The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1894-09-01
SCIENCE AMI INDUSTRY.

Experiments have been made by
| Prof Poultoa to prove that the colors
| of certain caterpillars are largely due
to modified plant pigments, derived
| from their food plant. He has now
proved that the colors of some cater
pillars are made up of modified chloro-
| phyl derived from the food plant.
The Tyrians were the most expert
| Divers of ancient times The fabrics
| dyed with the famous Tyrian purple
| did not assume their proper color until
] after two days exposure to light and
air. During this time they passed
through a graduation Of shades of yell
low. green, blue, violet and red, which
| the Divers understood how to arrest
and fix at any CONGRATULATIONS
| Herald.
! Speaking recently at a meeting in
| Newcastle, Sir Robert Ball limited at
the approach of a time when posterity
| might have to construct machinery
| that would be worked with heat OBJ
tanned by the direct action of the suns
| rays He showed on the screen ma
chine which, by means of a reflector,
| heated the water in boiler large
enough to generate the steam required
to move small printing press.-Lon-
don Inventions.
DIR. Letheby, the eminent English
authority on foods, by series of care
full examinations found that when po-
tatoes were cooked without removing
the skins the loss of nutritive material
was but about per cent, against Ii
| per cent. when the skins were removed
before boiling-a very wasteful process.
Hence baked potatoes are not only
more palatable, but also evidently more
nutritious than boiled potatoes in either
| case. t-
More than thirty-seven million
acres of land are invested by the rabbit
pest in Victoria, Australia. During
the last eleven years the colonial gov
eminent has expended nearly two mil
lion dollars in efforts to abate the pest,
besides the expenditures of individuals.
The rabbits are trapped for their skins,
over one hundred and fifty thousand
pelts having been purchased monthly
in one town. The authorities of soma
districts have decided to employ phos-
phorised wheat for the destruction of
the rabbits.
Certain beetles have long been
known to eject or give out repulsive
fluid from joints of their bodies, or
from their legs, or from eversible
glands. M. Cuenot has recently studied
the cases of election of blood from these
beetles The fluid. however, is not
red, as the blood of insects is either
colorless or slightly yellowish. Lady
birds, oil beetles and other vegetable
feeders are such as possess this habit.
The winter has added to this list one
of our common beetles which sends out
pale milky fluid smelling like lauda-
mum, the odor being exactly that
emitted by certain moths of the Arctian
family.
Farming in South Africa has its
drawbacks. A correspondent of the
Agricultural Journal, of Cape Town
relates some of them. The locusts came
late in autumn and devastated the
pastures to such an extent that the
writer's 1000 half-starved ewes raised
only 26o lambs. Then foot and mouth
disease broke out among his cattle. and
Is out of IS succumbed. being unable in
their reduced condition to recover from
the facilitating effects of the disease
At the time of writing farmers were
trying to harvest their oat-hay, but
heavy rains interfered; the grubs had
taken three-fourths of the ''mealies
(maize or corn crop, and a new genera
ton of locusts had Matched out; requir
ing ceaseless effort to check their ad
vance before their wings grew.
The hogs legs perform a function
not known to any other animal, ant
that is an escape pipe or pipes for the
discharge of waste water or sweat mo-
used in the economy of the body Thes,
escape pipes are situated upon the in
side of the legs, above and below tn.
knee in the forelegs, and above th'
gambrel joints in the hind legs, but il
the latter they are very small and func
tions light; upon the inside of the fore
, leg they are, in the healthy hog, always
active, so that moisture is always ther'
from about and below these orifces o
ducts in the healthy hog. The holes il
the leg and breathing in the hog ar,
, his principal and only means of eject
ing an excess of heat above normal, AM
when very warm the hog will open th
mouth and breathe through that chan
S mel as well as the nostrils.
Risks of Horse Racing.
Having ones horse win a race is al
| q.