranges
and other fruits, one hundred and fifty
thousand tons of hay and grain, twenty
thousand tons of vegetables and two
thousand five hundred tons of raisins.
An experienced raisin-grower estimates
California's raisin yield as superior to
that of Spain, which has been so long
considered the best source of supply.
The fact that certain red stars have
disappeared from the heavens has re-
Gently been noted by Mr.. Birmingham,
of Tuam, Ireland, who also mentions
that other stars of the same color have
undergone extraordinary changes in
brilliancy. The cause of this variability
in colored stars is unknown. 1t is sup
posed, however, that red stars are or
dinarily in an ember-like condition and
are occasionally heated to whiteness in
some manner not yet understood.
Lieutenant H. B. Vaughn, in re-
port of his journey in Eastern Persia,
remarks that among the animals seen
were snakes which fused to climb
bushes, and, hitching their tails around
bough, would stick their bodies out in
imitation of withered branch and thus
remain motionless for hours My serv-
ant said that they were waiting for a
bird to come and perch on them, when
they would Immediately strike it." II
this be authentic, it ascribes an amount
of consciousness to the reptile which
may be referred to the psychologists fol
consideration.