Natural Science News. 



VOL. I 



ALBION, N. Y., OCTOBER 26, 1895. 



No. 39 



Natural Science News. 



A Weekly Journal Devoted 

 Natural History. 



to 



FRANK H. LATTIN, Editor and Publisher 

 ALBION, N. Y. 



Correspondence and Items of interest to tlie 

 student of any of the various branches of the 

 Natural Sciences solicited from all. 



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The Atlanta Exposition. 



In my last letter we were in the 

 Government Building, and had 

 come as far as the Division of Or- 

 nithology and Mammalogy. That 

 which will interest us especially 

 here is not the exhibit showing 

 their distribution and range, but 

 that which gives us an idea of the 

 value or otherwise, of certain in- 

 dividual species to agriculture. 

 We see some of these birds feed- 

 ing on the most destructive of in- 

 sects, and perhaps these are the 

 very ones some of our friends have 

 been making war upon. Near by 

 is an exhibit of the various insects 

 upon which birds commonly feed. 

 The English Sparrow evidently 

 has no friends here, for he is shown 

 in a peach tree, actively engaged 

 in destroying the buds and blos- 

 soms. 



Cotton-planters will see, in the 

 Division of Entomology, which is 

 close at hand, that the boll worm 

 and the cotton worm are not the 

 only insects that work harm to 

 their staple. A number of others 

 of secondary importance are shown 

 as well as some that are of benefit 

 to the crop. Insecticides and the 

 methods of applying them are also 

 illustrated. 



Much attention has been proper- 

 ly devoted to making a compre- 

 hensive display of fibres, as their 

 cultivation, or rather the develop- 

 ment and extension of their culti- 

 vation, has been a matter to which 

 the government has given serious 

 consideration for some time past. 

 The different types of cotton shown 

 will help to dispel the idea, held 



U. S. Government Building, Cotton States Exposition. 



by some who are not familiar with 

 the plant, that all cotton is the 

 same. Improved and foreign va- 

 rieties are brought into sharp con- 

 trast with those commonly culti- 

 vated, and no doubt many a south- 

 earn farmer who studies this ex- 

 hibit will return to his plantation 

 with the fixed purpose of growing 

 a better crop of a better sort the 

 coming year. 



Flax, hemp, sisal, ramie and 

 other fibres, all grown in this coun- 

 try, and shown here to illustrate 

 the possibilities of increased fibre 

 production, are in contrast with a 

 number that were formerly merely 

 waste products, but that are now 

 utilized in many manufactures. 

 Among these latter we see the 

 Spanish moss, so familiar in the 

 South, which is employed for up- 

 holstery purposes; pine needles, 

 from the long-leaved pine, made 

 into coarse matting and bagging; 

 cocoanut and palm fibres, used for 

 matting, coarse brushes, etc., and 

 the common saw palmetto, that 

 covers thousands of acres in the 

 Florida peninsula and elsewhere, 

 which is shown to be especially 

 useful for plastering fibre. 



At Chicago, the forestry exhibit 

 was one of the marvels, and one 

 of the dfsplays that was regarded 

 as of the greatest economic and 

 practical importance. Here the 

 forestry exhibit is on a smaller 

 scale, but of even greater value, as 

 it illustrates so forcibly the fores- 

 try resources of a given section. 

 Three hundred indigenous species 

 are shown by sections of the nat- 

 ural wood and bark and by finish- 



ed wood. Among the curious trees 

 which we are shown by these spec- 

 imens can be grown in some por- 

 tions of the South are the eucalyp- 

 tus, the bamboo and the cork 

 tree. The adaptability of the mag- 

 nolia and other distinctively south- 

 ern woods for cabinet purposes is 

 also illustrated. 



Besides the commoner products 

 of the forests, we see here woods 

 that are used for dyeing, tanning 

 and coloring; medicinal roots, 

 mosses, rice paper, gums, resins 

 and vegetable wax; wood pulp, rat- 

 tan, cane work, etc. 



In the forestry building is also 

 the display of the mining resources 

 of the South — the display to which 

 it is hoped the attention of north- 

 ern visitors and capitalists will be 

 especially drawn. Much of the 

 true success of the exposition rests 

 upon the real interest which is tak- 

 en in this, as it is hoped that it will 

 be the lever to draw capital toward 

 the South, for the development of 

 its mines and the industries which 

 are related to them. 



Phosphates, considered both 

 from the standpoint of the agricul- 

 turist and the capitalist, are one of 

 the leading items of this exhibit. 

 Florida and South Carolina are 

 the states which are especially 

 rich in this deposit, and both make 

 a good exhibit of the various phos- 

 phates and the methods of mining 

 and preparing them for market 

 and for use. Coal also is of prime 

 importance, and it is here from 

 many States, together with iron, 

 copper and lead ores, marble, sand- 

 stones, clays, granite and limes- 



