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THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



Gathering the Soap Plant. 



BY BESSIE L. PUTNAM, CONNEAUT LAKE, 

 PENNSYLVANIA. 



A new industry has sprung up in 

 some parts of the West, and the gath- 

 ering of a species of Yucca at from five 

 to eight dohars per ton may add to 

 the farmer's income, and at the same 

 time free his fields from a troublesome 

 weed. The plant belongs to the lily 

 family. Its leaves yield a fibre useful 

 for several purposes. The fruit, simi- 

 lar in shape to a banana, was highly 

 relished by the Indians. The establish- 

 ment of the new factory to convert 

 the plant into a soap, said to be free 

 from alkali, and especially useful as a 

 toilet soap and for washing woolen 

 goods, is but another illustration of the 

 fact that new uses are continually be- 

 ing found for what were once consid- 

 ered waste products. 



This however is not the only soap 

 plant which nature has given us. In 

 California is another bulbous plant, the 

 outer husks of which are used to fill 

 cushions or mattresses, and the inner 

 portion to make a fine lather for laun- 

 dry purposes. Peru, Spain, Egypt and 

 other countries have each its represen- 

 tative soap plant, some of these be- 

 longing to widely different families. 



Do Lobsters Suffer? 



Humane people have for a long time- 

 protested against the cruelty of fisher- 

 men, because of their custom of boiling 

 lobsters and crabs slowly, instead of 

 plunging them into water boiling hot, 

 and thus ending the agonies of the; 

 creatures quickly. It seems, however, 

 that the fisherman's w^ay was the most 

 humane way, after all. 



The New Jersey Society for the Pre- 

 vention of Cruelty to Animals asked! 

 Mr. Joseph Sinel, late of the New 

 Jersey Marine Biological Laboratory,, 

 to test the matter by a series of experi- 

 ments. The result showed, according" 

 to Mr. Sinel, that lobsters, placed in 

 cold water, gradually brought to su 

 boiling point, exhibited no signs of dis- 

 comfort. When the water reached! 

 seventy degrees, they became coma- 

 tose, and they died at about eighty de- 

 grees. On the contrary, lobsters- 

 placed in boiling water made violent 

 efforts to escape and did not die for 

 about two minutes. 



Mr, Sinel compares the death of x 

 lobster by gradual boiling, to that of eh 

 person succumbing to a "heat wave" ; 

 it suffers a gradual loss of conscious- 

 ness and a painless end- — The Youth's^ 

 Companion. 



A SECTION OF A BED OF POPPIES. 

 Grown at Joseph F. Whittaker's, 143 Washington Avenue, Stamford, Connecticut; from seed sent by 



friend in California. 



