Evening star., 1937-06-05

The periodical cicada-the same IT.
year locust whose police-siren music
filled Washington nights last June-is
abroad again and in enormous numbers
This time, however, it is the 13-yeaI
locust and it is emerging over wide area
from Southern Indiana and Illinois to
Southern Mississippi and Louisiana. It
is brood %, one of the largest Of the
30 known broods in the United States
one of which comes out Of the ground
almost every year somewhere.
The emergence of the cicada remains
one of the strangest Of life phenomena
It spends most Of its nfe-13 years IN the
South and II years in the North-suck-
ing at the rootlets Of tree or shrub
according to j. E. Hyslop, In charge OF
the Insect Pest Survey Of the Bureau
of Entomology. Then it crawls upward
and lives for about month IN the
sunlight.
Shortly after it gets out OF the soil 1t
shakes off it's shell and appears as
small strange looking milk-white crea-
ture with red eyes. The body soon hard
ems and turns black and the four almost
transparent wings unfold. Near the
outer end OF the front wing is very
distinct black wv" This has naturally
given rise to the superstition to the
emergence OF the cicada as an omen OF
war. Early in June the adults start to
die-f1rst the males and then the females
and the ground in Uttered with their
wings and dismembered bodies. In
Vulnerable larvae, Matching from the
eggs, fall to the ground, burrow down
and attach themselves to a rootlet, and
then wait for another 13 or II years.
Some Of these broods are known to
have emerged with almost clocklike
precision for more than 100 years. There
are such records for brood 10, which
appeared around Washington last year.
The survival of the species Is made
possible only by the enormous numbers.
It Is helpless creature with no defense
against the birds which feed upon 1t.
Consequently the mortality rate is enor-
NOUS There must be more insects than
the birds can eat. Some Of the broods,
entomologists believe, have been entirely
wiped out by these attacks.
A new method of aging brandy in six
days by treating 1t with minutely pow
dered silver has been developed by De-
partment of Agriculture chemists. The
process, which consist in passing the
brandy through silver ster1l1zer, was
invented by E. Arthur Beavens, Harry E.
Gorealine and E. K. Nelson OF the
Bureau of Chemistry and Soils. In the
quick-aging procedure, they say, va
nillalike aroma is produced and most OF
the raw alcohol flavor is lost.
The quick aging of alcohol beverages,
says the announcement Of the discovery
issued by the American Chemical So
ciety, has engaged scientific workers
all over the world. The shortening OF
the time necessary for the aging process
has many economic aspects, since the
holding OF large quantities Of liquor In
storage is often a financial burden and
loss due to leakage and evaporation Is
likely to be serious"
Raw apple brandy drawn directly from
a commercial still was given the silver
treatment and compared after six days
to a control sample from the same
source. The latter had not changed
while the treated sample had a more
mellow flavor and q pleasing aroma.
Chemical analysis showed that there
had been little, II any, change In any
of the known fiavoring elements in the
liquor. Whatever change takes place
must be too small to be detected by
chemical means, or effect some constit-
uent not included in the analysis.
A regiment Of toads will form part Of
Uncle SamS defenses Of his remotest