RECORDING AC.RICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS. 4^1 



and as there is always the orii^inal at the station, for reference 

 in case the carbon should be lost or mislaid, it is sufficiently safe 

 if filed in this way. 



In my ow^n case 1 find it convenient to arran.^e these foolscap 

 jackets,' alphabetically by the scientific name of the plant or crop, 

 and to keep them in " Drawer Boxes '" such as " Stones' 

 Patent." Others may prefer to group them by subjects; this 

 is a matter for individual preference. 



In the case of experiments conducted by private farmers on 

 my behalf, I furnish them with printed record forms, foolscap 

 size, one for each variety or breed of plant or crop they may 

 be throwing for me. On their return at the end of the season, 

 these are filed in the same jacket, along with the records from 

 my stations. In this way valuable data can be accumulated in 

 such a way that whenever information is required on a subject 

 the last word about it can be had at short notice, without having 

 to hunt through stacks of record books and mustv files. 



CHEMICAL EFFECTS OF ULTRA=VIOLET RAYS.— 



At a recent meeting of the Paris Academy of Sciences. Berthe- 

 lot and Gaudechon announced that they had converted a mix- 

 ture of cyanogen and oxygen, by exposure to ultra-violet rays. 

 into carbon dioxide and nitrogen, and ammonia mixed with 

 oxygen into water, hydrogen, and nitrogen. Alaquenne and 

 J3emoussy show-, in Coinptcs Rcndii's, that the mercury vapour 

 lamp decomposes chlorophyll, and so causes green foliage to 

 turn brown, destroying the protoplasm in the leaf cells. 



PHENOMENA COINCIDENT WITH THE TRANSIT 

 OF HALLEY'S COMET.— In A'struiwmiscJic Xaclirichtoi , 

 No. 4,414, Dr. Wolf remarks on the " Bishop's rings " which 

 encircled the sun and moon on May 19th, and suggests that 

 they were more intense than if due solely to atmospheric 

 effects. In Nature, of June gth, an observation by Herr 

 Archenhold of a second comet-like object, one degree south 

 of Plalley's comet on May 22nd, is recorded, but it is added 

 that this occurrence is not confirmed by special reports from 

 Bergedorf and Heidelberg. Both phenomena resemble those 

 noticed in South Africa, references thereto having been made 

 on pages 355 and 356 of this Journal, as well as in Circular 

 No. 3 of the Transvaal Observatory. 



ENRICHMENT OF NATURAL PHOSPHATES.— A 



process has recently been patented in France for the enrich- 

 ment of natural phosphates which contain calcium carbonate. 

 The material, after being coarsely powdered, is boiled with a 

 solution of ammonium chloride, whereby the carbonate is 

 changed into soluble calcium chloride, which can be washed 

 away; leaving the phosphate, as it were, in a concentrated 

 form. Into the calcium chloride solution the ammonium car- 

 bonate, which is evolved during the boiling process, is passed : 

 this precipitates a marketable calcium carbonate, and at the 

 same time regenerates the ammonium chloride, which can then 

 be used afresh. 



