The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1891-12-26
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.
"A French beekeeper has expert"
mented with his bees as carriers of dis.
patches. One difficulty of the bee sery-
ice is that the insects will not return
over a distance of more than two or
three miles.
Prof. Mayer has calculated that IL
the motion of the earth were suddenly
arrested. the temperature produced
would be sufficient to melt and even
volatile it, WHILE if it fell into the sun,
as much heat would be produced as re-
suits from the combustion of 5000
spheres of carbon the size OF our globe.
The aquatic plant, the bladd erwort,
feeds on animal life. The tiny bladders
attached to the leaves and leaf stalks
are each furnished with a door, the
whole acting on the cell-trap principle.
Any small water creature that ventures
to peep in it is seized in the clutches of
the murder GUS plant, and is at once
swallowed and assimilatcd.
In Virginia there are Is, 000 900 acres
of arabic land lying untitled. The
greater part of it is the property of
large holders who get no income from
it, and who do not possess the capital
needed for it's cultivation. The state
authorities have come to their aid and
are striving to attract immigrants who
will take it up and put it to service.
Prof. Huntington. of Cambridge,
said in n recent lecture that Il meteorite
which fell in Russia in 1856 contained
carbon in the crystalized form of the
diamond This seemed to him to sug-
gest an explanation of the origin of
diamonds, which has never been salts
factorily explained.
The last bulletin of the American
Geographical society contains an inter-
esting paper on the curious discovery
of human remains under the Tuolumne
Table mountain of California. Bones
of men and grinding instruments were
there found by Prof. Whitney, i'm
bedded in auriferons gravel under lava
at the foot of the mountain. Remains
| of plants belonging TO the Tertiary
| age, and the bones of extinct NAM
malta, such as the rhiuoceros of the
west and the American mastodon, are
also met with in the same strata.
During the past ten years there has
been decided increase in the fishing
interests of Washington, notably in the
oyster fishery, the yield of which has
advanced from 5000 to 6O,993 bushels
in the salmon fishery, in which the
| catch in 1850 was reported to be $50, COO
pounds. and in 1888 was IL, 3l9. T3g
pounds: in the vessel fishery for food
| species (including halibut and salt sal
NOM which has been established in re.
cent years and the product of which in
1883 amounted TO CSC, 600 pounds. The
fur-seal fishery has declined considera-
bly, in value, though to less extent in
number of skins
One of the earliest accounts of star.
showers is that which relates how, in
472, the Sky at Constantinople appeared
to be alive with flying stars and mete.
! ors In some eastern annals we are told
| that in October, 1902, the stars ap.
peared like waves upon the Sky. They
| flew about like grasshoppers, and were
| dispersed from left to right" 1t is re.
| corded that in the time of King William
| II. there occurred in England a wonder.
full shower of stars, which "seo omed to
fall like rain from heaven. An eye-wit'
ness seeing where an aerolite fell cast
water upon it, which was raised in
|
Some years ago American cotton
seed was planted in Turkestan, and the
development has been something phe.
nomenaL In 1884 about 800 OOO pounds
of cotton were exported while the prod-
uct for this year is expected to reach
3,50o,O00 poods, or about 100000
pounds At this rate of increase Asia
threatens to become very formidab BILE
rival to the cotton production of the
United States. The Asiatic as well as
the Egyptian cotton is packed much
neater than our cotton, and is com
pressed so tightly as to almost preclude
the possibility of spontaneous combus-
tion or other causes which cause fires
on shipboard, and as consequence it
is preferred b. shippers, and is carried
at lower rate of insurance. N. y.
Mail and Express.