**f4LTiSr™ '  I  Varieties.  1 03 
The  first  experiment  of  bringing  honey  in  the  comb  on  a  large  scale  to  Europe  from 
America  having  proved  successful,  it  will,  no  doubt,  be  repeated.  Honey  will  even 
perhaps  become  with  us  as  it  was  with  the  ancients,  an  important  article  of  food.'1 
Cow's  Milk.  By  Schreiner. — On  boiling  milk  hydrogen  sulphide  is  evolved,  and; 
can  be  easily  detected  in  the  usual  way. 
Boiled  milk  does  not  coagu'ate  spontaneously  so  soon  as  unboiled  milk  ;  whilst, 
on  the  contrary,  boiled  milk  requires  10  to  12  per  cent,  more  acid  to  coagulate  it 
than  unboiled  milk  does.  The  amount  of  rennet  which  serves  to  curdle  fresh  milk 
is  insufficient  to  curdle  one-tenth  the  amount  of  boiled  milk,  even  when  applied  ten 
times  as  long,  and  at  the  same  temperature  (35*0).  The  time  required  for  spon- 
taneous coagulation  of  fresh  milk  and  the  amount  of  acid  required  to  produce  the 
same  effect,  depend  on  the  amount  of  solids  in  the  milk.  Unboiled  milk  treated  with 
rennet  curdles  the  sooner  the  less  the  amount  of  total  solids.  The  amount  of  acid 
required  to  coagulate  milk  from  the  same  animal  increases  in  the  time  from  the  last 
calving  up  to  the  subsequent  dry  period,  with  the  increase  of  the  total  solids  during 
the  lactation  period.  Milk  from  Friesland  cows  gave  an  increase  of  solids  during 
this  period  of  from  11  to  13  per  cent.,  whilst  that  from  Simmenthal  cows  gave  an 
increase  from  12  to  16  per  cent.  Crosses  between  the  two  breeds  gave  milk  which 
sometimes  approached  the  one  and  sometimes  the  other  in  the  amount  of  increase. — 
Journ.  Chem.  Soc ,  Dec  ,  1878,  from  Landiv.  Versuchs-Stat.,  xxii,  p.  60  to  64. 
Cloth  from  Pine  Apple  Fibres.— At  Singapore,  in  the  East  Indies,  there  is  quite 
a  thrifty  branch  of  business  in  prepaiing  the  fibres  of  the  pine-apple  leaves  for 
exportation  to  China,  where  they  are  manufactured  into  cloth.  The  process  of 
extracting  and  bleaching  the  fibres  is  exceedingly  simple.  The  first  step  is  to 
remove  the  fleshy  or  succulent  sides  of  the  leaf.  A  Chinese,  astride  on  a  narrow 
stool,  extends  on  it  in  front  of  him  a  pine-apple  leaf,  one  end  of  which  is  kept  firm, 
being  packed  beneath  a  small  bundle  of  cloth  on  which  he  sits.  He  then,  with  a 
kind  of  two-handled  plane  of  bamboo,  removes  the  succulent  matter.  Another  man 
receives  the  leaves  as  they  are  planed,  and  with  his  thumb  nail  loosens  and  gathers 
the  fibres  about  the  middle  of  the  leaf,  which  enables  him,  by  one  effort,  to  detach 
the  whole  of  them  from  the  outer  skin.  The  fibres  are  next  steeped  in  water  for 
some  time,  after  which  they  are  washed,  in  order  to  free  them  from  the  matter  which 
still  adheres  and  binds  them  together.  They  are  now  laid  out  to  dry  and  bleach 
on  rude  frames  of  split  bamboo.  The  process  of  steeping,  washing  and  exposing 
to  the  sun  is  repeated  for  some  days  until  the  fibres  are  considered  to  be  properly 
bleached.  Without  further  preparation  they  are  sent  into  town  for  exportation  to 
China.  Nearly  all  the  islands  near  Singapore  are  more  or  less  planted  with  pine 
apples,  which,  at  a  rough  estimate,  cover  an  extent  of  2,000  acres. — Public  Ledger. 
