The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-09-18
BOTANICAL WONDERS.
Electric Vine Gives Light-Egg on
 Egg Plant.

From the Philadelphia North American.
 William Kronenberg, an eccentric scien- tlst, living in the mountains near here is making experiments with a new variety of a tree that he calls the electric light plant.
 Noticing the phosphorescent light to be found around decaying tree stumps. he
 conceived the idea of utilizing 1t for tho
 benefit of mankind. Planting an ordinary
 wild grape vine at several stumps, he was
 gratified, after several years of cultiva-
 ton, to see the fruit emit a rich white glow
 Mir Kronenberg has one plant which
 gives off sufficient light to read by, and
 he is wiring his log cabin with the grape
 vine. He says that if he can develop
 the electric light plant sufficient 1t will
 come into general use on account of its cheapness and safety.
 Few egg plants are being shipped from
 this point for the very good reason that
 the local supply exceeds the demand. It
 is not the ordinary egg plant that Is raised
 here, but plant that furnishes the real article
 Perhaps the best liked vine is the Plym-
 outh Rock egg plant, which bears large, brown eggs full of albumen.
 The eggs from this plant grow in clus- ters of nine and are gathered early in the
 evening. When fried they cannot be told from the product of the hen, and on every lunch counter in this vicinity the hard | boiled product of the egg plant is seen. These eggs trun bad quickly, and they are very susceptible to excessive heat. During the recent hot spell thousands of dozens were ruined in the fields by being poached before they were ripe. Capt. Paul Edmunds' prediction has been verified. and the farmers in this vi- c;nity are much exercised as to the fu- ture of thelI crops.
 The Captain died many years ago, when the oyster industry was yet in It's in- fancy, and he declared that If folks per sisted ir scattering the shells over the fields instead of making good roads out of them seipe calamity would occur It was nonced this season that the land which, for decades. has been fertlized with burnt oyster shells raised crops of
 oyster plants only. Farmers who planted
 corn nni oyster plant growing in the
 rows; those who planted beans are reap ing oyster plants. Even the potatoes are shaped like oyster and the melons have a fishy taste.
 Star fish, the enemy of the bivalve, will be used to destroy the oyster mlcroDe. Thousands of acres of wild mountain
 land are new being planted with plgweed, and options have been obtained on thous- ands more by several capitalists who see vast fortunes in this heretofore consid-
 cred worthless plant.
 Chemists who have analysed the pig weed, so named because of the fondness of porkers for 1t, announce that 1t con- tains the elements which add fat to hogs. and a process has been devised to extract
 the cells and concentrate them into the finest of lard.
 building has been erected near here. and machinery is being installed to carry
 on the process of refining the pig-weed
 on a large scale.
 While the process has been kept secret
 the gerat pork packers of Chicago have got an inkling of the matter, and agents are here trying to buy the rights from | the inventors. The packers fear that | their industry will be ruined if pig-weed | lard comes into general use. for accord | ing to the claims of the men interested. i 1t can be put on the market at cost not ! exceeding A cents pound