I026 



DAIRYING 



INDUSTRIES 



DEPENDING DN 



ANIMAL 



PRODTTCTS 



cylinders tilled with water to the brim, the whole length of the flax bund- 

 les being put into the cylinders. Sometimes, in order to have a real anaer- 

 obic environment, small bundles of flax stalks were put into small test 

 tubes, and the air pumped out. The experiments showed that the action 

 of the microbe in an anaerobic environment is insignificant. In a mixed 

 environment (intermediate between aerobic and anaerobic) the work of 

 the bacterium is less active than imder purely aerobic conditions, and more 

 intense than under anaerobic conditions. 



(3) The new bacterium, which has the powei of acting on starch and 

 destroying the vegetable tissues, should play an important part in the de- 

 struction of the vegetable masses falling on the soil. 



798 - New Method of Flax Retting Invented at the Technological Institute of Petrograd. 



— vSfc No. 75:5 uf this riulUiin. 



799 ~ Hats made of Chinese Palm Leaf. — ChieriC, in rA-^ricolturn Coloniak, Year X, 

 ist llalf-Yeai', Xo. 4, pj). i87-i5y. llurence, April 30, 1916. 



A new Chinese industry is here described, namely, the manufacture of 

 hats from the leaves of a palm tree not >et identified botanically and which 

 the Chinese name merely describes as Tung-shu (palm plant). 



This palm tree is said to be one of the varieties of Chamaerops 

 Jortunei. 



The leaves for hat manufacture are gathered at Kwanksien, a few 

 miles from Cheugtu, a hilly part of the country, where the plant grows 

 wild in large numbers, thriving in the rather poor and moist soil. The 

 tree presents different varieties, some specimens reaching a height of 6 

 feet. For hat-making, however, the leaves of the small, young plants are 

 used as they are more fibrous and flexible, and narrower. The leaves are 

 imported into Cheugtu and are there cut up into long strips of uniform 

 width. From each leaf lOO, no or up to 120 strips are cut, according to 

 the quality of the hat and the flexibility of the leaf. The cut strips are boil- 

 ed in water and steeped in a special bath, from which the}'' emerge light 

 yellow in colour. On drying by exposure to the air the colour turns to 

 pearl. For a hat of the finest quality, 16 leaves, i. e. about 1750 strips, 

 are required, while an ordinary hat requires an average of iioo. The hat 

 is begun and finished by the same workman, and is afterwards washed in 

 an acid solution of secret composition and is next hammered, if desired. 

 Hammering, which is carried out by specialised workmen with polished 

 round stones, is a difficult operation w^hich imparts to the hat a particularly 

 brilliant gloss of very pleasing effect. 



The best hats turned out by this new Chinese industry, which is barely 

 a year old, are fully equal to genuine panamas. Thej' are in such demand in 

 the home market that it is intended to double the number of workmen ; 

 enquiries from abroad are also beginning to come in. 



800 - The Cheese Industry in Portugal. — r.'vmires p.aptista adolpho, in Broieria, Scric 



de Vulgarizacdo Scientifica, Vol. XIV, Part III, pp. 156-164. Braga, Ma}' 1916. 



The cheeses manufactured in Portugal proper are of different types, 

 named according to the locality or region of production . They are gener- 



