r H E CUB A R E r I E TV 



A New Bean 



The Isle of Pines, off Cuba — famed for 

 delicious Cuban grape fruit, which is now 

 reaching the British Isles in large quan- 

 tities — has lately produced a new kind of 

 bean, described by the U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture as the Stizlobium velutinum. 

 It was first discovered by a Mr. Isaiah 

 Roberts, who tells a romantic story of 

 its cultivation. He found the vine grow- 

 ing wild on a piece of waste ground, col- 

 lected a handful of pods and dried them. 

 "Next spring," he says, "I took the seed 

 to an old abandoned grape-fruit grove and 

 dug a trench round a half dead grape- 

 fruit tree. In a circle about IS feet in 

 diameter, I planted these beans. Then 

 came a rain in May, and by the first of 

 June, last year, the beans were up and 

 the third leaves out. In a few weeks the 

 vines reached the lower branches of the 

 tree, which was about 20 feet high. Up 

 and up the vines went until in August they 

 had reached the top and were stretching 

 out for something higher. About this 

 time a high wind blew the tree over and I 

 began to fear my experiment had been 

 ruined, but the vines mounted the wreck, 

 until nothing showed but a green mound 

 over six feet high. In the meantime 

 runners were spreading over the rank 

 weeds and morning glories. Now the run- 

 ning glory considers itself master of every- 

 thing and is a pest par excellence to 

 Cuban fruit growers; but the new bean 

 smothered the lot, and, as if a house had 

 fallen in with its supports, the weeds. 

 Towards December the vines began to 

 flower, and soon there was an almost un- 

 believable quantity of bean bunches, some- 

 times as many as 40 pods in a bunch, and 

 some more than 1 foot long." Mr. Roberts 

 believes the original seed came from 

 Japan with some chicken fodder, and find- 

 ing the soil of Cuba congenial, began to 

 thrive exceedingly. The bean is excellent 

 for food, and its vines make green fodder 

 for cattle. It kills all weeds by smother- 

 ing them; but fruit growers are not yet 

 decided whether it would prove a pest or 

 a blessing in a grove of trees. 



terest to every consulting and sanitary 

 engineer. This bulletin describes and illus- 

 trates the Tark Screen, a new type of 

 drum screen for the clarification of muni- 

 cipal and industrial sewage. The Tark 

 Screen is the invention of a Link-Belt 

 sanitary engineer who prior to designing 

 this improved type of sewage screen made 

 a careful study of the most approved prac- 

 tices of sewage disposal in the leading 

 plants of Europe as well as in the principal 

 cities of the United States. 



The shortcomings of existing screens 

 for the fine screening of sewage were care- 

 fully noted and it is claimed that the Tark 

 Screen marks a distinct advance in the 

 art of sewage clarification, not only from 

 the standpoint of effective screening but 

 also as regards freedom from trouble and 

 repair. 



Eight of these screens, with a combined 

 capacity of 317 million gallons daily have 

 been purchased by the Sewage Commission 

 of the City of Milwaukee, on the recom- 

 mendation of T. Chalkley Hatton, Chief 

 Engineer, and will be installed in the Fine 

 Screen House of the new sewage disposal 

 plant now being constructed in that city — 

 the largest activated sludge plant in the 

 world. 



A copy of the illustrated bulletin de- 

 scribing the Tark Sewage Screen can be 

 obtained by addressing the Chicago or 

 Philadelphia office of the Link-Belt Com- 

 pany. 



New Sewage Screen Book 



The Link-Belt Company has just issued 

 a bulletin (No. 542) that will be of in- 



Open mg for Coppersmith in Cuba 



There is apparently an opening in Cuba 

 for a well-equipped and competently man- 

 aged coppersmith establishment capable of 

 manufacturing new and modem apparatus, 

 as well as attending to general construc- 

 tion, repair, and extension planning for 

 distilleries, breweries and sugar mills. In- 

 terested American firms may obtain further 

 information concerning this opportunity 

 upon inquiry of the Iron and Steel Divi- 

 sion, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic 

 Commerce, Washington. Mention should 

 be made of file No. QSOO. 



