Amador ledger., 1907-10-25

Soil surveys we bogIn in the
United States in 1879, and by June
80, 1906, according to j. A. Bonsteel,
an aggregate of lis, 6s6 square miles,
OF IS, 959, 865 acres, had been mapped
in 43 states and four territories,
this being about one twenty fifth of
the whole country and little less
than one tenth of the land actually
in farms. Tho field work of survey
consist IN determining the texture,
structure, quantity and distribution of
organic matter, internal natural
drainage and topographic relief of
the soils. Closely similar areas are
classed in the same soil type, several
types differing only in texture or
degree of coarseness or fneness from
series, and several series of similar
origin and climatic and other condi-
tions constitute a province. AT present
ID great soil provinces, 81 soil series,
and 461 soil types have been recog
nized. The Norfolk sand, warm,
porous soil adapted to truck crops,
has been mapped over 2660 square
miles in 81 areas of Ii Eastern States !;
and the Marshall silt loan, nearly
all specially suitable for corn, has
been mapped over CLIPS square miles
of q areas in 9 States-a great area
hoinO still
A new intoxication menacing
society has been brought to notice
through DR.. McKendrick of the Uni
versity- of Glasgow. Car bon tetrack-
lorde, oolorless, non-infammable
liquid differing but slightly from
chloroform in composition and hav-
ing similar anaesthetic effect. is a
safe clothes-cleaning material, and CT
late has been used as ''dry sham
poo" Its danger has been made
known by lady who struggled to
keep consciousness under the sham
poo. The hairdresser affirmed that
the effects are liked, and a carbon
tetrachloride habit seems to be de-
veloping.
An estimate of-March and November
bird-food near Washington has shown
l,2l6, $50 animal objects, aud 2, 107,
$40 seeds per acre in forest, and b.
654, 10 animals and IS, 800, 745 seed
nor aora in maadouc
One of the strangest as we'll as most
costly articles of commerce is snake
venom, for which there is growing
demand in medicine and other
branches of science. The supply
comes from Australia, and a recent
Sydney quotation placed the market
price at 20 to % shillings per grain,
or about $50, 000 per pound troy, no
attempt seeming to have been made
hitherto to distinguish between the
poison of snakes whose bite is usual
ly fatal and that from reptiles that
seldom kill. DR.. Tidewell, of the
New South Wales Health Depart
ment, states that the venoms are now
bsing classified. Laboratory expert
ments place the tiger snake venom
first, as it is IL times as deadly as
that of the black snake and toul
times as powerful as that from the
brown snake or the death adder. Ii
average yield at bite, the death-ad
der supplies three times as much al
the tiger snake and IL times as much
as the brown snake. So far tn,
snakes have been mostly captured by
hand, to avoid loss of poison, and, a
even greater personal risk, have beer
held in the hand while being enragsd
and made to bite through a rubber
ban1, ejecting upon a glass plate tht
venom from the two poison faugs in
the upper jaw. Each snake has sup
piled the. material from one bite
averaging about a grain. A nev
discovery is that the supply in tn,
fangs Is renewed, and in the future
snakes farmers may milk thu poison
from we'll kept reptiles every tw,
days for an indefinite period.
A serious risk of tuberculosis from
pet birds is alledged by DR.. Tucker
Wise of Montreux, who records 3,
cases of apparent infection, will
other evidence from m.nent physi
clans. The life Of Gagged birds Iik
canaries, pigeons and parrots-es
pecially fa7ors tuubercuIous disease
and the fluttering of their wings ant
the action of flies readily convey in
lection to the family. AS 4O0,O0
canary birds are sold in England
yearly, the influence upon publ
health is believed to be Important
Ants have been proven SO sensitiv
to temperture, in late experiment
of 0. Z. Silverlock, that they detect
ed change of u thirtieth of degre
centigrade. He thinks ultra viole
rays, which they avoid, appear t
them as a color unknown to huma
beings.
The "Sylphon Regitherm" of "
NJ. Fulton, of Knoxville, Tenn, is
novel kind of heat moter, which ey
pands and collapses through severe
inches, and is claimed to control til
heat from furnace moro ettectivel
than any electric thermostat. Will