Amador ledger. (Jackson, Amador County, Calif.) 1875-19??, 1907-09-06

The Telephone and the Hear ing.
The best natural conditions for
plant growth are being artiHciaIly
supplied in one of the greenhouses of
the British Royal Botanic Gardens,
and practical method for quicken
ing the production of fruit and
flowers is expected to result. On
cloudy days an artificial sun, in the
form of water-surrounded arc-lamp
automatically moved along a tram
way, sends light in the natural way
to every part of the plants. Earthen-
ware pipes from the engine ditfuse a
carefully regulated supply of moist
air charged with carbonic acid, iron
pipes distribute heat to keep up the
best temperature, and an electrostatic
machine stimulates the soil to con-
vert insoluble into soluble nitrates
and arouses the roots to the highest
degree of activity.
In the search for new plants of
utility, attention has been drawn to
the karite tree of French West Africa
and the adjacent territory to the east
ward. This is not forest tree, but
grows in open spaces and in gardens.
Its fruit is edible. The hard -shelled
seeds contain fatty substance used
by the natives as butter, and it is
suggested that this substance should
be valuable for other purposes. The
gum-Dot like rubber-into which the
sap coagulates is another article of
possible commercial value.
A hard coke. with about the heat
ing value of coal, and half formed
coke, soft and burning freely, are
made by .distilling peat at Bodkino,
Russia, % or 80 tons each being pro-
duced daily by eight furnaces. Hav-
ing little sulphur, the fuels have an
advantage for iron-making. The
gases distilled off are burned in the
furnaces, and the tar and ammoniacaI
by-products are valuable.
The lightning dust manipulation"
now being made experimentalIy in
London is designed to give a method
of disposing of house refuse more
satisfactory than that of burning.
The machine disintegrates aud pull
verizes the heterogeneous mass of
vegetable waste, cinders, broken
glass, paper and other matter. and
mixes it with fine loan, the product
being a black mold that forms
highly fertilizIng manure, quite
odorless and unobJectionabIe to eye
OF nostril and in no way injurious to
health. -Four special-steeI swing
hammers, each weighing over fifty
pounds, are an essential feature Ut
the machine. These revolye in
small compartment 125O times per
minute, the material dumped into the
hoppers being pounded with 5000
heavy blows each minute, and every
thing is crushed and pulveriZed eX-
cept such materials as pieces of steel
or wrough iron, which are auto
maticalIy thrown out by special con-
tIivance. While the manure frum
two electrically driven manipuIators
at Southwark does not yet pay the
expense, 1t is believed that expert
ence will make this convenient system
of waste removal seIt-suppoIting or
nearly so.
On King Island, formerly a barren
sand-heap rising above the sea be-
tween Tasmania and Australia, ac-
cident has given suggestive lesson
in the use of certain grasses for re-
claiming arid wastes. a few years
ago shipwreck cast on shore some
mattresses stuffed with yellow flower
ed clover, and few seeds took root,
causing large areasto become since
covered with rich verdure. The
power of clover and other Ieguminous
plants to faItilize poor soil, through
their nitrogen sorbing bacteria, is
we'll known.
Late experiments have suggested
that warts are due either to an ultra
microscopic germ or soluble toxin.
Healthy tissue 1DocuIated with blood
from wart has developed a growth
of new warts. No cultures have
been obtained.
Hay fever varies in different indi-
viduals, according to late researches
by DR.. ID. b. Kyle, and has more
than one cause. In at least sixty per
cent of his cases, The irritation has
been due to chemical alteration of
the secretions OF the lining membrane
of the nasal: passages. He finds that
| ~ non-irritating secretions may be-
come irritating on coming to the sur
face; ~ seoretlons may be irritating
without change; and 80 the secretion
may be made irritating by contact
with some eXtraneous substance. The
variations give ragweed fever, lose
cold, etc. Nasal obstruction or low
cred vitality may increase the
trouble. Treatment depends upon
whether the condition is acid, aka
line or inert or neutral; on whether
it Is due to ammonium salts, the