The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1894-03-15
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

broidery was imported from Switzer-
land into the United States. The trade
has grown steadily until now Switzer-
land exports S12, ,0OO,O worth of these
machine embroideries annually. The
work was first started in Switzerland
in 1927.
1t has been found by Saville-Kent
that the pearl oyster reaches maturity
in a shorter time than formerly sup
posed. He thinks that under favora-
BILE conditions period not exceeding
three years suffices for the shell to at
tain to the marketable size of eight or
nine inches in diameter, and that heavy
shells of five pound or six pound weight
per pair may be the product of five
years growth.
"A theory has been put forth by NJ.
Rateau in the French Academy of Sci
ences that the crust of the earth be-
meath the continent does not touch the
fluid globe, but is separated from it by
a space filled with gaseous matter un-
der pressure. The continents would
therefore constitute sort of blister,
much fiattened, inflated and sustained
by gases, while the bottom of the
oceans is supposed to rest directly on
the fiery mass. By this hypothesis the
author believes that many phenomena
~ the terrestrial crust may be ex-
planned which are not clearly ac-
counted for under the present theory.
Popular Science Monthly,
The wing area of flying animals"
says French naturalist, varies from
about forty-nine square feet pound of
weight in the gnat and five square feet
in the swallow, to half a square foot
pound of weight in the Australian
crane, which weighs twenty-one pounds
and yet flies we'll. If we were to adopt
the last or smallest proportion, a man
weighing twelve stone would require
pair of wings each of them fourteen
feet long by three broad, or double the
area of an ordinary room door. to carry
him, without taking into account the
weight of the wings themselves"
According to the Bureau Veritas,
or French Lloyds, Great Britain owns
more than one-third of the actual ship
| ping of the world-14, 971 out of 42,257
vessels. Six out of twelve of the lar
gest steam and sailing companies in
| the world are British, and of the four
| teen vessels of over s, 200 tons employed
| in the worlds commerce British ship.
owners claim nine. The estimated
value of the merchants fleet of Great
Britain is S1,100, 900, 900. The United
States comes second in the list with
S,794 vessels owned by US. Norway
| Q oh I'D Sc ~
lowed by Germany and Italy with 2, 165
and 2, 122 respectively.
Direct trade in two years, 1890 to
| 1892, increased the south's imports
$50 100000 against $50, 900, 900 in all the
rest of the Union, and swelled the
south's imports 25 per cent. against 5
per cent. in the rest of the United
States. One prime object of southern
direct trade has been to induce west
ern grain and flour and meat to go
abroad through southern ports by
southern railroads. In 1892 as fruit
of this direct trade the west shipped
| S104 000 900 of its exports through the
south to foreign countries, of which
SS5, 900, coo were breadstuffs, S13, 900, 600
meat products and S6,000 900 cattle.
And nearly all of this western stuff
went through Baltimore, Newport
News, New Orleans and Galveston
Atlanta Constitution.
In relation to the visits of night
moths to flowers, resulting in their
cross-fertilization, a recent author
shows that the lepidote clothing is SO
easily detached that they invariably
leave ''moth hair" on the pistil, pro-
vided it is in the receptive condition
required for perfect fertilization. The
stigma at this period is utterly devoid
of membrane and forms at the apex a
little cup containing sweet liquid into
which the pollen grain falls, the moist.
ure aiding in the development of the
pollen tube, and probably furnishing
the nutritive material requisite for its
growth. The sticky fluid catches and
holds the "moth hair" and thus the
observer can tell whether or not the
flower is favored by the visits of these
nocturnal creatures.
in Fortnightly Review article
relating to the thickness of glaciers, il
is stated that the most recent re
searches show that the thickness Of
the ice has been usually underesti
mated. A terminal moraine on the
Jura at Chasseron is four thousand fee
above the sea, or 2,770 feet above
Geneva. In order that the upper sur
face of the ice should have had sutfi
cient incline to flow onward as it did
it was probably five thousand or si1
thousand feet thick below Martigny
and four thousand or five thousand
teet above the middle of the lake. Tht
essential condition for the formation
of glacier at all is that more ic;
should be produced annually than i
melted away.
Fad for Rugs.
A craze for an unlimited number o
rugs seems to have taken the place o
the Juror that once prevailed for draI