The Bossier banner., 1892-02-04
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

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 is cactus tree in the Yuma
desert whose fiber is suitable for max
ing paper. 1t can be had by the million
tons for the hauling but the lack OF
water has prevented the esta ablishment |
of paper mills in its vicinity.
"A French geologist has made a
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
4,50O, OOO years for all the land to slide
off into the water.
BY new process superior guam
tity of illuminating gas is made from
wood maple preferred) and crude oil.
1t is called the Ramsdell process, and
the inventor is said to have expended
$40, 900 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 S41, ,97s, s35. 80 and
occupying 172, ,SO5 acres of land, with
an invested capital, of $50, ,425, $780, 81,
and giving employment to 1861 men,
2,379 women and Il, 4,210 animals.
"A French manufacturer has discov-
cred substitute for celluloid, which he
has named hyaline, that possesses the
very great advantage of being non-in-
f1ammable. 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. . ..-a. -
The census bureau gives California
500, 600 orange trees. A careful canvass
just completed by the state board OF
horticulture shows that California has
1000, 900 orange trees, of which 1000, 900
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. -a5
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.
D,,4 ,el, ~
Nice, 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 ant
, | changes color, becoming reddish o.
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 i
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 hav
some relation to the action of light
Certainly plant usually growing cree
turns toward any opening for light in
dark cellar; but when there is no light
they grow erect DR.. Maxwell s. Mas
i tiers has recently called attention t
some cases in an English coal mine
: 1000 feet deep. Some props made fror
green posts pushed out into growth
l and, though in absolute darkness, the
: were perfectly erect, and perfectl
blanched.-N. Y. Independent.
DR. L. Webster Fox is of opinio
. that savage races possess the percel
;. zion of color to greater degree than d
1 civilized races In lecture lately d'
livered before the Franklin institute
Philadelphia he stated that he had ju
u concluded an examination of $50 j
dian children, Of whom 100 were boy
, Had he selected 100 white boys fro
: various parts of the United States,
would have found at least five of the
color blind; among the Indian boys
. did not discover a single case of colo
Ii blindness. Some years ago he exar
Ii ined $50 Indian boys and found tV
% color-bind, a very low percentage wh'
. compared with the whites. Among t
Ii Indian girls he did not find any.