SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
per cent. of the fruits and vegetables grown in this country never reach 
the consumer as a result of poor transportation facilities, irregularities 
in marketing, and other causes. At the same time, greatly because of 
recent work on such questions as food hormones, the tendency is to 
use fresh foods wherever possible. The newer dehydration processes 
approach more nearly the requisite standards of fresh foods than do 
the older methods of preservation. The whole question is in a state of 
development. Dehydration offers the most promising outlook for the 
future. -Air dehydration marks a great advance over the older methods 
of food preservation, and it would appear that vacuum dehydration 
possesses, in its turn, advantages over air dehydration—(Journal of the 
Franklin Institution, Vol. 189, No. 1, January, 1920.) 
GAS-MASKS FOR INDUSTRIAL USE. 
The gas-mask is rapidly finding its proper place in the industries. 
Experience has shown that it has a wide application in protecting work- 
men from the noxious gases and fumes given off in many chemical 
operations. In rubber factoriés, gas-masks could be used around volatile 
solvents, such as carbon disulphide, carbon tetrachloride, sulphur 
chloride, and certain organic accelerators. In allied chemical plants 
they give good protection in pyrite smelting and roasting operations 
wherever sulphur dioxide or oxides of nitrogen are encountered. The 
war gave great impetus to the development of better gas-masks, and 
the United States of America Bureau of Mines has established a gas- 
mask department at its Pittsburgh Experiment Station, where masks 
of the army type are being developed for industrial use. The matter 
has already been taken up by this Institute in collaboration with a 
Committee of the Broken Hill Mine Managers’ Association, and a 
number of the latest type of box respirator masks is being’ obtained 
for experimental purposes. 
NEW SUGAR CANE PESTS. 
Supplementary information to that which has already been pub- 
lished by the Queensland Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations dealing 
with lepidopterous pests has recently been printed in Bulletin No. 9. 
The. bulletin has been prepared by Mr. Edmund Jarvis, Assistant 
Entimologist to the Queensland Government. Four of the insects 
described affect cane in other countries, and two of them—which 
happen to be closely related to the destructive “ Army worm” (Oirphis 
unipunctata)—at times cause sufficient injury to compel growers to take 
repressive measures. In addition to describing early-life stages, the 
writer has prepared lists enumerating a number of lepidoptera allied 
to the insects under consideration that affect cane elsewhere, reference 
to which will enable readers to determine at a glance indigenous species 
that may prove hurtful to this crop in the future, together with those 
whose possible introduction into Australia is undesirable. 
af CONTROLLING THE CORN WEEVIL. 
-The Marion County, Florida, agricultural agent, co-operating with 
the Bureau of Entomology’s field agent in Florida, reports his most 
valuable work to be controlling the corn weevil. During the current 
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