The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1892-01-05
SCIENCE.

POPULAR SCIENCE.
Salmon, pike and Goldfish are the only
fish that never sleep.
A man can live and enjoy perfect
health on milk and its products alone.
The fall of rain in the mountains of
Southern California has greatly in
creased since the formation of Salton
Lake.
1t is only a few years since the
nourishing qualities of milk and it's
hygienic value began to be properly
appreciated.
The indispensable use of gutta-percha
is for tie protection of submarine tele-
graphs, for which all other substances
have proved more or less failures.
G. w. Dunn, the California natural
ist, has collected over 70, 900 insects
belonging to the hornwinged family,
5000 of the cricket tribe and about
1000 butterflies and numberless rare
plants and animals.
A French anatomist has examined
the skeletons of eighty six chimbanzees,
g%orillas and orang-outangs, and asserts
that he has found in them bone dis
eases like those which afaict mankind,
and in about the same proportion.
Anew artificial honey, called sugar
honey" bids fair to become a formida-
BILE rival of the natural product. 1t
consists of sugar, a small proportion
of mineral salts, water, and a free
acid. In taste and smell it very
closely resembles the genuine honey.
Professor Munsey says that a good
churn will make at least ten per cent.
more butter than is called for by the
butter fat found in the milk, and if all
the butter fat got into the butter it
would overrun the amount called for
nearly eighteen per cent.
The germs of yellow fever, it is
thought, may be conveyed from tropi-
cal countries by the pet birds exported
in so large numbers. Recent cases OF
the disease in Marseilles, France, could
be traced to no other cause than a
pair of parrots from the Australasia N
Islands.
Corn husks boiled in caustic soda are
being utilized for the manufacture Of
paper. The cooking process results il
the formation of a spongy, glutinous
paste, which is subjected to heavy
pressure SO as to eliminate the gluten,
the fiber remaining being made into
paper in the ordinary way.
In using the heavier grades of keror
sene or refined petroleum oils in lamps,
the wick often becomes charred at the
top, which obstructs the capillary
action of the wick. When the wick is
raised, the charred top obstructs the
slot in the fame guard and diminishes
the fame. Wicks should be often
renewed. The old wicks become hard
and partly DISTRACTED in the tube.
All ingenious camera for photograph.
ing the internal organs of. men OF
animals has been invented in Ge"'
many. It is cylindrical in shape, is
contained in a rubber tube, and has
two hemispherical shutters and two
minute incandescent lamps. Pressing
a apneumatic ball moves the camera
forward in the tube, opens the shutters,
and makes the electric light contact,
Removing the pressure closes the shut
tiers, puts out the lights, and replaces
the camera.
Experiments make in America with
the cottonwood show that the increase
in the girth of the tree is made only
during a week or two about midsum
mer. It is believed to be the rule with
most American f~ast-growing deciduouf
trees. Experiments on c~oniferous trees
recently made in Scotland by David
Christison show oppositer results. Their.
is a retardation of growth at midsum
mer, and a rather rapid increase just
before and just after that time.
126e MILES AN HOUR.