I I 00 
Tht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
September 24, 1021 
Simple Science 
Nature Notes 
By Dr. F. D. Crane 
- 
Wood Alcohol from Potatoes; Medicinal 
Value of White Birch and Sumac Berries 
IIow can I make wood alcohol from 
potatoes? ('an small culls be used? Are 
there medicinal qualities in the sumac 
This Cni Eats Cucumbers 
berries? Are the twigs of white birch 
used in any way? c. E. n. 
Saugerties, N. Y. 
You cannot make wood alcohol (methyl 
alcohol) from anything but wood, and 
even to make it from wood calls for an 
expensive layout and lots of wood. Grain 
alcohol, which is denatured for commer¬ 
cial purposes, can be made from potatoes 
of any size, or from any other starchv 
matter. .The starch is cooked, split by 
acid or malt to starch sugar, fermented 
with yeast and distilled. Aside from anv 
excise restrictions, you would find that to 
compete with those already in the market 
would call for more cash outlay than 
would be justified unless you had a large 
group of farms behind you. That will 
come some day; your cull’ “spuds” will no 
doubt drive your grandson’s flivver, or 
perhaps his flying machine, to market, 
with his selected first-grade crop. But at 
present the game is not worth the candle; 
better feed the culls to the pigs. 
Sumac berries have a market, rather 
limited and easily swamped. 
AVe know of no use for white birch 
twigs at present, but some ancient author¬ 
ities say that in the past there was more 
or less call for them in the neighborhood 
of country schools. 
Manufacture of Malted Milk 
How is malted milk made? s. a. m. 
The sort that comes dry. in a bottle, is 
the result, if honestly made, of treating 
milk with powdered malt for a time, 
straining out the residue of the malt and 
evaporating the fluid portion to a solid. 
Sometimes more malt is added, and some¬ 
times some other starch. It is not likely 
that this could be made on a small scale. 
To produce a genuine malted milk either 
whole or skim-milk is well mixed with 
one-thirtieth its weight, more or less, de¬ 
pending on the malt, of a good quality 
ground malt, and held at 60 degrees F. 
for two hours. If the product is to be 
used at once nothing further is needed 
but straining out the residue of the malt. 
If it is to be kept it should he raised to 
boiling for a time, which both stops the 
action of the malt and sterilizes the milk. 
But even then it must be preserved on 
ice and soon used, since it is a very good 
food for all sorts of germs. 
Re-inking Typewriter Ribbons 
If Dr. Crane knows of any feasible 
treatment for the rejuvenation of type¬ 
writer ribbons it would please myself and 
probably many more to know of the 
method. It would seem that there should 
be a way of impregnating the ribbon with 
ink once more, as the ribbon itself is sel¬ 
dom damaged in use. I find my big type¬ 
writer trouble is to keep the ribbon inking 
freely like this new one. a. it p 
Sodus, N. Y. 
The best quality consists of a base of 
castor oil with S to 10 per cent oleic acid 
added. In this is dissolved about 5 per 
cent of aniline color in the form of a 
base, not in the water-soluble form usually 
found on the market. If you can get 
these three ingredients you can make a 
good quality ink, but you will find a new 
problem in getting it evenly on the rib¬ 
bon. The manufacturers have a special 
machine for this, but a small brush and 
moderation will give fair results, espe¬ 
cially if you will let it age for a few days 
and distribute itself in the fabric. Re¬ 
member. in getting your color, to insist 
on the oil-soluble base. 
Mixing Burnt Umber with Creosote 
Will burnt umber mix with creosote to 
stain the side walls of a house? 
Newfane, N. Y. n. h. s. 
Too much depends on what you mean 
by “creosote.” If it will carry a little oil 
you can then thin your umber with that 
and mix it in. If the creosote is too 
watery you can only keep the umber in 
suspension by constant stirring, and it is 
hardly worth while to bother with it, as 
the first rain will wash it off. The umber 
is merely a clay rich in iron, and must 
have some sow of a skin-forming medium 
to hold it on the surface, or it will act as 
so much chalk 
Signs of Oil or Sulphur 
In places where the soil is dark and it 
is mostly damp I notice a peculiar sil¬ 
very and red color on the standing water. 
Is this a sign of either oil or sulphur? 
Patria, X. Y. i. f. ii. 
It is not a sign of sulphur and, as you 
describe it. it is very unlikely that it is 
a sign of oil. A skin of minute plants, 
millions of them, is formed on standing 
pools in Summer, and often has an oily 
look. A while ago a practical geologist 
gave us a simple and sure test: Stir 
gently with a stick. The oil skin, if by 
any chance it is present, will join again 
and look as before; any other skin will 
remain broken and float a way. Once in 
a while a swamp pool will develop traces 
of a true oil from the decomposition and 
release of the oily constituents of plants 
or animals at the bottom, but it is very 
doubtful if \ou have any true mineral oil 
in your locality. 
Sulphur Dioxide in Syrup 
lias sulphur dioxide a bad effect on the 
human system? Why is it noted on some 
syrup cans, and always in small print? 
Sheridan, Wyo. a. p. d. 
Sulphur dioxide, which is the gas you 
get when you burn brimstone (do you 
remember the days of sulphur matches?), 
will kill if breathed in sufficient strength. 
Whether traces of it taken internally 
have any effect at all is an open ques¬ 
tion ; whether there is any “sulphur diox¬ 
ide” in the can by the time it reaches 
your table is very doubtful indeed. What 
is there is almost certainly in the form 
of a sulphite, and there is as yet no proof 
that traces of this ever hurt anyone. 
The reason it is noted on the cans is a 
mixture of politics and poppycock. Sul¬ 
phur fumes have been used to bleach and 
purify from time immemorial, just as salt 
and saltpeter have been used to cure 
meats from the earliest days. All of 
these things are bad if you get too much 
of them inside, and making them print 
the amount keeps them within reason. A 
can of molasses properly bleached and 
sterilized with a little sulphur dioxide is 
no doubt a better article of food than the 
old sort dipped into a barrel right out of 
Ihe pan. but, incidentally, yeast cells will 
not grow so well in it when diluted with 
water. 
Waterproof Dressing for Boots 
What is a good waterproof dressing 
for boots which will keep the leather soft? 
North Hero, Yt. h, e. f. 
Oil. more oil, and then some more oil. 
It may better be a vegetable or animal 
oil, lard or neat’s-foot, for instance, but 
a good mineral oil can be used. A little 
beeswax, melted into the oil, is considered 
an advantage by many. Rosin is fre¬ 
quently _ advised, but will harden the 
leather in time. If you want to keep the 
color black, you must either use a good 
blacking in between two oilings or color 
the oil with “oil-soluble black.” which 
can be had from the dyestuff people. But 
you cannot shine a well-oiled boot; the 
waterproof dressings are varnishes, and 
when they crack they cease to be water¬ 
proof. Some blackings are made which 
carry a pretty fair load of carnahuba 
wax, and these will waterproof for a time 
without harming the leather. But for 
boots to be worn in all sorts of weather 
there is nothing but oil. and plenty of it. 
Some recipes suggest dissolving rubber in 
the oil by heat, but this is not easy; 
better stick to the straight oil, or add a 
little beeswax. 
Mending a Stone Crock 
A 20-gallon stone crock, which has been 
used for some years to pack down meats, 
has developed a fine crack about 6 or 8 
inches long near the bottom. What will 
stop it? MRS. j. B. s. 
Osceola, Pa. 
The chances are all against yon, since 
the salty liquid has soaked into the sub¬ 
stance of the jar itself. Still, a crock of 
that size is worth some effort, and you 
might fill it a few times with clean water 
and let it leak out through the crack. 
This is to wash it free from all salt, so 
far as possible. Then let it get entirely 
dry, which will take a week - or two. Then 
see if you can work in a thin cream of. 
litharge in glycerine; perhaps you can 
suck it into the crack. If you can get it 
in, give it a couple of months to harden. 
Perhaps a little silicate of soda, water- 
glass. with powdered lime in it, will work 
better. The trick is to get it into the 
crack ; it is not likely that anything will 
stick on the glazed surface. Anything 
you use must he put inside; if not. the 
pickle will work into the crack and en¬ 
large it steadily. In fact, it is likely that, 
you will never get free from the salt 
which is already in the substance of the 
crock, but something depends on how hard 
if was burned when made. 
Are Woodchucks Meat Eaters? 
In The R. N.-Y. of July .‘!0 there is a 
lot about woodchucks. Here in Pennsyl¬ 
vania they call them “groundhogs.” I am 
told that they eat chickens. One man 
says that lie has seen a groundhog carry¬ 
ing a chicken off in his mouth. Another 
says that he found chicken bones in the 
stomach of a groundhog. They must have 
been as hard for the poor woodchuck to 
swallow as the story was for me. Will 
The It. N.-Y. tell us whether the wood¬ 
chuck is herbivorous only, or omnivorous? 
W. W. II. 
The most we can say about this ques¬ 
tion is that we do not know. I have 
never seen a woodchuck carrying off a 
chicken, but various persons have told 
me that they have seen it clone. Ho far 
as their scientific classification goes, 
woodchucks are sqhirrels, and we know 
that most of the squirrels eat some meat. 
Most of the tree squirrels eat birds and 
their eggs whenever they can get them. 
We do not know so much about the food 
of the ground squirrels. 
Many of the other gnawing animals eat 
meat. Rats and mice eat any kind of 
meat when they can get it. Muskrats eat 
river clams whenever they can get them, 
and are accused of eating fish and water 
birds. If seems to be necessary for most, 
if not all, of the herbivorous animals to 
eat some meat at times. 
From the evidence at hand I can only 
say that it is not proven that woodchucks 
do or do not eat meat, and that there is 
some slight indication that they do. They 
are apparently not so much meat eaters 
as the tree squirrels, which do not get :;o 
much green material in their food. 
A. C. W. 
“Green Meadow Bird Sanctuaries” 
In riding through West Virginia lately 
I saw a number of signs marked as above. 
What are these “sanctuaries?” .t. s. 
Tt: appears that those sanctuaries are 
the outgrowth of the bedtime stories by 
Thornton W. Burgess, Green Meadow, 
being one of the locations constantly 
figuring in the Peter Rabbit stories. 
These sanctuaries are promoted through 
the People's Home Journal of New York. 
This publication has established what is 
called the Green Meadow Club. The re¬ 
sult has been the posting of Green Mea¬ 
dow Club Bird Sanctuaries covering mil¬ 
lions of acres of land, on which wild life 
is protected. 
A Talk About Robins 
1 have watched with intense interest 
Ihe discussions on our old friend the 
robin. I am a zoologist and scientific 
collector, and I am intimately acquainted 
with our birds. Before T take up the dis¬ 
cussion. however, I wish to say that T am 
a bird-lover, but careful observations have 
taught me to believe in treating the whole 
bird world fairly and with the utmost im¬ 
partiality. The majority of so-called 
bird-lovers would not, wish to see any 
species harmed or their numbers dimin¬ 
ished by even one specimen. This vision 
of the case, however, is very narrow, with 
a great deal of partiality being shown 
toward the good side of the birds. Many 
fruit growers and fanners are prejudiced 
against birds in general because a few 
species which they know to be a menace 
to them and their crops have been praised 
and protected by a great number of well- 
meaning but uninformed bird-lovers. 
Many people claim that a few species 
of birds, which cause very much damage 
to crops, destroy enough injurious insects 
to more than counterbalance their dam¬ 
age. This is a wide detraction from the 
truth. 
The fruit, grower and farmer of today 
has very little fear of injurious insects, 
because they can all be controlled by the 
use of various sprays. What good is 
derived from the destruction of injurious 
insects if the crop which the insect would 
have destroyed is completely demolished 
by the insect destroyer? As for planting 
a few extra cherry trees or two or three 
mulberry trees to feed the robins, it would 
not even be a drop in the bucket for the 
thousands of hungry birds. I know from 
personal observations that any birds will 
turn away from mulberries for sweet 
cherries, and it. would be necessary for 
each fruit grower to plant a score or more 
of mulberry trees to save the sour cher¬ 
ries from the great multitudes. 
The only sensible thing to do is to 
diminish the few species of destructive 
birds until they are no longer destructive. 
In this way we would learn to know all 
birds as friends. w. H. D. 
Huron, O. 
Catching Eels 
I have a land-locked pond covering 0Vi 
acres, fed by springs within itself; muck 
bottom; stocked with bass, pickerel and 
perch. It abounds with eels; have tried 
various ways of catching them, with poor 
success. Will you suggest how to cap¬ 
ture them ? T. n. e, 
Glastonbury. Conn. 
Probably the best way of taking the 
eels in this pond would be by some kind 
of eel-pot. These are made in similar 
fashion to the lobster-pots that are used 
along the coast. There may be some 
State law that regulates their use and 
the distance apart of the laths on the 
sides. There is such a law in New 
York. The eel-pots are baited with al¬ 
most anything.that eels like; fish heads 
are probably as good as anything. Eels 
can also be caught on set-lines near the 
bottom baited with large worms or pieces 
of minnows. 
I do not quite understand what is 
meant by a land-locked pond in this case. 
If it is like some of our glacial ponds and 
lakes, with no apparent outlet or inlet, 
one would not expect to find eels in it. 
Tt may be that T. B. E. simply means 
that the outlet is small and mostly choked 
with water plants, etc. If the pond is 
really without apparent outlet, or if there 
is a dam in the outlet, I shall be glad to 
know more about it, and especially any¬ 
thing that can be told about how the 
young eels got into it. a. o. w. 
Where Gannets Swarm 
The queer-looking aquatic bird shown 
in the aecorapaning picture is called a 
gannet (Hula bassana). It is occasion¬ 
ally seen by off-shore fishermen along the 
Atlantic Coast from Virginia lo Florida, 
also in the Sounds of Albemarle and 
Pamlico. As it lives entirely on fish, the 
oily fat-back (menhaden) that travel in 
immense schools, is its principal food. 
The birds often cause great annoyance 
and loss to the menhaden fishermen by 
diving with great force into a school of 
these fish just as the fishermen are getting 
ready to surround them with their nets, 
causing the whole school to sink immedi¬ 
ately. and possibly swim away many miles 
before again appearing on the surface. 
In calm weather, when the sea is compar- 
The Gannet 
atively smooth, sailors sometimes amuse 
themselves by slowly towing a plank a 
few inches under the surface of the water, 
upon which a fish has been nailed. If 
this lure appears satisfactory to a bird, 
it will dive with such force, generally 
from a height of 50 or 100 feet, as to 
drive its bill through the board, killing 
it instantly, of course. 
Bird Island, off the coast of South 
Africa, is at some seasons of the year 
literally alive with these birds. Sailors 
and travelers who have witnessed the 
scene say it is a wonderful sight to see 
the birds strutting around so close to¬ 
gether that not a particle of land is visi¬ 
ble, giving one the impression, as viewed 
from tin' deck of a vessel, that the island 
is moving. a. n. dart. 
North Carolina. 
Cats and Cucumbers 
I believe we have a cat which beats the 
mu.skmelon eating one. Am sending a 
picture of Skipper eating a cucumber. 
We grow our cucumbers under glass 
three rows to a house upon wire. Every 
time we pick we finds the remains of 
cukes hanging on the vines. Skipper is 
not particularly fond of flesh. We have 
known him to catch several rats when 
they appeared before him. He likes 
banana peels, squash seed, sweet corn on 
the ear, apples and potatoes. T once tried 
him on molasses candy. He liked the 
taste of it but when it got stuck in his 
teeth there were doings. If asleep and in 
the next room, when my wife begins to 
peel potatoes or apples he immediately 
wakes up and is very loving until his ap¬ 
petite is satisfied. o. h. p. 
Connecticut. 
Discouraging the Robber Robin 
A R. N.-Y. subscriber, Frank D. Moul¬ 
ton. has been telling me how he protects 
his cherries from the birds. He takes a 
piece of black rubber hose about 8 ft. 
long. On one end he fastens two boot 
buttons, and then weaves the hose among 
the branches with the button end stand¬ 
ing up. The birds, thinking it a snake, 
avoid the tree. Mr. Moulton says it 
works just as effectually in the straw¬ 
berry beds. f. C. C. 
