Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 March 1896 — SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. [ARTICLE]

SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

—Perfumes are now extensively manufactured in the United States,-and the native articles are said by experts to (compare favorably with foreign manufactures. , —England manufactures perfumes on a very large scale,importing many oi the materials from other countries, but also making large use of homegrown herbs and flowers." —Many woods have sugar and gum In their composition, and tho presence of these elements is generally shown by the attraction the wood seems to have for many kinds of insects. —The wheat yield in the Genesee valley, Idaho, this season is immense. W. N. Gibb threshed 9,000 bushels off of 200 acres, averaging about 45 bushels to the acre. Dan Healy cut and thrashed 44 acres of wheat that went 52 bushels to the acre. —A Missouri rattlesnake at the museum of comparative zoology at Cambridge has brien observed to lose his skin twice a year and to odd a rattle for every skin. Instead of losing the rattles os he does the skin, they are retained by the closing of the inner end of the old rattle over the knob of the new one, and accidents accepted, tho snake bears with him this record of hia n**» -■’*--* ■*: -• ■ - £7 -t : v;- * i • —The trade in California sweet wihes is showing a gratifying increase. Tho total estimated product for this year ia 3,000,000 gallons, which ia 86 per cent, more than was marketed lhst prior. Heretofore there has been .little profitin tberintagesbecauseof the fierce competition of growers; but the producers have now made arrangements with & Sweet-win? .syndicate which will control the entire product of the state and give all concerned some share in the profit. —ln America it has been observed that bees often bore tubular corollas In order to get at the nectar of flowers, instead of entering by the mouth, ris humblebees do in Europe. In essayson the croesfertillzation of flowers, this supposed anomaly has been tho subject of much eommeat It now appears that the humblebees of Europe and America have identical habits in regard to the manner in which visits to flowers are mode, and that it is the class of insects known as the carpenter bee, or the borer, which works In the outside manner indicated. —The question of the influence of the size of seed* upon germination and upon the size of the plants that spring therefrom has recently been* studied anew by Mr. B. B. Galloway, a summary of whose conclusions is given by the Gardeners’ Chronicle. The weight and Size of the seed are of great importance, A large seed germinates better and more quickly', and with it one can count upon having at the same moment from 85 to--00 per cent, of the total crop,while with small seeds the crop reaches maturity only in successive periods of time, so that at no moment in gathering the crop in toto could we have the same proportion of the whole. Besides, . where with small seeds four Buccessivecrops are obtained, we have six with large seeds, their evolution occurring with greater rapidity.