24 



POPULAR SCIENCE NEWS. 



[Febeuaky, If 



delightful spots in Sicily and Naples. The enter- 

 prise of the Genoese then brought the tree into the 

 Riviera, where, the climate being very favorable 

 for its growth, it was cultivated on a large scale 

 for the essences and perfumes that could be ex- 

 pressed from its fragrant flowers, and for the use 

 of its fruit in those delicious preserves for which 

 these people were so justly famous. As the civili- 

 sation of Europe advanced, and the beauty of the 

 bitter orange was recognized, its culture spread 

 vapidly from one country to another, penetrating 

 even to climates where success could not be attained 

 without the use of artificial heat. 



The tree was especially pleasing to the cloistered 

 monks, and in many an ancient monastery garden 

 one may see to-day stocks for which gieat age is 

 claimed. The orange in the court of St. Sabine 

 at Rome is said to have been planted as long ago as 

 the year 1200, and by St. Dominicus himself. 

 Gallesio visited the tree early in this present cen- 

 tury, and found it carefully tended by the Domini- 

 can monks, who believed the fruit to be endowed 

 witli miraculous powers, and distributed it to the 

 sick. Gallesio, after a careful examination of the 

 tree, pronounced it a shoot from the original stock, 

 which probably perished in the destructive frost of 

 1709. Gallesio also paid a visit to another cele- 

 brated bitter orange-tree preserved in the Orangerie 

 of Versailles, under the name of Francis the First, 

 or The Great Bourbon, having been taken by the 

 king from the constable of that name iu the seizure 

 of his effects in 1523. This was an exceedingly 

 beautiful tree, twenty feet in height, and spread- 

 ing its branches in a circle of forty feet. Gallesio, 

 however, thought it had too vigorous a growth for 

 a tree of the age ascribed to it, and its two stems 

 suggested to him that it also was a second growth. 



Gallesio, the Italian author to whom we are in- 

 debted for piofound lesearches into the history of 

 the orange, sweet and bitter, was unable to find 

 any details of the introduction of the sweet orange 

 into Europe. In all probability, he thinks it fol- 

 lowed the route of the bigarade and other Eastern 

 plants, and reached the shores of the Mediterra- 

 nean by way of the Persian Gulf, Bassora, Irak, 

 and Syria. In Syria it would be seen by merchants 

 from almost every nation of Europe; but Gallesio 

 shows clearly that the Genoese, in their mastery of 

 many islands of the Archipelago, alone commanded 

 opportunities for extending its cultivation west- 

 ward. 



The first traces found by Gallesio of the sweet 

 orange in Europe occur in two important docu- 

 ments of the Genoese port of Savona of 1471 and 

 1472 respectively. But M. Adolpli de Candolle 

 cites a statute of Fermo on the Adriatic, of 1379, 

 in which sweet oranges are undoubtedly men- 

 tioned, and states that recent researches in Spain 

 and Portugal support the earlier date. 



An opinion used to prevail that the Portuguese 

 first introduced the sweet orange into Europe 

 direct from India. This was probably but an in- 

 ference from the name, Portugal orange, which 

 was given in the seventeenth century to the sweet 

 orange, and particularly to the variety with red 

 juice. It was not until the year 1498 that Vasco 

 de Gama first reached India by way of the Cape 

 of (iood Mope. The historian of the voyage re- 

 marks that the oranges of India are mostly sweet; 

 but neither he nor the travellers who immediately 

 followed him express the surprise that would be 

 natural, had the fruit been new to them. In 1518 

 the Portuguese reached China, and from this time 

 they began to import a sweeter, larger orange than 

 the one already known in Europe. 



But though the orange was not in the first place 

 brought to Europe direct from India, it carries iu 

 its name proof of Eastern origin; for "orange " is 



but a hiodern pronunciation of the Arab narurtj, the 

 Hindu nerunga, and the nagarunga of the ancient 

 Sanscrit. Moreover, the bitter orange has been 

 reported wild from many parts of India, and it is 

 undoubtedly native to Southern China and Cochin 

 China. 



No well-authenticated specimen of a wild sweet 

 orange has yet been found in any country. Hindu 

 and other Eastern traditions assign the tree to 

 China, where the people themselves count it among 

 their native fruits, and its first cultivation has long 

 since been forgotten. 



♦ 



A PHEASANT FARM. 



A GENTLEMAN utilizes his f aiTu-lands at Lihrook, 

 not far fi-om London, which in these days of agri- 

 cultural depression he found difficult to let, by 

 turning them into a model game-farm. Pheasants 

 are here reared with the most scrupulous care ; and 

 the processes of securing and collecting the eggs, 

 hatching, nursing, and feeding the juvenile pheas- 

 ants, etc., provide occupation for a number of 

 workers. From his three thousand birds usually on 

 the farm, the game-breeder sends pheasants all over 

 the world to stock preserves; but he supplies eggs, 

 most carefully packed in cases devised by himself 

 and made on the premises, to breeders at a dis- 

 tance, wlio artificially hatch their own eggs. 



The devices for securing the safety of this valu- 

 able and perishable stock are many and various, 

 and great jirecautions are taken to prevent any 

 depredation. Huge mastiffs and St. Bernard dogs 

 traverse a length of wire cable which surrounds the 

 farm stretched on the ground, upon which their 

 chains are fastened in lengths of a hundred 

 yards; and a very effectual jiolice-force they make, 

 not allowing approach from any one, friend or 

 stranger, without well-recognized credentials. Rats 

 are terribly destructive to young birds, if they can 

 get at them; but here they are not only kept at bay 

 by curved iron fencings, such as we see at the Zoo- 

 logical Gardens, but this year electric batteries are 

 .so placed, that, if a wire is touched by the marau- 

 der, the shock proves too much for him, and he 

 tumbles over dead. 



Partridges are not so difticult to deal with as 

 pheasants, and there are thousands of them on the 

 Lihrook farm, flying about, and taking care of them- 

 selves. All the stock birds are kept in aviaries 

 open at the top, and their wings are clipped every 

 three weeks. The labor of this seemed to me 

 enormous, but the game-farmer says that it is 

 nothing as compared to the expense of covering 

 in forty acres of aviaries. — Glasgow Herald. 



PARISIAN EGG CIIOf'OLATE. 



I'^OR three cups of chocolate dissolve three ounces 

 of the best chocolate in four cups of water, and set 

 it over the fire; beat the yolks of two eggs to foam, 

 and.stir them into the chocolate as soon as it begins 

 to froth; skim oft' the froth into warm chocolate- 

 cups until they are heaped full, then hold a shovel- 

 ful of burning coals to each till the froth is con- 

 verted to a light crust. 



The chocolate froths better when finely pow- 

 dered sugar is mixed with the yolks of eggs, and 

 still better when froth-cakes are added, prepared 

 in the following manner: — 



Beat the whites of a dozen eggs to froth, and 

 stir in powdered sugar till the mass is of the con- 

 sistency of a stiff paste. Mould the paste on a 

 large plate into small cakes about the size and 

 shape of an ordinary-sized hazelnut, and dry them 

 in the sun or in a wai'm room. As soon as the 

 egg-yolks have been stirred into the chocolate, add 

 as many of these cakes aa there are cups of the 

 liquid, and continue to stir it until the whole mass 



becomes froth. Care must be taken to keep the 

 chocolate near the boiling-point, whether on or off 

 the fire, without letting it boil over. 



GLEANINGS. 



Fekdi-ng Swixe.^ — Great pains should be ob- 

 served in feeding swine. Never feed any more than 

 they will eat clean at each meal, and not less than 

 three times a day; plenty of fresh water should 

 always be kept where a fattening hog can drink at 

 any time. The practice of raking and burning all 

 cobs and refuse in the yard at least once a week is 

 a good one. The pigs like the charcoal made from 

 cobs, and it will keep them clear of worms. 



Electric Light for Farmers. — The Elec- 

 trician states that in Southern Russia the Stepa- 

 noff primary battery is to some extent employed 

 by the farmers during the threshing season. The 

 only chance the Russian wheat-grower has to dis- 

 pose of his crop on favorable terms is, to get it on 

 the market at the earliest possible moment, before 

 the American and Indian freights arrive. Thresh- 

 ing, therefore, is often carried on night and day. 



Researches on the E.mission of Ammonia 

 BY Vegetable Mould. — MM. Berthelot and 

 .\ndre have investigated the cultivated clay soils of 

 the neighborhood of Paris. This soil emits ammo- 

 nia spontaneously, by reason of the slow decom- 

 position of the amidio and ammoniacal compounds 

 which it contains. This decomposition is effected 

 at once under the influence of purely chemical 

 actions due to water and earthy carbonates, and 

 doubtless also under the iniiuences of purely physi- 

 ological actions due to fermentation, to microbia, 

 and to vegetation, properly speaking. 



Method Proposed for Destroying the 

 Phylloxera. — Dr. Clemm has patented the fol- 

 lowing process in most civilized countries: He in- 

 coi'porates with the soil sulphides and carbonates, 

 which easily undergo decomposition, preferably 

 those of potassium. Peat, which has been made to 

 absorb sulphuric, nitric, or phcsphoric acid, is then 

 also introduced. The acid gradually acts upon the 

 sulphide and the carbonate, liberating sulphuretted 

 hydrogen and carbonic acid in the soil. These two 

 gases, according to the experiments of Dr. Eyrich 

 of Mannheim, are rapidly and uniformly distributed, 

 and prove fatal to the Phylloxera in its underground 

 ttage, as well as to Colorado beetles, field-mice, 

 moles, etc. The potash remains in the soil as a 

 sulphate, nitrate, or phosphate. The question is, 

 whether useful animals, such as earthworms, hum- 

 ble-bees, carnivorous ground-beetles, etc., will not 

 be destroyed also. 



Beer. — Professor Schwackhdter delivered a lec- 

 ture recently to the Vienna Hygienic Society on the 

 subject of beer. After giving some statistics on 

 the consumption of this beverage, the lecturer went 

 on to describe its manufacture and adulteration. 

 The birthplace of beer is Egypt. A papyrus has 

 been discovered on which a father reproaches his 

 son for lounging about in taverns and drinking too 

 much beer. From the Egyptians the art of brew- 

 ing descended to the F^thiopians. Whilst the 

 Romans despised beer, the Germans of the North 

 of F2urope fully appreciated its good qualities. 

 However, the refreshing draught became more 

 popular in the first half of the Middle Ages. In 

 the begiuning only convents obtained the monojioly 

 of brewing beer, but later on the privilege was" 

 extended to lay corporations. In Austria the first 

 brewery was established in Vienna in 1560, and 

 beer soon became the favorite beverage of all 

 classes of society. At present the yearly produc- 

 tion throughout the whole world amounts to 

 5,600,000 gallons, England taking the lead, with 

 about 2,000,000. 



