POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



765 



nished by the experience of the farmers set- 

 tled on the west side of the San Joaquin 

 River. For years they have tried in vain 

 to raise crops without artificial irrigation. 

 That section of the State of California is an 

 exemplification of the law thus expressed 

 by Guyot, that " when a mountain-chain op- 

 poses an horizontal wind the air is forced up 

 along the slopes, its vapors are condensed, 

 and water the side exposed to the wind, 

 while on the opposite slope the same wind 

 descends into the valley dry and cloudless." 

 The author considers very fully the operation 

 of the chief laws of meteorology as applied 

 to California in general, and to special locali- 

 ties in particular. Among the subjects dis- 

 cussed by him, we would mention the conflict 

 between polar and equatorial winds ; the in- 

 fluences of the Gulf of California ; the com- 

 parative rainlessness of the Colorado and 

 Mohave Deserts and the Tulare Valley ; the 

 rainfall in the great valleys and on' the 

 mountain-sides ; the influence of the great 

 deserts on temperature and rainfall ; why 

 the summer temperature of San Francisco 

 is so low as it is, the mean temperature of 

 summer at the Golden Gate being only 56. 



Purification of Illuminating Gas. The 

 method in common use for separating from 

 coal-gas foreign suspended matter is found- 

 ed on the principle of condensation by re- 

 duction of temperature on contact with 

 water-cooled surfaces, or with water itself. 

 But the liquid globules held in suspension 

 in the gas may be condensed by causing a 

 jet of gas to impinge upon any resisting 

 surface, as a leaf of paper, or a plate of 

 metal, and an apparatus for purifying gas 

 according to this method has been con- 

 structed by Messrs. Pelouze & Audouin. 

 The condenser of this apparatus consists 

 mainly of an outer casing with a gas inlet 

 at the lower part, and an outlet at the up- 

 per. Suspended within the casing is an 

 annular water-tank, in which is balanced a 

 miniature gas-holder, or bell, formed with 

 four circumference-plates, two of which are 

 perforated in rows with small holes, and 

 two with large holes, the latter being oppo- 

 site the blank spaces between the rows of 

 the former. The gas from the inlet passes 

 through the central space within the annu- 

 lar lank, and through the four perforated 



plates of the bell ; the tar, etc., which con- 

 dense on the non-perforated portions of the 

 surface trickle down the plates into the 

 water-tank. It has been found that if the 

 perforated bell has a capacity of 35,317 cu- 

 bic feet, it will suffice for works producing 

 3,531, *700 cubic feet per twenty-four hours, 

 or in the proportion of 1 to 100,000. 



Properties and Production of Honey. 



There was lately held in New York a con- 

 vention of bee-masters from all parts of the 

 United States, for the purpose of advancing 

 the interests of the important industry with 

 which they are identified. Among the pa- 

 pers read at this convention was one by 

 Mr. F. B. Thurber, in which the commercial 

 history of honey was given with considera- 

 ble detail. The use of honey antedates that 

 of sugar, going back many centuries before 

 the Christian era, while the general use of 

 sugar is of comparatively recent date. There 

 are evidences of the high antiquity of sugar 

 in China and India, but it appears to have 

 been only vaguely known to the Greeks and 

 Romans. The art of refining sugar was dis- 

 covered by the Venetians in the sixteenth 

 century. It is hard to say why the produc- 

 tion of honey should have fallen so far be- 

 hind the production of sugar. It is in the 

 highest degree healthful and palatable, and 

 its sources are as plentiful and as sure as 

 those of sugar. In America, within the last 

 few years, a wonderful advance has been 

 made in the production of honey, as regards 

 both quality and quantity. 



Honey differs greatly in color and con- 

 sistence. In the recent state it is fluid, but 

 on being kept it is apt to form a crystalline 

 deposit, and to be converted into a soft, 

 granular mass ; its color varies, being some- 

 times white, but usually yellowish, and oc- 

 casionally of a brown or reddish tinge. 

 When the bees are very young the honey 

 undergoes less change, and remains nearly 

 white : in this state it is called virgin honey. 

 Ordinary honey is obtained both by pressure 

 and by heat. Recently, however, a process 

 has been invented by which honey is forced 

 from the cells of the comb by centrifugal 

 force, and the combs are then restored to 

 the hives, to be again used by the bees for 

 storing their honey. When honey is ex- 

 tracted from poisonous plants, it partakes 



