YoL. T. No. 4. 



THE L\GT?ICULTURAL NEWS. 



61 



SCIENCE NOTES. 



RECENT REPORT. 



Till' Decay III' 'riinhfr anil iitftli'ith of prfiviithig it. Btj 

 Heriiianii Von St'lireiik, Wanhin'jtnn. (J'/oi'niiii"ut I'liiitnij 

 Office, I'Jit:. 



This bulletin, ivjoiitly iss led hy the l}:ire.iu of I'lant 

 Industry of the United States Department of Aj;ricultiire 

 contains an admirable and concise account of the structure of 

 timber, the factors which c^iuse decay of wood, and the 

 various impregnating methods which liave been devised to 

 arrest decay. It is ilhistrated by a large number of [ilates 

 and figures in the text, and the subject is dealt with in a very 

 oleai' and readable manner. 



The gr.idual decay of timber is due to the ravages of 

 fungi and liacteria, and as these organisms require water and 

 ixir for their develoimient, decay is nuicli more rajiid where 

 both these conditions (moisture and air) are jiresent to a sutK- 

 cient extent. The general jirincijile involved in the preservation 

 of timber is to impregnate it with some antiseiitic substance 

 like zinc chloride or creosote, which prevents the growth of 

 fungi and bacteria. The life of timber is very greatly 

 lengthened by tliess jirocesses, and the results more than 

 justify the cost of the process. To civil engineers and others 

 interested in this important (jncstion we recommend this 

 bulletin as giving an n|i to datearcuunt of timber (ireservation. 



Birds and Fruit. 



The t'liliowing intei-esting note on this sul)joet is 

 quott'd by th(> Ai/i-iiult iirtil Jnnniiil, Caj)c of (iood 

 Hope fr<»ni the Tcj-as Stork Joarnal: — 



I. learned a trick while in the Philippines in the niatler 

 of keeping birds out of fruit trees,' volunteered a well-kmnvn 

 official of the Department to a Washington Star repoiter, 

 which may be of value to many just now, when so many 

 cherries are being destroyed by liirds. It is simple, inex- 

 pensive, and, as far as 1 coidd observe, practical. It consists 

 in hanging a small mirror on the toji limbs of the tree. There 

 should be at least six inches of string to the mirror, so tiiat 

 it can swing about as it is blown by the wind. The Hash of 

 the mirroi-, it apjiears, scares the birds away. One or two 

 five-cent mirrt)rs hung on a tree is sufiicient, though, of 

 course, three oi' four would be much better. 1 was told 

 that this method had worked in the Philippines successfully 

 for many years, and that the birds do not grow famil- 

 iar with it as they do with a scai'ecrow. Since my 

 return here I find that the mirror scare is not unknown 

 here, and that it has l>een in use l)y Michigan fruit growers 

 for many years. J have tried it myself in a small way, 

 and it is amusing what a stir it creates anionjr the bii-ds. 



Young palm leaves. The manner in which some 

 young iialm leaves open is very interesting. In the common 

 I'abVwge jialm, for instance, the young leaf looks like a green 

 stick pointing vertically to the sky. After a time it begins to 

 open at the toji. This rolling up of the young leaf is a device 

 on the [lart of the palm to iirevent the drying up of the 

 tender tissues of the leaf before they liave developed a thick 

 protective covering. 



Fever in Plants. 



Although animals and [ilants seem, at first sight, to be 

 two absolutely distinct groups, and to have little in common, 

 closer investigation points unmistakably to the fact that they 

 they are vei-y similar and very closely related to one another. 

 Further, many organisms are known which it is imi>ossible to 

 class, with cert^iinty, as plants or animal.s. Let us confine our 

 attention, for the minnent, to one of the ordinarily recognized 

 signs of life, namely breathing or respiration. Both animal.s 

 and plants bre;ithe. In both oxygen is taken in from the air, 

 anfl after certain changes carbon dioxide is given out. Thi.s 

 process it is true is masked in green plants, during exposure 

 to sunlight by another juocess in which carbon dioxide is 

 taken in and oxygen given out. It goes on however in a 

 plant as steadily as in an animal and there is no essential 

 ditterence between the I'espiration of man and the humblest 

 vegetable he cultivates. 



In man it is not uncommon to find that when the health 

 is affected his. temperature rises, in other words he becomes 

 feverish. At the .same time the rate of breathing is often 

 increased. Is this true of plants a-lso ? Can we throw a 

 jiotato or an onion into a fever? The idea seems absurd. 

 Yet it is an ascertained fact. It was shown by Mr. H. if. 

 Richards (Annah of Botany, Vol xi., j). 30,) that if potat ^s 

 or onions were sliced, — that is to say wounded — their 

 temperature rose, and their breathing became more vigorous 

 They exhibited in fact tM'o of the characteristic symptoms of 

 a feverish person. The rise of temperature wa.s carefully 

 ineasui'ed ; in some cases it was as much as 3" C. The course 

 of the fever was followed, and was found to reach its 

 height usually aliout 24 hours after the injury, the tempera- 

 ture then began to fall and reached the normal again on the 

 foiu'th or fifth day. Exiieriments such as these help to bring 

 home to one in a striking manner the fundamental relation- 

 ship lietween animals and [ilants. 



Experimental Potato Culture. 



Experiments with [lotatos extending over a long period 

 of years show the advantages of using sprouted potatas for 

 seed to be, an increased total yiekl, increased earliness, lai-ger 

 starch content, and a more vigorous growth of the vines. 

 Planting tuliers in rows 2 feet apart and 1 foot distant in tho 

 row gave better results than greater distances, it increased 

 the yield and hastened the maturity of the crop, tho tubers 

 weie lietter formed and richer in starch. .Vverage sized 

 whole tuljers used for seed gave better returns than large or 

 small sized whole tubers. Small seeds, while possessing great 

 vigour of reiiroduction, tends to the production of small 

 tubers. Pieces weighing on an average 4 oz. and carrying 

 two eyes were better for seed than whole tubers of the samo 

 weight. The advisability of cutting seed tubers largely 

 hinges on the variety to be planted. The above should be 

 understood to apply to English, not sweet, potatos. 



The Soufriere Bird. One of the chief objects of 

 interest to the visitor of the crater of the now famous 

 Soufriere at St. Vincent was the )nysterious Soufriere bird 

 ( Mi/iadcstes sibilans) specimens of which were secured by Mr. 

 F. A. Obers some years ago for the Smithsonian Institution 

 at Washington. It is hoped that this bird is to be found on 

 some of the other mountains in St. Vincent and ha.s escaped 

 desti'uction by the recent ei-uption. 



