The Bossier banner., 1893-12-21
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

average yield of potatoes. That coun-
try produces TT bushels to the acre;
Italy comes next, with 1854; Germany,
121; France, 1O2 the United States, 76
-"Wells' Science Of Common Things"
says that if our atmosphere could be
condensed until it would occupy no
more space than the same weight of
water, it would only extend to an ele-
vation of 81 feet above the surface of
the earth.
-"Onchyophagy" is new word
he has discovered that when school
girls bite their nails it is because of
deranged condition of the nervous sys-
tenn, for which supposed arrangement
he has invented the above name.
The problem of proftably produc
ing beet sugar in the west has appar-
emily been solved. The factory at
Norfolk, Neb., has manufactured and
sent to market, within about four
weeks, ffty-two carloads of the best
granulated sugar, made from beets
raised in Nebraska soil.-Kansas City
Journal.
The rice harvest on the farm near
Kissimme, Fla, that has heretofore
been worthless, yielded about sixty
bushels per acre for the first crop, and
the second crop will yield about twenty
bushels more. This will put Florida
rice in the market at time when there
is very little competition, and will
bring better prices than later in the
season.
When Lord Beaconsield invested
something over s20,O00,OOO of British
funds in the SueZ canal enterprise
eighteen years ago, there was great
deal of moaning, but the investment
has proved valuable one. The Brit
ish treasury has received per cent. on
its money, and the stocks are now
worth S8S, 750, 600, or more than four
times their rcost.-Milwaukee Journal.
-Four hundred and sixty-one degrees
below the freezing point of the Fahren
heit thermometer lies a mysterious
specially indicated degree of cold which
science has long been gazing toward
and striving to attain, wondering mean
while what may be the condition OF
matter at this unexplored point. Its
existence has long been indicated and
its position esta ablished.
1t is stated that Argentina wheat
can be grown-ffteen bushels to the
acre-at profit of thirteen cents a
bushel If sold in Europe at seventy
cents bushel. The crop this year, it
is added, is 3S, 900, 900 bushels over and
above the needs for home consumption.
In the eight months ended August 81
there were nearly 90, 900, 600 bushels of
the surplus exported. But one-twen-
tieth of the area of Argentina suitable
for wheat growing is now under culti-
vati0n.
"A very interesting topic, which is
winning it's way to attention, is the
periodic and secular variation of the
latitude of places on the earth's sur
| face. Prof Chandler has been labor
/ iously investigating these movements
| for some time. He has examined rec
ords extending over the last half cent
ury, and including $4,000 observations
| of latitude, and has come to the con-
clusion that the observed value of lati-
superposition of two periodic iuctua-
| tions. These are-(a) one of 427 days
due to a separation of the axis of rota
tion from the chief axis of inertia, and
! (b) an annual one due to the periodic
shifting of the earth center of gravity
in connection with seasonal redistribu
tions of moisture.-Knowledg
The following are the approved in
structions for bringing on hypnotic
frances: Take any bright object and
hold it between the fingers of the left
hand, about foot from the eyes of the
person upon whom the experiment i:
being tried, in such position above
the forehead as to produce the creates
strain compatible with steady, fixeC
gaze at the object The person mus
then be directed to fix the mind on the
object he is gazing at. His pupils viii
first contract and then dilate consider
ably, and after they are well di
lated the first and second fuger of th'
operator S right hand (extended and ;
little separately should be carried from
the object toward the patients eye
When this is done the eyelids will mos
probably close. Garry out these direc
tions and in few seconds the persol
will be thoroughly hypnotized.
The earth has not been put in
scale and balance against know
weight, but mathematicians have cal
culated its weight Prof Maskelyn
first attacked this subject in TT:
when, by repeated experiments, h
determined the attraction exerted a
Mount Schihallion, in Perthshire, Scot
land, on a plumb line, which it cause
to deviate from the perpendicular neal
" six seconds. Playfair, Cavendisl
Hutton and other scientists then deter
mined that the structure of this mour
tain made it have a density, as CON
pared to the mean density of the eartl
of five to nine. Then the comparativ
density of Schihallion to water wa
ascertained. and that of earth to wate
being known as about five and ha
to one, it was not hard to calculate til
rest, knowing the cubical contents {
the earth. 1t has been stated as 5,8.
trillions of tons of 2,240 pounds eacl
or value in pounds avoirdupois repr