The Van Buren press., 1893-09-02
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

-Germany's average annual produc-
tion of wine during the past thirteen
years has been 30, 900, 900 gallons The
area Of land under vine cultivation has
varied but little in that time, being
about 800, 900 acres A third of the
total product is made in Alsace and
Lorraine.
The milk production of the chief
European countries must be estimated
by the millions and millions of gallons
q head. Germany heads the list with
s,127, 900 millions of gallons; next comes
France with 2,225,740 millions of gal
Ions; England is third with 1,963,5o
millions of gallons.
Northern Delaware will have some
of the best wheat lands in the country
One farmer in New Castle county re-
reports an average of 80 bushels per
acre upon 100 acres; another reports
an average of 331a bushels per acre,
and another an average of 35 bushels
per acre. small field, recently in
asparagus, yielded an average of 80
bushels per acre.
The largest band-sawing machine
in the world has recently been com
pleted in England and sent to Tasma-
MIA. The machine can saw through a
maximum depth of seventy-five inches,
and the carriage will accommodate
logs fifty feet long and weighing about
fifty tons. 1t is asserted that this saw
cuts even faster than a circular saw,
while wasting rs per cent. less wood.
1t seems hard to realize that the
lightest whisper must continue its
rounds of existence throughout all
eternity, yet on the belief that such is
the fact is based all modern physics
and very many of the useful adjuncts
of modern civilization. 1t is now real
ized that force, like matter, is inde-
structible. and that where matter Is
we must look for force or energy in
close relation to it.
Interesting experiments with rat
tlesnake venom are in progress at the
pathological laboratory of Johns Hop
kins university. The captured rattler
is excited to strike at a glass saucer,
into which the poison from its fangs
falls. This is then injected in minute
quantities beneath the skin of rabbits,
and as soon as the unsuspecting ami.
mails are dead they are dissected to
show the action of the venom.
The age of the late dragon tree OF
Orotava was variously estimated at
from 5000 to 10000 years. On the low
est estimate it surpassed not only
Domesday oaks and Soma Expresses,
but the Hedsor yew, with its 5000
years, and Alphonse Karr's baobabs.
of Senegal. Balfour gives the ages, Il.
ascertained by De Condolle, of the cy.
press as $50 years, the oak 1,50O, the
yew 2,s20 and the baobab as probably
the same as the yew.
"A prominent English physician OF
large experience with drunkards, says
that he can recall hundreds Of recover.
les among men, but only five among
women. Asa instance of the cunning
with W hich female inebriates crafty
their appetite for liquor the following
story is related. Some women in re.
treat asked for curling tongs, very
natural request. Next, they wanted
methylated spirits with which to heat
the irons, and finally they wheedled
hot water, sugar and lemon juice out
of one of the maids. Out of these
liquids they contrived concoction to
satisfy their craving for alcohol.
Various attempts have been made
to account for the diversity in shape
seen in eggs. A recent study convinces
DR.. Nicolsky that the differences may
all be traced to gravity, and he finds
his idea confirmed by all the eggs in
the geological collection of the st. Pc
tersburg university He supposes that
pressure by the sides of the ovary tends
to elongate the egg before the shell has
hardened. In birds which keep ver-
tical position while at rest. as do the
falcon and the OWL the soft egg is
made short by the action of the weight
of the body against the ovarian pres
sure; while in birds that like the grebe,
are nearly always swimming, the egg
Is heightened, because the birds
weight acts with the compression by
the ovary. The egg is made more
pointed at one end than at the other in
birds that, like the guillemot, are fre-
quently changing their position, some
times swimming and diving, sometimes
perching on the rocks, etc.