Frederick citizen., 1895-01-11

:. Nursey at 5000. 900 acres, having all
average depth of IL feet, and being cap
able of yielding $500 tons of dried peat
per acre. In Ireland are 2,S30,000
acres. or nearly one-seventh of the en-
lire area of the island. More than one
half of the Irish peat is of the best quail
ity, aud. reckoned at one-sixth the val
ue of coal, the total supply in Ireland
is thought to be equivalent to 470,000,-
900 tons of COAL Here is vast store
of energy, points out Mr.. J. Munro,
which, like the power of Niagara, may
be converted into electricity and appli-
ed to many industries = especially
those of manufacturing various posi-
BILE products from the peat itself-in
factories established near the bogs.
Neighboring towns, moreover, could
be Ii GIFTED from the dismal moors, and
railways worked.
Recent experiments has shown that,
contrary to general belief, the coagu-
lation of the albuminous substances in
food by heat does not decrease the di-
gestiblity. 1t is only when the heat
lug has been sufficient to cause more or
less complete decomposition, indicated
by browning, that cooked foods are
made less dlgestible than the raw.
This change results from cooking at
much beyond the temperature of steam,
and is pretty certain to reduce some-
what the digestibility and nutritive eff
feet
The cutting of a complete ring from
precious stone is a lapidary feat not
often attempted. In the Marlborough
collection in England is ring cut in
a sapphire of great beauty; and NJ. An
tome, jeweler of Anvers, has just sue
ceeded, after three years of patient
trial and many failures, in cutting a
perfect, circular ring, three-fourths of
an inch in diameter, from a diamond.
A new application of electro plating
is the sealing of cans of fruit and meat,
and of bottles of wine and chemicals.
The canals of Mars, says the editor OF
Popular Science Ne1Us, start out from
great numbers of central points suppps-
ed until lately to be lakes or ponds,
aud they form complete web of tri-
angles all over the arid parts of the
planet. They are as straight as COM
pass or theOdolite could make them.
They vary in width from about Is to
200 miles, and in length from 300 miles
to one-third the entire circumference OF
the planet. They do not shift around
from region TO region, the Nilosyrtis,
first observed nearly one hundred
wears ago, still occupying its original
place. The great triangles are in all
probability either water or vegetation.
Until lately the supposition was that
they were water, but the theory OF
floods is inconsistent with their straight
and orderly arrangement, While ltey
are too vast and useless 10 be canals
made by human beings. They change
their appearance with the seasons, eX-
actly as they should do if they repre-
sent land reclaimed by irrigation from
the surrounding deserts. The perfect
symmetry could be due to the survey
ed fields along an irrigating canal, and
if we assume that the common centres
to which they converge are oases due
to artesian wells, we need not suppose
that there are any serious or immense
floods on Mars No other hypothesis
meets the facts so well. AT times the
regions of the so-called canals shine out
as desert land, and at about the times
of the equinoXes both canals and
the lakes part in the middle and
become double, and at the same time
spreading farther out in the desert, and
this is just what would occur if the
early crops, needing water first in the
season, were planted along a central
strip near the irrigation canal or wells,
while the late crops were placed on the
outside. The year of Mars being twice
the length of our own, this should oc-
cur twice 3 year, as it does.
Burmese amber, or Burmite, as DIR.
Helm, of Dantzic, proposes to call it,
proves to be totally different from ordi-
nary amber and all other fossil resins.
1t is a little harder than amber proper
is easily cut, and takes an excellent
lolish, but has less variety of color, and
contains no succinIc acid 1t is re-
markable for its strong tiuoreseuce. 1t
is found in the Hukong valley, which
is nearly surrounded by high noun
tlins, and until two or three wears ago
had been visited by only two Europe
ans. The material has been used for
centuries by the Burmese, its cutting
being a considerable industry in Man
dalay.
Though nitrogen forms about four
iifths Cf the atmosphere, and consti-
tutes about Is per cent. of the tissues
"f the body, the exact manner in
which 1t is supplied to us has been a
very perplexing question. A certain
quantity of the inert element is sup
p ,sed to he extracted yearly from the
atmosphere for plant food by the nat
ural process known as "nitrification."
The nature of this process has occupied
the attention of many chemists, and
many theories-porous bodies, catal.
Asis,, electricity, bacteria, etc.-have
been advanced to explain it. DR..
Il. l.. Phipson has been led by
his recent researches into the orr
gin of the atmosphere to conclude
that nitrification simply consists in
the oxidation of ammonia He finds
that no one has seemed to realize
that the process is universal-going on
everywhere the reason that it is
only where rain is scarce that the result
ant nitrates are easily discovered, as in
parts of India, Peru, Egypt, Arabia,
China, Persia, Kentucky, France, etc.
Liebig and many Others have believed
that the nitrogenous principles of
plants are derived directly and chiefly
from ammonia. DR.. Phipson, however,
has convinced himself that the ammo
llia must he converted into nitric acid