The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1895-09-26
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.


Georgia has Sc, 1853 factory hands, |
who make annually Sos, 9l7,020 worth |
Of goods.
The amount of bituminous coal
mined in the United States in 1891 was
1921, 721 long tons, and its value was
i7,lo6, 4S3
"A new solar physics observatory is
to be erected in India at Kodaikanal.
in the Palani hills, 800 miles south of
Madras. 1t will photograph the sun
daily and will undertake a systematic
speetroscopic examination of the sun.
Inc temperature of the station IS very
even and the number of cloudless hours
each day unusually great.
Sir John Lubbock has recently
made some studies of the alimentary
habits of spiders Selected specimens
were weighed before and after full
meal, with the result of learning that
il man We're to absorb the quantity
Of flood proportionate to his weight
consumed by spider he would devour
two whole oxen, thirteen sheep,
dozen hogs and four barrels of fish.
Prof. Wiley says that "one of the
grandest discoveries of modern science
is the agency of the microbes in en-
abling plants to absorb from the air
the nitrogen which is the chief factor
of their growth. The theory was first
suggested by Pasteur, and it is thought
r. fully confirmed by the researches
of Independent investigators If it
does not deceive expectation it will
completely revolutionize agriculture.
To increase the growth of plants it
will only be necessary to feed their
roots with water containing the proper
microbes.
The salmon run in the Fraser and
Columbia ivers this season has been
excellent, and it is declared by the
oldest fishermen on the rivers that the
quality of the fish was never so fine,
The weight OF the salmon is increasing
yearly and this year averages fully
twenty-eight pounds per salmon. Buy
ers and distributors say that a large
proportion of the public of this CONT
nent have only recently begun to be
consumers of canned salmon, a result
ascribed to the recent innovation OF
packing perfect steaks of the fish in
oval cans. About one hundred thou
sand cases of Columbia river salmon
| have been bought for the British isles
this season, as against thirty thousand
cases last year.
Nature is doing for California vine
yardists what they long and fruitleSsly
tried to do Tor themselves. 1t is re
ported from many localities that the
phylloxera, the most serious pest thai
has ever attacked the vines. is dying
out. The experts have tried every
remedy to stay the progress of thi
pest, but without avail, and six year
ago the vineyardists of the Sonom;
and Napa valleys plowed up all thei
vines and replanted the ground will
resistant stock. The experts believed
that all noN-resistant vines wer
E doomed to destruction by the phylloX
era. Bat reports have recently com
to the state inspector of orchard pest
that materia! falling off in the raw
e aJes of the pest has been noticed 70
: ,ssA K lme. Vines once affected by
ara now almost free. The inspecto
5 has begun thorough investigation @
ths pleasing phenomena. He think
e some natural enemy of the pest ha
II appeared or that some deadly diseas
has attacked the phylloxera and is e>
e terminating it Whatever is the cause
q the result will mean great gain for tn
u yinevardistS