The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1892-02-06
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

SCiENCe AND tNOOSI nv.
--One of the three crate factories in
Marlborough. N. Y, made 200, 900 gift
crates this year, in addition to the large
number intended TO be returned to the
shippers of the fruit crop of the Hudson
Valley.
There il cactus tree In the Yuma
desert whose fiber is suitable for maxi
ing paper ftcan be had by the million
tons for the hauling, but the lack OF
water has prevented the establishment
of paper mills in its vicinity.
"A French geologist has made .
careful calculation of the amount of
solid matter carried from the surface of
the land into the oceans of the earth,
and has reached the conclusion that at
the rate it is going it will take only
$500, 900 years for all the land to slide
of into the water
by a new. process q superior guam
tity of illuminating gas is made from
wood maple preferred) and crude oil.
It is called the Ramsdell process, and
the inventor is said to have expended
$4,000 in perfecting it. Charcoal is the
residue from the wood after extracting
the gas.
The census Office announces that
there are in the United States 4,510
nurseries, valued at $41.97S, sS5. 80 and
occupying 172,so5 acres of land. with
an invested capital, of $50, 425, $685.,
and giving employment to 1857 men,
2,279 women and 1920 animals
"A French manufacturer has discov-
cred a substitute for celluloid, which he
has named hyaline, that possesses the
very great advantage of being non-in-
fiammable. 1t is composed of colophone,
lac, copal. Dammara resin. essential oil
of turpentine, and gun cotton, and is de-
scribed as grainless, odorless, trans
| parent and tenacious
| The census bureau gives California
300, 600 orange trees. A careful canvass
just completed by the state board of
horticulture shows that California has
1000, 900 orange trees, of which /, 200, 600
are in bearing. There are more than
three million lemon trees in the state.
This report shows that oranges are
growing in thirty-eight out OF the fifty
two counties.
in relation to the influence of in
sects in producing color in flowers, a
writer in the Botanical Gazette contends
that there could not be distinct things
in nature without color-that color is
just as important in producing variety
in nature as form; and therefore there
would of necessity be as much color in
flowers as now. though never an insect
had appeared on the scene.
According to the British consul at
Nice, a method of detecting the admix-
ture of other oils with the genuine olive
oil from Nice has been discovered The
process consists in the mixture of nj
trate of silver and alcohol with the oil,
which is subsequently boiled and
changes color, becoming reddish or
brown. instead of retaining the green
ish-gold of the pure olive-oil. The in
ventor of this process has also applied
it with success to the detection of mar
garine in butter, and much attention is
being directed to it in the Nice district
why trees or other plants grow
erect, has never yet been definitely de-
termined. 1t has been supposed to have
some relation to the action of light
Certainly plant usually growing erect
turns toward any opening for light in q
dark cellar; but when there is no light
they grow erect DIR. Maxwell S. Mas
tiers has recently called attention to
some cases in an English coal mine
1000 feet deep. Some props made from
green posts pushed out into growth
and, though in absolute darkness, they
were perfectly erect, and perfectly
blanched.-N. Y. Independent
DIR. L. Webster Fox Is of opinion
that savage races possess the percep
ton of color to greater degree than d.
! civilized races In a lecture lately de
/ livered before the Franklin institute
, Philadelphia, he stated that he had JUS
: concluded an examination of $50 In
dian children, Of whom 100 were boys
, Had he selected 100 white boys from
' various parts of the United States, h
would have found at least five of then
I color-blind; among the Indian boys h
, did not discover single case of color
! blindness Some years ago he exam
ined $50 Indian boys and found tw
color blind, very low percentage whe
q compared with the whites. Among tn
Indian girls he did not find any.