The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1898-01-21


But still, that violet tapping at his feet
An English lad had he sat down to read
But ne arose and knew himself
-Lizette Wordsworth Reese in IA Quiet
Road"
About Crmphor.
Notwithstanding the comparatively
narrow limit of it's natural environment,
the camphor tree grows well in cult
vation under widely different conditions
1t has become abundantly naturalized in
Madagascar. 1t fourishes at Buenos
Ayres. 1t thrives in Egypt. in the Canary
islands, in southeastern France and in
the San Joaquin valley in California,
where the summers arc hot and dry.
Large trees, at least 200 years old. are
growing in the temple courts at Toxic.
where they are subject to winter of
seventy to eighty nights of frost, with an
occasional minimum temperature as low
as II degrees to 16 degrees Fahrenheit.
The conditions for really successful Gull
tlvatlon appear to be a minimum winter
temperature not below 20 degrees Fab
renheit, fifty inches or more of rain dur
ing the warm growing season, and
abundance of plant food, rich in nitrogen.
In the native forests in FOrmosa, Fukien
and Japan camphor is distilled almost
exclusively from the wood Of the trunks,
roots and larger branches.
The work is performed by hand labor.
and the methods employed seem rather
crude. The camphor trees are felled.
and the trunks, larger limbs and some
are placed in a wooden tub about forty
inches high and twenty inches in d.
ameter at the base, tapering toward the
top like an old fashioned churn. The
tub has tight-ftting cover. which NAV
be removed to put in the chips. A bam-
boo tube extends from near the ton of
the tub to the condenser This consists
of two wooden tubs of different sizes,
the larger one right side up, kept about
two-thirds full of water from a continu-
Gus stream which runs out of hole in
one side. The smaller one is inverted
with its edges below the water, forming
an alright chamber.
This air chamber is kept cool by the
water falling on the top and rnnnihz
down over the sides. The upper part Of
the air chamber is sometimes filled with
clean rice straw. on which the camDhor
crystallizes, while the oil drips down and
collects on the surface of the water In
some cases the camphor and oil are al
lowed to collect together on the surface
of the water, and are afterward sepa-
rated by filtration through rice straw or
by pressure. About twelve hours are re-
qulred for distilling a tubful by this
method. Then the chips are removed and
drled TOT use IN the furnace. and new
change is put in. At the same time the
camphor and oil are removed from the
condenser BY this method twenty to
forty pounds of chips are required for
one pound of crude camphor.
A Gigantic Nest
The malice hen of Australia laws it's
eggs IN a huge nest. The nest is really
an artificial mound of gigantic proper
tons for the size of its maker. and the
purpose it is to serve. This artificial
mound is cooperation incubator. 1t is
built by many pairs of birds. male and
female working alike to construct it.
These same pairs or flocks of birds an
nually repair and enlarge the queer look
ing cone which rises up like turret dome
from the level prairie.
Sometimes these tunnels attain height
OF fully fifteen feet in the perpendicular,
with radius Of equal measurement.
Many of these nests have measured as
much as fifty yards or $50 feet, around
one measured a diameter of abou: fifty
feet. These mound nests are entered
through sort of funnel cavity at the top
of the cone.
The hens of all the building and repair
ing pairs lay in this immense nest. TIE
eggs are deposited about six feet below
the surface. While each hen lays her egg
III the family mound. no hen drops her
egg closer than twenty inches to that of
her nelghbor. These eggs are deposited
in cavity made for it, wherein it is
placed in vertical position, carefully
smoothed over by the hen before she quits
the nest. Contrary to the usual practice
of the bird and fowl species. these malice
hens lay at night instead of in the day.
Several days elapse also between the
dropping of two eggs by the same hen
The eggs of the malice hen are ont Of
all proportion to her size. They are as
large as those of goose, and of large
hens, are very much larger.
The eggs thus laid and covered in this
never again disturbed by the hens The
eggs are Matched by the heat the sun
bakes into the soil where they lay. 1t
has never been known how the young
chicks are eNcayated from theiregg grave,
for the eggs are deposited fully six inches
below the surface. and the hardening
rains do not aid their exit very much.
The hen is so very shy and vigilant
that no one is able to study her maternal
and domestic habits with satisfaction
AS she lays her egg at night and trans
acts most of her affairs in the night
watch so that no naturalist or curious in
dividual can ferret her out. possibly she
steals to her expected brood under cover
of night also, and gives them the parental
unearthing which they must surely need
after. the piping of the egg shell.
Bush naturafists have been curious to
know how this peculiar fowl builds that
nest. The birds have been seen working
at it, and the mounds have been inspect
ed, but the piling of the dirt is not from
the immediate vicinity, for that is undis-
turbed. Small springs and the like enter
into the plastic masonry, which stands
storms and heavy rains, when they do
fall, without serious injury.
These huge cones stand for years, to be
annually nestled in by the same flock
which originally constructed the family
incubator. When detected the hens emit
Il pitiful little cackle, and flutter away
like a wounded innocent. The young of
Il covey either root under the sand or
hide behind some mound or object of
friendly color.-Cleveland Leader.