The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1893-10-21
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.


New Guinea has the credit Of pro-
ducing the only venomous bird known
to ornithologists-the Roir N Doob, or
bird of Death" There is no antidote
to the bite of this bird, which causes
excruciating pains in every part of the
body. loss of sight, commissions, lock-
Jaw and certain death within two
hours.
According to the American Manu-
facturer's estimate our market Of pig
iron for the first half of this year was
1859, 70S tons ~ The Iron Age's- esti~
mate is SOS tons less than the Manu-
facturer. These estimates, in substan-
tial agreement, are nearly per cent
less than the make for the first half of
last year.-Railroad Gazette.
Extensive drought will cause the
snail to close its doors, to prevent the
evaporation of it's bodily moisture and
dry up. These little. animals are pos
sessed OF astonishing vitality, regain
ing activity after having been frozen
in solid blocks of ice, and enduring
degree Of heat for weeks which daily
crisps vegetation. s.i3'ii}
According to the Iron and Coal
Trades Review there were on june 30
in Great Britain IA blast furnaces, of
which ss4 were in England outside Of
the Cleveland districts, IA in the Cleve-
land district, 1913 in Wales and 11s in
Scotland. During the half year two
furnaces were pulled down; no new
ones were completed, but five are un-
der construction. On July 1, 345 fur
naces were in blast and 800 idle.
"A Wisconsin tobacco grower, ac-
cording to the Minneapolis Commercial
Bulletin, estimates the product of mer-
charitable leaf in the Badger state in
1891 at g.. 000, 900. The reported area in
1892 was 90. 600 acres, producing IS, 000,-
900 pounds, worth $1,000, 900. He esti-
mates that this year there are $1,000
acres which ought to raise 10000, 900.
pounds, which at the increase of prod
uct and price should realize at least
IS, SOC, 900. 81 s ysa eia
During the past year astronomers
have discovered go new planets. OF
this number two were found by Palisa,
the veteran asteroid hunter of VII
emma" The remainder were appraised
by means of photography. During the
three opening months of the present
year % planets have been added to the
list. The total number of asteroids
known on April is s74. Astronomers
are confident that the number will be
400 before the close of the year.
The decora ions Of walls prove to
have very important influence upon
gas bills From recent figures 1t has
been calculated that with different
decorations a room would be equally
lighted by the following candle pow
ers: Black cloth, 100; dark brown pa
per, 81; blue paper, -; clean yellow
paint, 60; dirty wood, so; clean wood,
go; cartridge paper, 20; whitewash, 10.
Only about one-sixth as much illumi-
nation is necessary for the white
washed room as for the same room
papered inadark brown. ialss
--Jute is largely cultivated in the
northern and eastern districts of BEN
gal, India, and to smaller extent in
the central part of the province. It Is
also grown somewhat in Assam, the
area under crop in these two provinces
being I, 1888, 900 acres a few years ago,
with an output of 1850, 000, 900 pounds
of jute, more than half of. which was
exported to, Great Britain add the
United States. While jute can be culti-
waited on almost any kind Of soil. the
best quality is grown npon high lands
where rice-pulse and tobacco form the
rotation crops
Leaves breathe in the carbonic acid
upon which trees and plants subsist
through the thousands of minute
mouths with which the surfaces of each
are provided. These mouths, which
are oval openings, exceedingly minute
in size, vary in number from about 700
to more than 100000 to the square inch
of leaf surface. The apple tree leaf
has about "a, 900 mouths to each inch Of
surface, which would make about 10O,.
600 to the average sized Leaf The hy-
drangea is much better provided for in
this line, having 160, 900 to each inch of
surface, or an average of 1,95o,0oo in
each leaf.
The English wheat crop of 1892
was IA, 900, 600 bushels below that of
1891, due to the reduced acreage and
very poor results in the last harvest.
The most notable decreases in crops
were in the production of hay and
beans, that of hay being the lowest on
record, reaching only 10000 and
this year the indications are that it
will be even considerably less. The
of the bean crop in June,
1891, stood at 92.s per cent, but last
year it fell to TAT and this year has
dropped TO the extremely low limit Of
69.6, or So.4 under an average, which
represents a most serious loss. -i3fs
"A mem Der of the Physiological So
ciety of Berlin definitely explains the
making of sugar sweeter by the addi-
ton of salt. From his experiments he
A-1c that - 20 a c<>l,rf;<v. ~ ~ ov.o