The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1892-08-06
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

--t1gar-tODdccO growing anu mduu-
featuring has made marked progress in
India within the past ten years. and
now excellent brands of her choice
tobaccos are known throughout the
worlds markets, except In the United
States.
Mr.. G.. BONNER, professor OF botany
at the Paris Sorbonne, disputes the
prevalent notion that the mistletoe is
injurious to the apple or other tree on
which it grows. He maintains not only
that this is not the case, but that it is
actually beneficial to its host.
"A railway beginning at Belize and
extending to the State of Guatemala, at
or near the town of Peten, is under
contract. It. will open up extensive
areas of lands of the most fertile de-
scription and will afford access to the
mineral regions of british Honduras,
which are now beyond the reach OF
transportation.
Mr.. Boys, who has recently made
some valuable experiments in photo
graphing bullets during their fight
from a gun, infers that the projectile
must have received about 3 per cent. OF
its velocity after leaving the muzzle, at
which point the turning effort OF the
rifle must have necessarily ceased.
The foot of horse is one of the
most ingenious and unexampled pieces
of mechanism in the whole range of ami
NAL structure The outside hoos is
made up of a series of thin, verticle
lamine of horn, about five hundred in
number. Into this are fitted about five
hundred more thin laminD, which be-
long to the coffin bone, both sets being
elastic and adherent.
Canada exports annually, $4,000
| tons, and the United States $4,000 tons
of cheese, equal In quality to the Cru
yere cheese of France. This, together
with the Swiss cheese, completes with
| that of French make to such an extent
| as to create suffering among French
cheese makers. who wish legislation
for putting stop to, or limiting the
profits of merchant and middleman.
Now that rance culture has begun
seriously to engage the attention OF
| planters in the tropics, it is interesting
| to learn on the authority of a foreign
| journal that rance fiber, under great
| hydraulic pressure, may be made to as
sumo the compactness of steel. 1t is
asserted that when so prepared it will
be particularly servicenble for steam
pipe, as it will not be subject to contrac-
ton or expansion and also will not rust.
| I'm 1912 Russian farmer conceived
the idea of extracting oil from the sum
flower. His schemes were considered
most visionary, but he persevered, until
now the industry is one of enormous
proportions, there being 100000 acres
under cultivation in Russia. There are
| two kinds: one with seeds that are
crushed for oil, and a second species
which is consumed by the people in the
same way that peanuts are in this coun-
try.
| In consequence of the enormous in
| itial velocity of the bullet in the new
| Mannlicher rifle and the resulting fric-
| ton and wear on the barrel, it has be-
come necessary to devise some method
preventing both of these evils. The
manager of the government laboratory
at Thun, Switzerland, has consequently
devised method of inclosing the leaden
bullet in a thin metallic covering, while
over this he places n wrapper, specially
prepared oleaginous paper, which re-
| duces the wear of the rifle barrel to a
minimum, without interfering with the
course of the bullet
The April number of Natural Sci
ence contains an interesting note upon
| GcL soh
less is known than about the African
mudfish. The latter may be seen at
present in the reptile house at the Zoo,
and is one of the most interesting Great
ures on view there. Both these fishes
declined some ages ago to move with
the times, and have remained, in conse-
quence, about half way between a fish
and amphibian Some of the African
mudfishes when they arrived at the Zoo
were inclosed in a leathery cocoon.
This is secreted by the animal when the
rivers in which it lives are dried up by
the sun, Securely hidden away in this
case, the protopterus ceases to breathe
like fish, and uses its lungs; when the
rains dissolve the baked mud in which
il is embedded it returns to the fishlike
l
existence.
The largest paper and pulp making
plant in the world is to be built on the
| Niagara tunnel. The Niagara Falls
Paper Company will be the style of the
owners. The company has signed q
lease for 3,OOO-horse power to be fur
nished next October. The lease extends
to the year 1896. AS the tunnel will be
completed by July, the power will be
ready for them then. The plant will
consist of twenty large buildings, and
will occupy eleven acres of ground.
The cost will be about s5,OO0,00O. This
company has in contemplation the use
of underground chambers for grinding
purposes The wheel pit will be lao
feet deep and ii feet by 40 feet wide.
1t will be connected with the great tun-
mel by subway 500 feet long, 10 feet
Al