FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



139 



him to India something of the thought, 

 the culture, the ideals of life, the habits 

 and customs of the Western world. He 

 introduces higher standards of living. 

 He gives his influence in favor of better 

 public sanitation, better homes for the 

 people, better streets and public build- 

 ings, better public improvements gen- 

 erally. His home and family life, in 

 which the wife receives the same con- 

 sideration as her husband, and the 

 daughters are educated with the same 

 care as the sons, becomes a valuable 

 object lesson in the community where 

 he dwells." The missions as a whole 

 are regarded by the author as an im- 

 portant factor in a great religious 

 evolution. The precise form and di- 

 rection which this evolution will take 

 seem to be a matter yet to be deter- 

 mined. 



"Weeds under Cultivation. — For 

 several years past the botanical depart- 

 ment of Michigan Agricultural College 

 has maintained a " weed garden," and 

 has grown a hundred or more species 

 of the most troublesome weeds in plots. 

 Some curious results from the experi- 

 ments are recorded by Prof. W. J. Beal 

 in a paper read at the meeting, 1897, 

 of the Society for the Promotion of 

 Agricultural Science. The most vigor- 

 ous and aggressive weeds seem to take 

 on under cultivation the weakness and 

 capriciousness of delicate cultivated 

 plants. " It is very instructive," Pro- 

 fessor Beal says, " to note how much 

 better many of these plants thrive when 

 they get away from the spot where they 

 have been confined for from two to sev- 

 eral years. Seedlings of Jamestown 

 weed were larger in the plantain bed 

 than in their own. After three years 

 the plantain nearly ran out and Amn- 

 ranthns alhns entirely disappeared. One 

 species of pigweed grew finely for two 

 years, but afterward made a small dis- 

 play; and another variety did not seem 

 very persistent for a plant that ranked 

 among the weeds, but shied off from its 

 home ground ' as if searching for fresh 

 fields.' Barnyard grass (Panicnm cruH- 

 galli) behaved like pigweed, and ' need- 

 ed considerable attention.' The little 

 round-leaved mallow, which roots deep- 

 ly about rubbish piles in mellow soil, 

 was grown of respectable proportions 

 in the garden with considerable difTi- 



culty, and with no more ease in the bot- 

 tom lands of other parts of the botanic 

 garden. Considerable pains is required 

 every year to keep on hand even fairly 

 well-grown specimens of mullein. Knot- 

 grass, which thrives with abuse and 

 seems to enjoy trampling by feet, was 

 grown with difficulty in the plots. ' In- 

 sects prey upon it; riist causes it to 

 dwindle and disappear.' ' Motherwort 

 grows rank four feet high near the barn- 

 yard fence, and the flowers are covered 

 with bees, but when kept several years 

 in the same bed it goes off into the 

 sulks as though neglected.' Shepherd's 

 purse is often disturbed by a parasitic 

 fungus, and it is difficult to grow nice 

 plants long in the same place. Cockle- 

 bur, if found long in the same spot, is 

 troubled sadly with a mildew, and 

 more recently also with a rust." 



Operations against Woodcliucks. 

 — Prof. F. H. Storer records in the Bul- 

 letin of the Bussey Institution, Harvard 

 University, the results of his experi- 

 ments in the destruction of wood- 

 chucks, which, besides being very in- 

 jurious to lands he had under culti- 

 vation, appeared to be increasing. 

 Smothering by a volatile liquid driven 

 into the burrow has been suggested by 

 Professor Hilgard, who recommends bi- 

 sulphide of carbon. Professor Bussey 

 finds that liquid not wholly satisfac- 

 tory and liable to objections, and pre- 

 fers a preparation of naphtha or other 

 volatile liquid. In any event, some de- 

 vice seems to be needed for forcing a 

 considerable quantity of the vapor into 

 the very end of the burrow. Poisons 

 are dangerous because of the probabil- 

 ity that the animal would bring the 

 food on which they are placed to the 

 mouth of the burrow for eating, where 

 children or useful animals might get it. 

 While experimenting with burning Cay- 

 enne pepper or sulphur on touch paper, 

 in order to smoke out the burrows, the 

 author became acquainted with the 

 " woodchuck torches " of Mr. B. M. 

 Wedger, of Eoslindale, Massachusetts. 

 These consist of nitrate of soda, sulphur, 

 mealed gunpowder, and sulphide of an- 

 timony, so packed into a tube like a 

 Roman candle that on burning the fuse 

 the vapors would be forced by great 

 pressure to the farthest recesses of the 

 burrow. They proved effectual, and it 



