314 



SCIENCE= 



[Vol. XV. No. 381 



course of a hundred or two hundred miles; so that they 

 cannot be regarded as individual clouds, whose meeting pro 

 duces the funnel. 



[ContiQued on p. 316.] 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



Any one interested in the sick benefit, funeral aid, and death- 

 beneficiary associations of the United States can help malio the 

 statistics of their organizations for the forthcoming census more 

 complete, and disseminate the knowledge of the good work they 

 are doing, by sending the names of such societies as they may 

 know of, and the addresses of their principal oflicers, to Mr. 

 Charles A. Jenney. special agent cf the Eleventh Census, 58 Wil- 

 liam Street, Neiv York City. 



— Professor S. T. Maynard, in the April bulletin of the Hatch 

 Experiment Station of the Massachusetts Agricultural College at 

 Amherst, states that the fact that healthy and vigorous peach- 

 trees can be grown to the age of six to ten years in New England 

 needs no demon-tration, but that we seldom find healthy trees of 

 a greater age on account of the destruction resulting from the 

 cold and by the disease called the "yellows." While we do not 

 know the exact nature of the disease called the "yellows," and 

 cannot wholly control the atmospheric causes, the other causes, 

 says Professor Maynard. we can largely control; and by careful 

 cultivation in the spring and early summer only, by the use of 

 complete fertilizers in the fall or early in the spring, we can 

 largely prevent this destructive diseasi\ It may not be profitable 

 to try to save diseased lree=. and it would be advisable to destroy 

 them as a matter of safety, although there is no evidence that the 

 disease is contagious: for upon the college grounds more or less 

 diseased trees may be found at all times; and young trees are 

 planted where old trees have died, and, with an abundance of 

 plant-food, have grown in perfect health for six years. 



— Experiments in the cutting of seed- potatoes after various 

 methods have been carried on each season since the organiza- 

 tion of the Ohio Agricultural Station. In 1889 the work was 

 carried on upon a larger scale than formerly, and with a greater 

 number of varieties, the object being to test the validity of con- 

 clusions drawn from the results of former experiments, also to 

 compare varieties. There is sufficient uniformity in the results of 

 different seasons to warrant the following conclusions, says Pro- 

 fessor W. J. Green, the horticulturist: 1. Other conditions being 

 the same, the larger the cutting, the greiter the total product; i.e., 

 the total product varies in about the same ratio as the size of the 

 cutting. 2. The marketable product also increases as the size of 

 the cutting is increased, but does not follow the same ratio as the 

 total product, the rate of gain being less. 3. The increase is 

 found in both the large and small potatoes, the greater portion 

 being in the latter. 4. A crop grown from whole potatoes matures 

 at an earlier date than one from small cuttings. 5, Small cut- 

 tings require soil that is more highly enriched and thoroughly 

 prepared than lar^e cuttings and whole potatoes, in order to se- 

 cui'e a good stand and to produce a profitable crop. 6. The ques- 

 tion of relative profit, as between the use of small cuttings and 

 whole potatoes, depends upon the cost of seed -potatoes, the date 

 at which the crop is to be harvested and sold, and the condition 

 of the soil at planting-time. 7. In ordinary practice it will usually 

 be found that neither extreme, as to quantity of seed used, will be 

 found to be profitable. The safest plan is to use large, well- 

 matured, healthy potatoes, and cut to two and three eyes. 



— Much discussion having been provoked relative to the results 

 of experiments at the Massachusetts Agricultural College, Am- 

 herst, Mass., with steam and hot water for heating greenhouses 

 (reported in Bulletins Nos. 4 and 6), especially as to the accuracy of 

 the results. Professor S. T. Maynard has the past winter made a 

 careful repetition of the experiments to correct any errors that 

 might be found, and to verify previous results. The boilers hav- 

 ing been run with the greatMSt care possible from Dec. 1, 1889, to 

 March, 1890, and every precaution having been taken that no 

 error should occur, he finds the total coal consumed between those 

 dates, for the hot- water boiler, to be 6,598 pounds, the average daily 



temperature for the time being 49.74°: and for the steam-boiler 

 the total coal consumed in the same time was 9 734 pounds, the 

 averaL'e daily terapeiature for the time being 48.39°. The follow- 

 ing criticisms have been made by parties not conversant with the 

 facts of the case: 1. That the piping and check-valve were not 

 arranged so as to get the most perfect circulation of steam with- 

 out a great loss of fuel. 2. That the flues from the two boilers 

 entered the chimney in such a way as to give a better draught to 

 the hot-water boiler. 8. That the exposure of the two houses; 

 was such that the house heated by hot water received more sun- 

 heat than the one heated by steam. These criticisms Professor 

 Maynard thinks can be answered to the entire satisfaction of all 

 fair-minded readers. By numerous test examinations he found 

 that the circulation of steam through all the pipes, above the- 

 water-line of the boiler, is perfect whenever there is fire enough 

 to create steam in the boiler; that the check-valve must conse- 

 quently work easily; and that there is never any standing water 

 in the return-pipes above the water line of the boiler. The flues 

 are arranged so as to give as nearly equal draught to the boilers 

 as is po sible and have tbem enter the same chimney, and enter at 

 the same point; and if there is any difference in the draught of 

 the two, it is in favor of the steam-boiler. It was suggested by the 

 late Mr. George Hills of Arlington, that perhaps from their location 

 the steam-heated house received less sun-heat than that heated by 

 hot water. To test this matter, two standard thermometers were 

 placed in each house, so that the sun's rays should fall upon them 

 equally in both houses at the same time, — one on the eastern, 

 and one on the western exposure. Records were made three times 

 each day for twenty days, ending March 18. Of these twenty 

 days, about eleven days were cloudy and nine clear, and probably 

 the period of time under observation was long enough to show 

 that the amount of sun-heat received by each house is so nearly 

 equal as to in no way change the results given in the temperatures 

 of each h- use. 



— In the American Chemical Journal (vol. xii. No. 4) Mr. H. 

 J. Patterson of* the Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station. 

 Agricultural College, has an article on " The Use of Animal Char- 

 coal in the Determination of Fat (Ether Extract) in Feeding- 

 Stuffs.'' His conclusions are, that the'use of charcoal results in a 

 closer approximation to the truth than any other method in use, 

 though absolute accuracy is not claimed. The following points 

 may be claimed in favor of the use of animal charcoal in the de- 

 termination of fat (ether extract) in feeding- stuffs: 1. That the 

 product obtained is nearly pure fat or vegetable oil. 2. That the 

 product obtained gives a more correct idea of the physical nature 

 of the fats from various substances. 3. That slight quantities of 

 water that may exist in the substance and pass out with the ex- 

 tract will be removed by the charcoal. 4. That soluble acids of 

 the plant, or acid which may be formed by the continuous distil- 

 lation of ether, in connection with some constituents of plants, 

 will be partially, if not wholly, removed by the animal charcoaL 

 5. That the animal charcoal will partially obviate, if not wholly 

 remove, the difficulty of change in the amount of ether extract 

 (which generally increases) with the aging of the sample. 



— The April bulletin of the Michigan Agricultural Experiment 

 Station is on "Foul Brood," by A. J. Cook. By special request 

 of several bee-keepers. Professor Cook^issues the bulletin upon the 

 most serious malady that ever attacks bees in this or any other 

 country. The problem of safe wintering, once so important, is 

 now solved, and the intelligent apiarist feels no longer any dread 

 of winter's cold. Foul brood is now the bee-keeper's terror. Like- 

 the cholera — a disease which is close akin to foul brood — among 

 our own kind, so this disease comes into the bee community like 

 a terrible scourge; and if the bee-keeper is ignorant, incautious, 

 or indifferent, it abides with him till it starves for want of bees 

 on which to feed. Terrible, and teriibly fatal, as this disease is 

 known to be, experience has proved, certainly, that with full' 

 knowledge, and as great care, it can be kept in check and wholly 

 cured, and that with not very serious labor and expense. The 

 minute ovoid spores are brought to the hive probably in honey 

 fed to or brought in by the bees. It is easy to see how honey in 

 a diseased colony of bees would receive these spores. It is diffi- 



