Amador ledger., 1907-11-29

Ihe possibilities OF selectlve breed
ing of plants to resist adverse condi-
tions have been almost entirely over
looked. A. f. Woods, of the United
States Bureau of Plant Industry,
points out that we lose the benefits
of destructive drought, a cold wave,
an epidemic of disease, or a crop
failure by neglecting to save the few
plants left, which might supply seed
that would give progeny having some
popularity making them prooflagainst
the cause of the general destruction.
Wllt-resistant cotton, wilt-resistant
COW peas and fax, and cow-peas and
flax resistant to nematode or root
knot have originated in this way.
Older and thickly populated regions
having been forced to save every
thing, drought-resistant durum wheats
have been developed in the dry parts
OF Russia and Asia and around the
Mediterranean, drought-resistant al.
falfas and other forage crops in the
same region, cold-resistant alfalfa in
Siberia, cold-resistant winter wheats
in Russia and other special crops
We may, have like good things with
out waiting for the stress of necess-
ity. The coldresisting quality of
the trifoliate inedihle orange can be
combined with the fruit qualities of
the tender sweet orange; the disease
resistant quality of the citron with
the fruit quality of the edible melons;
the rust-resistant quality of the
durum wheat with the berry of the
blue stem; the cold-resistance of the
wild crab with fruit of our finer
apples, and so on.
While cannon firing for breaking
up hail clouds has proven a failure,
Slgnor Moggiora, an Italian, believes
1t would disperse fog. He attributes
the persistence of London's fog to
stagnation of the air, aud concludes
that six air cannons or projectors
within a radius of six miles from
Westminster would dissipate the
heaviest fog in twenty minutes. The
cost OF ten projectors would be about
SIS, 600; the expense of discharging
them, very slight.
Calcium being now a commercial
product, its possibilities we're con-
sidered in British Association
paper by Arthur sE. Pratt. 1t is a
volatile, silvery white metal. about
as hard as aluminium, melting at 800
g., having specific gravity of only
l.52. fairly malleabIe. and a good
conductor of electricity. It's useful
applications will probably depend
chiefly upon its powerful action as
reducing agent and in the refining of
metals. 1t refnes impure metals
like copper, giving solid castings, by
reducing oxides and sulphides, by
eliminating dissolved gases, and by
uniting with certain impurities to
form less deleterious compounds; but
in excess the calcium itself causes
brittIeness. In alloys, the only pro-
mise of calcium seems to depend up
on its hardening property and its
effect in giving increased chemical
activity
The problem of utilizing the vast
accommodations of dust from tie
screening of coal has been solved by
a French chemist by mixing the fine
coal with beetroot pulp and resin,
and forming into briquettes. The
fuel thus prepared burns freely with
out milling, giving intense heat
with practically no smoke. The beet
root pulp is the waste from the manu-
facture of beet sugar, and hitherto
has been practically useless. This
invention offers another promising
method of lengthening out the con-
tinuance of our fuel supply.
The work of orators and singers has
been found by DR.. Marage. of Paris,
to vary greatly with the pitch of the
voice. The bass voice is at a great
disadvantage, and in the same hall it
requires seventeen to eighteen times
as much work as the baritone or
tenor voice to give the same impress
sion. Powerful deep-voiced men are
more fatigued by the same oratorical
or musical performance than more
delicate men with voices of higher
pitch, or than women and children.
= Two new meteorological instru-
ments, the invention of Prof. de
CULLEN Garcia of Barcelona, give
promise of usefulness in countries,