Popular Srioire MoiilJiIi/ 



3(1:5 



The Rat-Guard Is a Circular Disk of Galvan- 

 ized Iron About Eighteen Inches in Diameter 



A Guard for Mooring Ropes to Prevent 

 Rats from Landing 



TO prevent rats from bringing the 

 bubonic plague into New Orleans a 

 city ordinance requires all boats from 

 tropical zones to "fend off" about 

 twenty feet from the wharf and to put 

 a rat-guard on each mooring rope. The 

 rat-guard is a circular disk of galvanized 

 Iron about eighteen inches in diameter 

 which keeps the rat from using the rope 

 as a bridge and making a landing on 

 the wharf. 



In the accompanying photograph one 

 rat-guard appears as a white circular 

 spot near the bow of the boat. Others 

 ma>- be seen attaciied to nearby ropes. 

 The boat at dock is the Highland 

 Prince with a cargo of coffee from 

 Brazil. 



Formerly these incoming ships brought 

 as great a cargo of rats as they carried 

 of grain, figuratively speaking, which 

 proved to be a nuisance as well as a 

 grave menace to the health of the port 

 and of the surrounding countr\-. 



Sorting and Packing Apples 

 by Machinery 



.\ apparatus has recently been 

 perfected which does away with 

 he unreliable process of sorting 

 apples b\- hand. Moreover, it gives 

 the farmer an excellent opportuni- 

 ty to be honest, for instead of 

 putting large apples on the top 

 and small apples in the rest of 

 the barrel, he can sort them 

 according to an honest standard, 

 and eventually get better prices, 

 for people will learn that his 

 large apples arc large all the way 

 down, and that his small apples 

 don't get any smaller as the 

 bottom of the barrel is reached. 

 The machine which accom- 

 plishes so accurately and simply 

 this task of sizing in\olves the 

 use of two queer looking belts 

 which are di\ided up into many 

 small segments, the segments 

 each having a wide mouth in 

 their center. As the belts move 

 from one end of a flat table to 

 the other the mouths open 

 wider and wider, and the apples 

 which have dropped upon the 

 segments, finally fall through the widen- 

 ing niniitlw. They fall at different 



places accord- 

 ing to their dif- 

 ferent sizes. 



The Two Belts Are Divided into Many 

 Small Segments Each with a Wide Mouth 



