The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-02-18
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

fornia. The undertaking involves the
erection of a dam across the Kern river
in Kern county, California, and a con-
struction of a line 10 convey the high
tension current TO Los Angeles. The Kern
river drains an area of some 2,345 square
miles. and a total of about 12,ooo horse
power can be obtained. A pressure of
10000 volts is proposed for transmission.
While this is exceptionally high, the dry
atmosphere and infrequent ralnfslls war
rant its adoption. The dam will form a
storage reservoir, with a volume of about
1921 10000 gallons, or the equivalent Of
1900 acre feet. Should the project be
carried out, 1t would be by far the longest
electric power transmission line in the
world.
I'm recent issue of the London Times
a description is given of the success of the
means employed in Natal, South Africa,
for the destruction of locusts when they
come in great numbers. The subject is of
interest in parts of the United States that
are at times afflicted with insect pests. A
pound of caustic coda is dissolved in four
gallons of boiling water and one pound of
arsenic is added. The mixture Is to be
stored under lock and key, being poison
GUS For use it is mixed with boiling wa
ter in the proportion of one gallon of ar
senic solution to ten of water and twenty
pounds of sugar are added. Cornstaiks
grass. ETC., are dipped in the solution and
placed along the roads and fields. Attrac-
ted by the odor of the sugar, insects eat
the poisoned material and die. Their bod
les are eaten by other locusts and the
ground becomes streWn with the dead bod
les. Cattle are said not to be injured by
eating the prepared cornstalks and grass
as too little arsenic is present to produce a
bad effect. Chickens eat the poisoned To-
Gusts without injury. One Natal farmer
is said to have cleared his farm of 200 acres
of locusts in ten days by using the arsen-
ical mixture.
"A writer in the January number of
Chambers Journal throws some interest
ing light on rare and peculiar drugs. SAT-
from, he points out, would strike an ordi-
nary observer as decidedly expensive at
$13 pound. until told that it is composed
of the central small portions only of the
flowers of a crocus, 10000 of which it takes
to yield the material for one pound. Altar
of roses sells at SIP odd per pound, and it
takes 10000 pounds-or nearly five tons
of roses to obtain one pound of the Oil.
Aconitine extracted from the root of
monkshood, is said to be the very strong
est poison extant, the dose being 1-6O0th
of grain. 1t is sold al the rate of S108
the animal world in search of rare drugs,
the writer refers to the musk of the Asiat-
ic deer, which, at $24 to $50 an ounce, must
be prize to the willy hunter. In some of
the tropical seas floating, understanding
mass of ambergris is met with, worth at
present $50 per ounce, or $3.50 per pound, in
the market. This ambergris is said to be
the diseased hillary product of the whale.
Another peculiar animal product in use as
T.
the rattlesnake, given occasionally in ma
lignant scarlet fever; while, less strong,
if, perhaps, hardly less repusive is pow
dered coclxroach which, in six-grain doses,
has been prescribed-with good effect, it is
said-for dropsy.
The ingenious experimental methods
that have proved beyond reasonable doubt
that it is gravitation that causes the
upright growth of plants are thus describ-
ed, says the Literary Digest, in a series
of articles on botany now being published
in the Pharmaceutical Era. Says that
journal: THE direction of growth of root
and stem is not a merely accidental one.
A number of investigators have been at
work to see what is the cause of this di-
ametrically opposed growth in stem and
root. 1t has been suggested that the ac-
ton of gravitation would take some part
in the guidance of the roots This is in
fact, the apparent tendency of the follow
ing experiments: Beans have been made
to terminate when placed on the circum-
ference of an iron or wooden wheel sur
rounded with moss so as to maintain the
moisture of the seeds, and holding little
troughs full of mold open on two Sides
the wheel being put in motion in a YER
teal direction by current of water, and
made to describe many revolutions in a
minute. In consequence of this rotary
movement, producing the particular force
known in mechanics as centrifugal force,
the action of gravitaton is, as it were
annihilated, and the sprouting seed, re-
moved from its influence is subjected to
centrifugal force only. See what occlSs:
The small stems which, in ordinary cir
cumstances, would be directed upward
that is to say, in a direction opposite to
the action of gravitation, now turn them
selves in the direction opposite to the d.
rection of the centrifugal force or toward
the center of the wheel The rootlets,
which, under ordinary circumstances.
would bury themselves in the earth, and
in the direction required by the laws of
gravitation, in reality now point in the di-
rection of the force which has taken the
place of gravitation. This curious exper-
iment, carried out for the first time by
j. A. Knight of England, has been repeat
ed ana modified in France by the ingen-
ious naturalist Dutrochet"
Some striking figures which have lust
been published seem to indicate that the
wonderful growth of the vast province Of
houses that We call London Is going on as
vigorously as ever. says the London Daily
News. A return just published states that
the number of houses built in London in
the twelve months ending August last was
no less than 1851. This is of course. in
the Greater London of the Registrar Cen
eral. The London of the school board con-
tanned in 1891 the vast aggregate of 557, 1874
inhabited houses, which was more than
one-tenth of all the dwelling in England
and Wales; Birmingham had 1924; Liver
pool 81 ,484, and Manchester, 100 249. But
an the Greater London of the Registrar
Generals weekly return the number of in
habtted houses was 1859, or nearly one
sixth of the houses in England and Wales.
The largest aggregate of inhabited dwell
ings next to that in the Thames valley
is that on the Irwell, where the twin
towns of Manchester and Stafford had be-
tween them 129,4 12 inhabited houses. But
London, at the present rate of growth, is
adding more to its streets and Sduares IL,