316 



FOOD-PRESERVATION. 



FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



nor appearance, nor other quality of the meat. 

 A method has been tested in England by which 

 the antiseptic fluid is introduced into the living 

 body of an animal, and distributed to all parts 

 of the carcass by the natural action of the 

 heart. The experiment was made with sheep 

 hy Hauting, a veterinarian. The animal was 

 first stunned by a blow from a mallet. The 

 jugular vein was opened and a pint of blood 

 drawn out. A rubber tube was then inserted, 

 through which a quart of the preservative 

 liquid was absorbed. This was a saturated 

 solution of boracic acid in water of the tem- 

 perature of blood. The instrument, one well 

 known in veterinary practice, was then closed, 

 and, two minutes after the liquid was taken 

 up into the circulation, the sheep was slaugh- 

 tered in the usual way. The acid is very 

 slightly soluble in water. The cost is only half 

 a cent per mutton. The meat thus treated re- 

 mains fresh without ice two or three weeks in 

 summer, and as many months in winter. 



To prepare this new antiseptic compound, 

 glycerine is heated to a high temperature, and 

 boracic acid is added as long as it will dissolve. 

 The proportions are ninety -two parts of glycer- 

 ine to sixty-two of boracic acid. The com- 

 pound, if allowed to cool, takes a white, crys- 

 talline form. Water is evolved during the 

 operation, and, when steam ceases to be given 

 off, the mass sets in a hard, glacial substance, 

 which shows a loss of fifty-four parts in weight, 

 corresponding to three molecules of water. The 

 hydroxyles in the glycerine unite with the three 

 atoms of hydrogen in the hydrated boracic acid, 

 the anhydrous boric acid (BO 3 ) taking their 

 place. Its action is like that of a fatty acid, 

 and the resulting compound is formed like the 

 natural fats. 



M. Potel has invented a compound which he 

 thinks will supplant sealed tin cans for the con- 

 servation of meats. It is a simple mixture of 

 gelatine, glycerine, and tannin. It is semi-liquid 

 when heated ; and, when applied in that con- 

 dition to the surface of the substance to be pre- 

 served, it forms an air-tight coating. It is 

 applied at the temperature of 50 Centigrade, 

 which is sufficient to destroy the germs of 

 putrefaction, and hardens into an apparently 

 durable hermetic envelope. He calls the mixture 

 poteline, after his own name. 



A depot for the storage of meat, fish, fruit, 

 and vegetables has been established at Shore- 

 ditch, in London, by the Great Eastern Storage 

 and Refrigerating Company. There are dry-air 

 refrigerating chambers, insulated with a new 

 non-conducting material, which takes much less 

 room than ordinary insulating substances. For 

 the eight large chambers two refrigerators, ca- 

 pable of cooling 100,000 cubic feet of air per 

 hour, are driven by two double-cylinder gas- 

 engines, indicating nearly two hundred horse- 

 power. This company acts as agent and con- 

 signee for shippers of dressed meat from 

 America, Canada, and Australia, and expects 

 to supply the London markets with a certain 



quantity daily, so that cargoes arriving simul- 

 taneously will not cause losses to the ship- 

 pers. 



FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

 CONDITION OF AMEEICAN PINE-FORESTS. A 

 survey has been made, in connection with the 

 compilation of the tenth census of the United 

 States, of the forest resources of the whole 

 country, with especial reference to the supply 

 of pine-timber, the results of which have been 

 published in a series of u Forestry Bulletins," 

 showing for the several States the amount, by 

 board-measurement, of timber yet standing, 

 and graphically, by maps, the quantity of land 

 still covered with timber available for use in 

 each. To this is appended, in the tables, an 

 estimate of the amount of timber cut in each 

 State during the year of the census, and, in the 

 maps, a representation of the area from which 

 the timber has been removed. 



The principal source of supply for white- 

 pine lumber is still in the Northwestern Lake 

 States, including Michigan, Wisconsin, and 

 Minnesota. In these States there were stand- 

 ing, in the spring of 1880, 82,010,000,000 feet 

 of merchantable pine, of which 41,000,000,000 

 were in Wisconsin, 35,000,000,000 in the two 

 peninsulas of Michigan, and 6,100,000,000 in 

 Minnesota. The amount of pine cut in these 

 three States during the year was 7,035,507,000 

 feet. At this rate of destruction those States 

 would be stripped of their pine-forests in less 

 than twelve years. A rapid growth in con- 

 sumption is, nevertheless, taking place ; for, 

 while according to the returns of the ninth 

 census 3,912,199,000 feet of lumber, including 

 hard-wood, were manufactured in these States, 

 the amount had increased, in 1880, to 7,145,- 

 969,000, or by 83 per cent, and this notwith- 

 standing 1870 was a year of greater relative 

 prosperity and production than 1880. Some 

 allowance is due, however, for the greater 

 thoroughness with which the statistics for 1880 

 were collected, in consideration of which the 

 ratio of increase might be reduced to 70 per 

 cent. There still remain 1,800,000,000 feet of 

 white pine and 4,500,000,000 feet of hemlock 

 in Pennsylvania, and 475, 000, 000 feet of white 

 pine and 5,000,000,000 of spruce in Maine, with 

 scattering small tracts of white pine in Penn- 

 sylvania, and a considerable unestimated quan- 

 tity of second-growth pine in Maine. The origi- 

 nal white-pine forests of New Hampshire and 

 Vermont are exhausted, but both those States 

 have small quantities of second-growth pine 

 available for use, and 2,265,000,000 feet of 

 black spruce (Picea nigra.) 



The four Atlantic southern pine-growing 

 States contain, of long-leaved pine (Pinus am- 

 tralis) : North Carolina, 5,229,000,000 ; South 

 Carolina, 5,316,000,000; Georgia, 16,778,000,- 

 000; and Florida, 6,615,000,000; in all, 33,- 

 938,000,000 feet. In the same States, 713,700,- 

 000 feet were cut during the census year. Much 

 of the timber still standing has been injured 

 in the manufacture of turpentine. 



