Evening star., 1936-07-25

William A. Archer, veteran Federal
plant explorer. now is on his way to make
an intensive search In the forests Of
southern Brazil. Uruguay and Paraguay
for wild cousins of the peanut.
There is a peanuts native land. 1t
was a noteworthy source Of food for the
Indians before the coming OF the Span
iardS Specimens were carried to Europe
by some of the earliest explorers and
within few centuries it had spread all
over the world. In the United States
alone, where extensive cultivation started
shortly after the Civil War. peanuts con-
stitute a $50 000, 900 annual crop.
The trouble is that there is only one
known species of peanut and 1t has been
developed about to the limit of its ca
pacities. The best hope of further prog
ress is in crossing 1t with some wild rel
ative of another species. 1t Is known
that there are several kinds Of wild pea
nuts in South America, but all may be
only varieties of the single species from
which the cultivated variety was evolved.
Archer will send back to the United
States everything he can find related to
the peanut family, in the hope that 1t
will be possible to get some new blood
into the stock, with resulting differences
in flavor, size, etc. An important char
acter sought is speedy ripening. One OF
the difficulties complained of Is that pea
nuts do not ripen all together, so that
some are on the point of sprouting while
others in the same field still are too green
to be harvested.
In some parts of the South, Depart
ment of Agriculture specialists point out.
the peanut Is more valuable as forage
crop than for its seeds. It has about the
same nutritive value as clover. 1t may
be, they think, that Archer can find some
wild peanut variety which goes In heavily
for leaves and stems, and which can be
planted for forage alone.
A weight scale which detects differ
ences as little as four 1000 600, 600 ,000,-
600, ,O00, 600, ,000. .000s of q gram, itself about
q 30th of an ounce, Is now weighing
atoms" in the University Of Chicago
physics laboratory.
This hypersensitive weighing instru-
ment has been developed by DR.. Arthur
J. Demster. It is mass spectrograph
of new type for use in the analysis OF
solid substances. Using the material to
be analyzed as an electrode. DR.. Demster
produces hot spark. Atoms from the
spark are drawn through slit and sue
cessively, in q three-quarter circle arc.
through an electric and magnetic field
and onto q Photographic plate.
Bending the paths Of the atoms by the
electrical and magnetic fields depends on
the strength of these fields and the We
locity and weight of the atoms. The
latter is interpreted from lines made on
the Photographic plate. With this equip
ment DR.. Demster has already discovered
a series of hitherto unknown isotopes, or
variant forms of elements. He has dis
covered, for example, that there are two
isotopes of silver, heavy and light silver,
differing slightly in atomic weight: The
instrument shows up five isotopes Of plat
mum and only one Of gold.
Other extremely precise measuring In
struments set up in the departments lab
oratories include one which will detect
differences of as little as q millionth OF
an inch, an engine which will rule a.
many as 5000 parallel lines to an inch,
and microphotographic apparatus BY