October 31, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



423 



Chemical changes in crmiberries during storage: 

 Fred. W. Morse. There are small but positive 

 differences ia the percentages of sugar and acid 

 contained in different varieties of cranberries. 

 The maximum of sugar is present soon after pick- 

 ing. During storage the sugar slowly diminishes 

 as the berry makes use of it in maintaining its 

 life processes. The rate of change is much ac- 

 celerated by a rise in temperature and is most 

 pronounced when the fruit is kept in tight, un- 

 ventilated packages. Acid remains as a rule un- 

 changed. 



Sespiration of cranberries: Fred W. Morse. A 

 simple method of estimating the rate of chemical 

 changes in fruit at a given temperature, is to de- 

 termine the amount of CO, exhaled by a kilogram 

 of the fruit in an hour. The CO, is produced by 

 the oxidation of some of the soluble carbonaceous 

 matter in the fruit's cells, hence the rate of meta- 

 bolism may be closely estimated. The experi- 

 ments showed that cranberries exhaled twice as 

 much 00; at 10° C. as at 1° and that the rate 

 doubled again at 20°. The nearer the freezing- 

 paint, fruits are held before they are consumed, 

 the more nearly will their quality remain like 

 freshly picked fruit. A week at summer tempera- 

 ture will be as destructive to quality as a month in 

 cold storage. 



The cause of deterioration and spoiling of corn 

 and corn meal: J. S. McHakgue. 



The water soluble manganese of soils: W. 0. 

 EoBiNSON, R. F. Gardiner and R. S. Holmes. 

 The results obtained by frequently shaking 24 

 samples of soil with distilled water for eight days 

 are given in this paper. 



The following deductions are drawn from the 

 data: (1) One hundredth to .1 of the total manga- 

 nese of soils is soluble in water. (2) Carbon di- 

 oxide greatly increases the solubility of the man- 

 ganese. (3) Surface soils contain much more 

 soluble manganese than subsoils, the difference is 

 greater the finer the texture of the soil. (4) The 

 amount of MnO in soil extracts varies from 0-24 

 parts per million and is large enough to affect the 

 bacteriological flora and probably has a more 

 direct influence on plant growth. 

 , The composition of ultra clay from certain soils : 

 !W. O. Robinson. By the term "ultra clay" is 

 meant that body which remains in nearly perma- 

 nent suspension when the soil is treated with pure 

 water. It has no organized structure and behaves 

 as any colloid. It is essentially an extremely finely 

 divided hydrous aluminum silicate, with some of 



the aluminum replaced by iron. Hydrated oxides 

 of aluminum, iron, titanium, silicon and man- 

 ganese (probably) are also present. The phos- 

 phoric acid and potash of ultra clays is higher 

 than the soil from which they were obtained. 

 Organic matter is an ever present constituent and 

 it is probable that it plays an important part in 

 deflocculating the suspension. 



I Composition of soil extracts: M. S. Anderson 

 and W. H. Fry. The salts deposited on the evapo- 

 ration of the water extract of soils are much more 

 complex in character than is indicated by a 

 simple statement of the ions existing in solution. 

 There is a marked general similarity between the 

 salts obtained on evaporation of water extracts of 

 soils and those obtained by both natural and arti- 

 ficial evaporation of sea-water. No salt can be 

 expected to furnish all the salts occurring in nat- 

 ural deposits of saline material because these rep- 

 resent crystallization from a composite extract. 

 Under ordinary soil conditions these complex salts 

 are probably always in solution in the soil mois- 

 ture. 



, Melezitose in honey: Edgar T. Wherrt. Mele- 

 zitose is a rare sugar, a trisaeeharide, which has 

 heretofore been but little known. Its name is 

 from melez, the Frenoh name for the larch tree, it 

 having been discovered in a honey dew on the 

 European larch. It also occurs in manna, a sugary 

 incrustation, on a leguminous tree in Persia and 

 adjoining countries. Its occurrence in a similar 

 material found on the Douglas fir in British Co- 

 lumbia has been recently described by Hudson and 

 Sherwood. 1 While the latter occurrence was under 

 investigation, some honey received from central 

 Pennsylvania was found to be nearly solid from 

 the crystallization of the same sugar; and Dr. C. 

 S. Hudson asked the writer to visit the regions 

 where this honey was produced, and endeavor to 

 ascertain the origin of the melezitose. After con- 

 siderable study, the following origin of this sub- 

 stance was worked out: The scrub pine tree, and 

 rarely other species of pine, are subject to attack 

 by a plant louse — of the group known technically 

 as lachnids — and a scale insect of the group known 

 as coceids. These insects develop in midsummer in 

 considerable numbers, and in the course of their 

 life activities excrete a sweet material, honey-dew, 

 which is rich in melezitose. In dry summers, after 

 the white clover flowers have ceased to yield 

 honey, the bees turn to this honey dew, and collect 

 it, but it crystallizes as fast as they store it away, 



1 J. Am. Chem. Soc, 40, 1456 (1919). 



