April  i,  1893.]  THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
643 
SCIENCE  NOTES. 
In  a late  number  of  Insect  Life , Mr.  L.  O. 
Howard  publishes  a note  upon  the  use  of  kerosene 
against  them,  the  substance  of  which  is  as  follows: — 
On  the  surface  of  a pool  of  water,  containing  about 
60  square  feet,  he  poured  4oz.  kerosene.  This 
formed  a very  thin  oily  film  on  the  surface  of  the 
water.  On  the  5th  of  July  the  pool  was  teeming 
with  animal  life,  but  for  the  next  10  days  that  the 
pool  was  under  observation  no  living  insects  were 
observed.  At  the  end  of  this  time,  a count  of  the 
insects  on  a small  portion  of  the  surface,  from  which 
was  estimated  the  total  number,  showed  7400,  370 
of  which  were  mosquitoes.  The  kerosene  remedy 
was  tried  this  last  summer  on  the  swamp  meadow 
pools  of  Stratford,  Conn.,  with  much  sucesss. — 
Sydney  Mail. 
In  the  last  number  of  the  American  Naturalist 
there  appears  a paper  by  Dr.  H.  W.  Conn  on 
“ Some  uses  of  Bacteria.”  These  organisms  are 
in  the  position  of  the  dog  which  got  a bad  name. 
People  think  of  them  as  so  many  deadly  micro- 
scopic foes,  whereas,  generally  speaking,  many 
of  them  are  our  best  friends.  Every  farmer 
expects  that  he  will  have  to  keep  a good  breed 
of  horses  and  stock,  but  few  of  them  are  aware 
that  they  require  a good  breed  of  bacteria  as 
well.  Indeed,  no  farmer  can  get  on  at  all  unless 
he  keeps  a good  stock  of  bacteria  upon  his  farm  ! 
He  is  aware,  of  course,  that  he  cannot  make 
butter  or  cheese  without  cows,  but  until  recently 
he  did  not  know  that  even  if  he  possessed  the 
finest  herd  of  kine  he  would  not  be  able  to 
manufacture  these  articles  of  food  without 
bacteria.  Tillage,  whether  in  the  garden  or  the 
field,  would  be  thrown  away  without  their  aid, 
for  it  is  they  which  make  all  sorts  of  nitrogen  ic 
manures  available.  Bacteria  are  amongst  the 
most  lowly  forms  of  plant  life,  very  nearly  allied 
to  the  microscopic  yeast  and  other  similar  fungi. 
It  is  more  than  probable  that  we  owe  more  to 
these  microscopical  members  of  the  vegetable 
kingdom  than  to  its  larger  and  more  advanced 
species. 
One  of  the  most  important  chemicals  used 
all  over  the  world  is  caustic  soda.  Hitherto  the 
process  of  its  manufacture  has  been  slow  and 
roundabout.  Now  an  altogether  new  method  has 
been  discovered  by  which  caustic  soda,  chlorine, 
and  other  chemical  products  can  be  made  from 
the  brine  directly  by  the  aid  of  electricity. 
The  new  process  is  also  a more  economical 
one  by  at  least  50  per  cent,  as  compared  with 
any  or  all  of  the  present  methods.  It  is  much 
simpler  the  caustic  soda  being  produced  in  one 
operation  instead  of  two.  The  valuable  chlorine 
is  also  saved  and  utilised  for  the  production  of 
bleaching  powder  (chloride  of  lime)  and  other  by 
products.  Our  most  eminent  chemists  have  pro- 
nounced this  new  method  of  manufacture  a 
complete  success,  and  the  chemical  industries  of 
the  North  of  England  promise  well  in  the  future 
in  consequence. 
What  is  the  difference  between  an  annual  and 
a perennial  plant?  A thoughtless  person  will 
at  once  tell  you  that  one  never  lives  more 
than  a single  season,  and  the  other  for  perhaps 
many.  But  this  is  not  an  explanation ; it  is 
only  a statement  of  facts.  Annuals  are  remark- 
able as  being  free-flowering  plants.  We  grow 
many  species  of  them  in  our  gardens  on  account 
of  the  abundance  and  beauty  of  their  flowers. 
Flowering  is  an  act  of  vegetable  expenditure, 
whereas  leafing  is  one  of  vegetable  accumulation. 
Annuals  are  in  reality  plants  which  expend 
their  substance  in  riotous  floral  living  and  seed- 
ing. They  wear  themselves  out  in  a single 
season  thereby.  They  have  spent  all  they  have, 
and  there  is  no  vegetable  surplus  left  over  to 
carry  them  through  the  winter  and  enable 
them  to  start  business  again  when  spring  re- 
appears. On  the  other  hand,  perennial  plants 
of  all  kinds  bear  more  leaves  than  flowers.  They 
save  something  out  of  every  summer’s  existence, 
and  put  it  into  their  vegetable  savings  bank — as 
in  the  increasing  size  of  a tree’s  trunk  for  ex- 
ample. If  we  could  only  induce  annual  plants 
to  be  a little  more  thrifty,  a little  less  lavish 
in  their  floral  expenditure,  perhaps  we  could 
alter  their  habits  of  life,  and  convert  them  to 
the  perennial  condition. 
This  is  what  Professor  Meehan,  a distinguished 
American  botanist,  claims  to  have  done,  and 
he  has  just  read  a paper  on  his  method  before 
the  Philadelphia  Academy  of  Sciences.  It  is  a 
very  simple  plan,  and  consists  in  cutting  down 
the  flower  stems  as  soon  as  they  appear. 
Thus  no  expenditure  oan  take  plaoe,  only  vegetable 
accumulation.  An  annual  plant  gets  transformed 
into  a perennial,  and  by  continuing  to  cut 
down  the  flower  stem  the  perennial  condition 
can  not  only  be  secured,  but  possibly  may  be  in- 
herited. 
The  waste  of  a great  city  might  easily  feed 
its  desperate  poverty.  Chemists  turn  scrap  iron 
into  ink;  old  bones  into  lucifer-matches ; the 
shavings  of  the  blacksmith’s  shops  into  Prussian 
blue ; fusel  oil  into  oil  of  apples  and  pears ; the 
drainings  of  cow-houses  into  fashionable  perfume  ; 
cesspool  filth  into  ammonia ; and  tar  waste  into 
aniline  dyes  and  saccharine.  In  Paris  they  first 
utilise  rats  to  clear  the  flesh  from  the  bones ; 
then  kill  the  rats,,  use  up  the  fur  for  trimmings, 
their  skins  for  gloves,  their  thigh-bones  for 
toothpicks,  and  their  tendons  and  bones  for 
gelatine  wrappers. 
Last  week  I was  lecturing  in  Cumberland  and 
Westmoreland,  opening  the  sessions  of  the  local 
literary  and  scientific  societies.  1 was  taken  to 
Troutbeck,  one  of  the  largest  stream-feeders  of 
Lake  Windermere.  It  comes  brawling  from  the 
hills,  through  cataracts  of  weathered  stones, 
overhung  by  beech-woods,  which  latter  glowed 
in  the  vivid  slanting  sunlight  of  the  November 
afternoon  like  the  burning  bush  of  Moses.  The 
old  picturesque  mill  water-wheel,  sketched  by 
generations  of  dead  artists,  has  gone.  The 
energy  that  turned  it  to  grind  expensive  corn, 
and  to  manufacture  still  more  expensive  bread, 
will  never  go  ; for  the  old  mill-race  which 
ground  the  people’s  corn  500  years  ago  is  now 
utilised  to  work  a turbine  to  provide  electric 
light  and  power  for  the  adjoining  villages  of 
Windermere  and  Bowness.  The  neighbouring 
hills  are  formed  of  strata  infinitely  more  ancient 
than  our  coal-bearing  mines.  There  is  nothing 
in  them  of  the  nature  of  coal,  but  on  the  out- 
side of  their  hilly  flanks,  where  the  mists 
accumulate  and  the  rains  descend  in  torrents 
to  fill  the  becks  and  burns  and  ghylls,  we  have 
a modern  energy  quite  as  powerful,  and  as 
equivalent  for  practical  working  purposes  for 
ages  to  come  as  if  a quarter  of  those  hill  masses 
were  composed  of  coal . — Australasian. 
Vegetables  in  India  and  Cetlon  —Were  people 
strictly  to  adhere  to  vegetables  and  fruit  as  part 
of  their  ordinary  diet,  the  servioes  of  the  dootor 
would  not  be  so  frequently  required.  In  the  matter 
of  vegetables  celery,  onions,  oauliflower  asparagus, 
oarrots.  parsley  and  wateroress  should  be  at  all 
times  freely  used,  and  surely  they  arQ  easily 
enough  obtained,—  Nilgiri  News, 
