224 



The IIortkuUunsL 



of the earth covered by snow during the very 

 cokl weather of December, 1871, in Bavaria- 

 On the 8th and 12th of December the tem- 

 perature of the air at Vienna fell to minus 

 26-8" Fahrenheit, while the temperature of 

 the earth beneath the snow was no lower than 

 plus SS-S*^, and four feet below it was 4:2-8'' 

 So long as the snow lies, the variations of 

 temperature under the earth's surface are very 

 slight, and hence the snow itself is the very 

 best protection of seeds, young plants and 

 other vegetation against frost. 



Effects of Gas in Plants. — Herr 

 Boehm, of Vienna, has been experimenting on 

 the iufiuence of coal gas on the I'oots of plants. 

 The evil effect has generally been attributed 

 to the gas which leaks from the pipes, or the 

 coal tar which oozes from the joints of the 

 pipes, impregnating the soil, and rendering it 

 black and fetid. According to M. Boehm, 

 the latter is the true cause, and the remedy 

 suggested is to enclose the gas pipe in a second 

 tube, open at the end, so that a current of air 

 may circulate around the gas main. 



Ozone. — According to observations made 

 in Germany, the average of ozone is nearly 

 double on snowy days, and is considerably 

 greater on rainy days than it is on clear days. 

 Fog is unfavorable to its production, but a 

 driving snow storm greatly promotes. Cold 

 winds bring more than hot winds. As a dis- 

 infectant, no fluid acts more positively in 

 decomposing and dispersing offensive sub- 

 stances. D. Fox quotes :Sch(Jenhtin as saying 

 that " air containing one three million and 

 forty thousandth of ozone, is capable of dis- 

 infecting its own volume of air filled with the 

 efiiuvia evolved in one minute from 4 oz. of 

 highly putrid flesh. 



3Ianufactare of I*a2)er from JIojj 

 Stalks. — M. Jourdeil, of the department of 

 the Cote d'Or, in France, has recently sub- 

 mitted to a congress of paper-makers of that 

 country an invention, or rather a series of 

 inventions, for separating and using the textile 

 material which envelops the stalk of the hop, 

 in the manufacture of paper. The experi- 

 ments with this new fiber have already reached 

 some remarkable results, and great confidence 



is indulged that a discovery has been made 

 which will prove of great interest and value 

 to agriculture, as well as to the paper-making 

 industry. 



A Chameleon Plmif^ — A puzzle, says 

 Land and Water, for horticulturists has been 

 forwarded by the French Bishop of Canton to 

 the Jardin d'Acclimatation in Paris, in the 

 shape of a plant which is a conspicuous speci- 

 men of the wonderful art possessed by the 

 Chinese of leading nature astray. Not con- 

 tent with improving on the human foot, and 

 producing pollard oaks, apparently of hoary 

 anticjuity, in China bowls, they have succeeded 

 in growing a plant which changes color three 

 times a day. 



Effect of Street Gas ii^ton Vet/eta ti on. 

 — By a series of experiments upon the effect 

 of gas upon difi'erent species of trees, by 

 Messrs Spath and Meyer, in the botanical 

 gardens in Berlin, it has been found that when 

 the gas is brought into contact with the roots 

 of trees for considerable length of time, in 

 quantities however small, though some trees 

 are able to withstand this influence longer than 

 others, yet all must finally succumb, and will 

 at last sicken and die. The influence is much 

 less active during the winter, when the root- 

 lets have become woody, than during the 

 period of growth in the summer, when they 

 are young and tender, and are therefore in a 

 better condition to absorb the gas. 



FiUKjus in California. — D. J. Strent- 

 zel, in the California Horticulturist, states, 

 that two years ago, in the orchards along the 

 Sacramento river, was first observed the ex- 

 tended growth of a new fungus, or lichen, on 

 peach trees, covering the fruit in ash-colored 

 blotches, and the ends of growing shoots in 

 detached masses, spreading from a cottoney 

 tuft of a growing germ. The leaves on the 

 affected part drop off" later in the season, and the 

 end of the shoot generally dries up. The growth 

 of the fruit is not apparently checked, but the 

 thin-skinned varieties, on ripening, get a puck- 

 ered up, pocky, disgusting appearance. The 

 earliest varieties are most affected ; the yellow, 

 among them the Crawford, not so much. None 

 was noticed on the Snow Peach. 



