41 



way an insulating material for electric wires is formed. By still 

 another method, viscose, a very plastic form of cellulose, can be 

 obtained. This can be moulded into various forms or made into 

 films possessing great elasticity. The addition of nitric acid or 

 nitroglycerin results in gun cotton, blasting gelatin, or smokeless 

 powder. Our common celluloid comes from low cellulose ni- 

 trates dissolved in solid camphor and alcohol. One of the 

 greatest triumphs of technological science is the production of 

 artificial silk from either cellulose nitrate or viscose. The value 

 of a pine tree is increased nearly 600 fold when it is spun into this 

 silk. 



The cellulose industry is developed upon an exceedingly 

 slender knowledge of the raw material and it would be well for 

 manufacturers and centers of technical education to give more at- 

 tention to the subject. — Jane R. Condit. 



Recent government publications contain the following state- 

 ments : " When water falls on the soil part of it runs off the sur- 

 face, and part of it runs through the surface by gravitation and 

 comes out in the subsoil, and part of it starts and rises as soon as 

 we get sunlight on the surface, and this part comes up in films 

 over and through the finer spaces, and is bringing with it dis- 

 solved material from below." The water that passes through 

 larger openings, gets very little of the soluble material, "because 

 it is not long in contact with the soil grains. It gets some by 

 reason of the fact that, as we know, our springs and rivers and 

 wells are all soil solutions and carry mineral matter. Now, 

 water rising by capillarity cannot get very concentrated because 

 it gets saturated with the minerals, and any excess that is 

 contained in it is thrown out, except in extreme conditions, as 

 in the west, and then we get alkali conditions ; but under ordi- 

 nary humid conditions we cannot have an excess of it, and the 

 soil solution is bringing materials from below which the plant 

 gets, and, as a matter of fact, the most important discovery of the 

 Bureau of Soils in recent years is that plants are feeding on ma- 

 terial from the subsoils, far below where the roots go. If this is 

 true, and there are many other arguments in the .same line, it is 

 absurd to make an analysis of the surface soil and say that is the 



