NOTES AND ABSTRACTS. 



237 



the fermentation of sugar or starch, and is used as a heating medium, 

 as a solvent for resins and oils, in the manufacture of smokeless 

 powder, ether and chloroform, in the preparation of aniline colours, &c. 

 Methyl, or wood alcohol, CH^O, is produced by distillation of wood, 

 and though similar in some respects to ethyl, is poisonous and un- 

 palatable, and is the principal denaturant of ethyl alcohol, its addition 

 preventing the use of the latter as a beverage, while not interfering with 

 its industrial value. 



Alcohol is cleaner and more convenient in use than other liquid 

 fuels, but has only three-fifths of their heating power. It might be 

 produced profitably by the farmer judging by the comparative value of 

 corn fed to stock and the same corn fermented, were it not for the 

 cost of instahing the plant necessary to produce alcohol strong enough 

 to denature (90 per cent.). It might be rendered possible by allowing 

 farmers to produce 100 per cent, proof alcohol in cheap fire pot stills, 

 to be shipped under bond to a central depot for denaturing. The 

 season of the Tuna fruit is short, only sixty days, and would 

 require to be lengthened with other materials. 



Some of the advantages of alcohol over kerosene and gasolene are : 



(1) Cleaner and safer in use. 



(2) Flame more readily extinguished by water, which does not 

 spread alcohol, but mixes with and dilutes it. 



(3) Less heat given off both in lighting and heating (good ir hot 

 weather). 



(4) Consumes less air than kerosene in confined space. 

 There are some disadvantages : 



(1) Costs more. 



(2) Heating value only 70 per cent, of other fuels. 



(3) Mantles are necessary and have to be replaced. 



(4) Utensils require preliminary heating before use. 



The main sources of alcohol production are : some farm crops, some 

 , fruits, and sawdust. In the States corn and molasses are chiefly 

 used. Germany has evolved a type of potato producing a large yield 

 from the acre with a high starch content for this purpose, while France 

 depends upon the sugar-beet. Germany produces 100,000 gallons per 

 annum. 



To use the Tuna profitably large yields of the fruit must be obtained 

 from small areas. A yield of 10 tons from the acre, sold at 15 cents per 

 100 lb., would bring $30, which seems a good return for worthless land 

 and little cultivation, but gathering the fruits, as at present, by hand, 

 prevents the operation being profitable. — C. H. L. 



Bees and Pollination of Fruit Blossom {Gard. Mag., No. 2980, 

 December 10, 1910, pp. 970). — Investigations were made at Oregon 

 Agricultural College into the question of self-sterility of apples and the 

 part played by wind and bees. Small glass slides smeared with vaseline 

 I were suspended in various positions when the trees were in full bloom, 

 and the wind-borne pollen grains caught after twenty-four hours 



