Dec. 1884.] EDITORIAL NOTES. 83 



Editorial Motes. 



The English Land -Makket. — Mr. Smitli-Woolle)' opened the 

 winter session of the London .Surveyors' Institution by a presi- 

 dential address, in which he maintained that the worst as to 

 depreciation in the value of land has been reached. Between 1873 

 and 1883 the greatest rental decline has occurred in Huntingdon, 

 where it represents 59-2 per cent; Worcester, 51; Northampton, 

 ■40 ; Cambridge, 39 ; Warwick, 38, and so on. An annual decrease 

 in rental of £33,000 is represented by the above figures, but from 

 this must be taken the annual value of 8699 acres, let in 1873, 

 but now in hand. Taking this value at an average of £1 per acre, 

 and deducting £8700 from £33,000, the actual yearly deficit is 

 £24,300, representing at thirty years' purchase £729,000 of vanished 

 property. In addition it must be remembered that last year the 

 arrears on the estates in question amounted to 13'1 per cent, of the 

 reduced rental, and that in 1883, 11'8 per cent, of the whole area 

 was in the landlords' liand, in addition to the home farms. 



A New Process for making Wood Pulp.— Our energetic little 

 contemporary Lc Bois, calls attention to M. liaoul Pictet of Geneva 

 having introduced the use of sulphurous acid in combination witli 

 artificial cold in the manufacture of wood pulp. Under the usual 

 sulphite process the chopped wood is boiled for several days in 

 closed vessels witli a solution of sulphite of lime or magnesia ere 

 the cellulose is separated from its surrounding constituents. But 

 the cellulose resists a temperature lower than 180° Cent., accordingly 

 the above boiling solutions are kept at a temperature of 150° to 

 160° Cent., and the resultant pulp is charred and blackened by the 

 innumerable particles of carbon caused by the gums, resins, and 

 other incasing materials of the cellulose being disintegrated whilst 

 it is being boiled, — much subsequent washing and bleaching is 

 consequently required to make the pulp a marketable material. M. 

 Pictet takes advantage of the fact that these alien matters may be 

 disengaged from the cellulose at a temperature of only 80 Centi- 

 grade, and effects this at once by a concentrated solution of 

 sidphurous acid and water at the above temperature along with a 

 pressure of five atmospheres. The pulp is a lieautiful white 

 material ; while the gums, resins, and other material may be sub- 

 sequently recovered from the lye-wash, and utilized in the arts. 



