NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



" short," or the owner will be subject to 

 a fine of $5 to $25 This law comes in 

 force January ist, 1900. 



Liquid Air may yet take the place 

 of ice as a refrigerator. Mr. Bobrick of 

 Los Angeles, writes in the California 

 Fruit Grower, concerning his visit to 

 Prof. Tripler's laboraty in New York 

 City, as follows : 



•' I spent almost twenty-five days with Mr. 

 Tripler in his laboratory. What 1 have seen 

 would take pages to describe. As a refriger- 

 ant there is no doubt that liquid air will re- 

 place ice just the same as gsw and electricity 

 have replaced the old kerosene lamp, and the 

 cable and electric cars have replaced the old 

 horse car. It is only a question of time." 



Oranges were put into liquid air in my 

 presence. They were frozen solid, then pul- 

 verized like a piece of marble. After thaw- 

 ing somewhat the juice was extracted by 

 squeezing then concentrated by cold pro- 

 duced by liquid air, in the following manner. 

 First Tripler froze the water contained in 

 the juice and removed it as ice. Certain acids 

 contained in the juice froze at a lower tem- 

 perature and these, too, were removed in the 

 form of ice. Subsequently the pure juice it- 

 self froze at a still lower temperature, leaving 

 an acid, which required an even still lower 

 temperature for freezing. The acid was 

 poured off and the frozen syrup, absolutely 

 puie in a concentrated state, was used for 

 making ice cream, etc. 



Crop Report. — Bulletin 70 of the 

 Bureau of Industries is just to hand, 

 from which we make the following ex- 

 tracts : 



Fruit. — There is likely to be a scar- 

 city of fruit this season owing to various 

 causes. The severe winter destroyed a 

 larger proportion of the fruit trees in 

 some sections, and appears to have 

 injured many which survived Heavy 

 rain during the blossoming season 

 greatly interfered with fertilization, as 

 did frost in some neighborhoods. The 

 tent caterpillar, curculio, codling moth 

 and other injurious insects have also 

 made great havoc among the orchards, 

 except where they have been kept in 

 check by systematic spraying. The ap- 

 ple crop is very light, but as a rule the 



quality is good, and the fruit fairly free 

 from scab. The winter varieties promise 

 better than the earlier kinds. Plums 

 have done rather better than apples, 

 though greatly subject to attacks of the 

 curculio. The yield in most localities 

 where they are grown is poor, but they 

 will be abundant in some places. The 

 peach crop is practically a failure owing 

 to the general destruction of the trees, 

 which suffered more severely from the 

 winter than did the other varieties. 

 Those which remain have borne fairly 

 well in some neighborhoods, but the 

 total product is small. Pear trees have 

 not been so prolific as usual, and the 

 supply will be light. There was about 

 an average crop of cherries, though some 

 damage from worms and black-knot is 

 specified. Reports concerning the vine 

 yards are highly encouraging, the vines 

 being healthy and well laden. 



Potatoes. — There promises to be a 

 good yield of potatoes, though in many 

 quarters rain is badly needed, and in 

 consequence of long-continued drouth 

 the early potatoes have been somewhat 

 small in size. Reports as to the present 

 appearance of the late potatoes are gen- 

 erally favorable, one especially encour- 

 aging feature being the decrease in the 

 numbers and destructiveness of the 

 potato bug, caused by the severe frosts 

 of last winter. In some neighborhoods, 

 however, this pest is still as active and 

 injurious as ever, and on low-lying lands 

 a good deal of damage was occasioned 

 by excessive wet in the early part of the 

 season. 



Judging at Fairs. — One of the 

 most difficult duties facing the Board of 

 Fair Managers is the securing compe- 

 tent judges. Of late some of fairs are 

 referring the selection to the various 

 associations for lists of suitable persons. 

 In this connection the following on 



413 



