NATURE .VOTES 191 



the light now obtained with one half the present expenditure of power. 

 [World's Work, March). 



Mining Sulphur by Hot Water. Louisiana has large sulphur beds 

 deposited under a most difficult quicksand. Formerly these could only be 

 worked at an enormous expense by freezing the quicksand or sinking a 

 metal-lined shaft. The problem of recovering this sulphur at a reasonable 

 cost has been solved. Through a ten inch pipe, hot water at a temperature 

 of 240 ° F. is sent down to the sulphur beds; through a second pipe within 

 the main one, the liquid sulphur, melted by the hot water, is pushed up 

 partly by the weight of descending water and partly by compressed air. As 

 one thousand tons of sulphur may now be obtained in one day by this process 

 Louisiana has become a formidable rival to Sicily in the sulphur industry. 

 (March Forum). 



Pulp-WOOd. According to statistics collected by the U. S. Forest 

 Service, in the manufacture of pulp for paper 232 mills used over 3,000,000 

 cords of wood in 1905, chiefly spruce, poplar, hemlock and pine. There 

 has been an increase of over 50 per cent in the last six years. Evidently the 

 pulp industry is a great drain on American forests. 



Wood in Box-Making. In 1905 less than 300 box factories in New 

 England used over 600 million feet of lumber, (in round numbers 490 

 million white pine, 60 million spruce, 25 million hemlock, and all other 

 woods 25 million). The value of the rough lumber delivered at the 

 factories was nearly $9,000,000. (From Press Bulletin of U. S. Forest 

 Service). 



Aigrettes Unlawful. According to a recent decision of the Court of 

 Appeals, State of New York, it is unlawful to have in possession the dead 

 bodies of certain birds, similar to New York species, even though received 

 from Europe. The President of the Nationa'. Association of Audubon Socie- 

 ties points out that selling or having in possession the plumage of herons, sold 

 under the trade name of "aigrettes" is unlawful under this decision support- 

 ing the constitutionality of the law. For the full decision of the Court see 

 Bird Lore, Vol. 8, p. 74, April, 1906. % 



Cabbage Hair-Worm. This animal, also called cabbage snake, was 

 found in heads of cabbage in various states two years ago, and wild rumors 

 of its deadlv poisonous nature were circulated by the ever irresponsible yellow- 

 newspapers and caused great public alarm and great loss to the growers of 

 cabbage. Circular 62 of the Bureau of Entomology states that the worm is 

 entirely harmless and not a trace of poison can be detected by the most 

 careful experimenters. It is a true hair-worm, closely related to the famous 

 horse-hair worm (Gordius. ) Its size is about that of a No. 40 thread and 



