igo2. 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



257 



(House.) By Mr. Mann : Petition of 

 the Board of Trade and the citizens of 

 Chicago, 111. , in support of the House 

 bill 3057, for the enactment of irriga- 

 tion legislation. To the Committee on 

 Irrigation of Arid Lands. 



May 21. 



(Senate.) Mr. Burrows presented a 

 petition of Lodge No. 533, Brotherhood 

 of Locomotive Firemen of Opechee, 

 Mich., and a petition of the Trades 

 Council of Battle Creek, Mich., praying 

 that the appropriation for the United 

 States Geological Survey be increased 

 from $100,000 to $200,000, and also for 

 the adoption of a proposed amendment 

 to the irrigation bill ; which were re- 

 ferred to the Committee on Appropria- 

 tions. 



May 23. 



(Senate.) Mr. Penrose presented a 

 memorial of Mount Chestnut Grange, 

 No. 133, of Butler County, Pa., remon- 

 strating against the passage of bill pro- 

 viding for the irrigation of arid lands ; 

 which was referred to the Committee 

 on Irrigation and^ Reclamation of Arid 

 Lands. 



May 29. 



(House.) By Mr. Ketcham : Letter 

 of P. T. Kirby, secretary of Trade and 

 Labor Council, Poughkeepsie, N. Y., 

 urging the passage of the Senate amend- 

 ment to the sundry civil bill increasing 

 the appropriation to the U. S. Geolog- 

 ical Survey and favoring the amended 

 irrigation bill and House bill 6279. To 

 the Committee on Appropriations. 



RECENT PROGRESS IN DENDRO-CHEMISTRY. 



By Wm. H. Krug, 

 Bureau of Chemistry, U\ S. Department of Agriculture. 



STUDIES on Colophony. W. Fah- 

 rion (Ztsch. angew. Chem., 14, 

 1197; 14,1252). American colophony 

 consists chiefly of an amorphous modi- 

 fication of sylvic acid, C^uHjuO.. Sylvic 

 acid readily absorbs oxygen, forming 

 primarily the superoxides insoluble in 

 petroleum ether and then oxyacids sol- 

 uble in this solvent. Colophony also 

 contains neutral, non-saponifiable sub- 

 stances, partiall}^ volatile on heating, 

 which have been produced by secondary 

 oxidation processes, and a small amount 

 of a substance which is probably an acid 

 anh^^dride. 



Determination of Free Sulphuric Acid 

 in Leather. Psessler and Sluyter (Bull. 

 de r Assoc, beige des Chim., 15, 313). 

 A discussion of the sources of error 

 in Procter and Searles', Balland and 

 Maljeans', Jeans and von Schroeder's 

 methods. 



Effect of Tanning Extracts Contain- 

 ing Bisulphites on Leather. Parker 

 and Gansser (Journ. Soc. Chem. Ind., 

 20, 1085). The authors show by a se- 

 ries of experiments that the sulphurous 



acid present in such extracts has ab- 

 solutely no deleterious effect on the 

 leathers. All leathers were found to be 

 alkaline and contained neither sulphur- 

 ous nor sulphuric acid. 



The Occurrence of Maltol in the Nee- 

 dles of Ad/es alba. Mill. W. Feuer- 

 stein (Zeitsch. Gesammt. Brauwes, 24, 

 769) . On shaking the aqueous extract 

 of the needles (dried at a low tempera- 

 ture) with ether or chloroform, a crys- 

 talline substance was obtained, which 

 was found to be maltol. It was absent 

 in needles collected in September, and 

 appears to occur only at certain periods 

 of vegetation. 



The Active Constituents of Guaiac 

 Wood and Guaiac Resin. E. Schaer 

 (Arch. Exp. Pathol, u. Pharmak., 47, 

 128). Guaiac bark contains a consid- 

 erable quantity of saponin, which also 

 occurs in the wood and is found in 

 traces in the resin. 



The Adulteration of Shellac, K. Die- 

 terich (Chem. Rev. Fett u. Harz. Ind.. 

 8, 244). The different solubility of 

 colophony in various organic solvents 



