NOTES AND QURIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1934, 19 March 1891, Page 20

NOTES AND QURIES.

Bxcexsiob. — Arrangements for the attendance of women at the medioal course are by no meant complete, chiefly for the reason that hitherto no women have applied. It is not probable that arrangements could be made unless there were a good clais— say 10 or 12- formed. All particulars regarding the medical classes can be gathered from the "University Calendar," price Is, published by Mr Horsburgh. . J. A., Mangatarata. — (1; Whether the direct steamers go round the Horn or through the Straits of Magellan Is at the option of the captain. They do sometimes go through the strait, but more frequently round the Horn. (2) The direct steamers never <jo through the Suez Canal. 0.8. — Music for the Victoria orpane'teie not obtainable in Dunedin. Messrs O. Begg aud Co. would import some for you. Novice. — Make a small iDciilun under the K'ft wing, having first broken the bones 01 the legs aud wings, and proceed to carefully extract the bird through the opening made, leaving nothing behind but the sknll. The Skin should be withdrawn from the skull as far as postible, and as much of the musclei of the head removed as can be done— the brain aIBO being extracted with a small scoop, and the eyes removed. Then put in some preserving powder, and fill the brain space with cotton wool. Then draw the skin carefully again over the skull. This Bounds very easy ; but skinning a bird for stuffing is a very delicate operation Dust the inside of the skin thoroughly with preserving powder, which may be bought from any chemist ; or mix equal parts of powder camphor and hitter apple with a little ?rstnic. or else paint tbe Inside ot the skin with a solution of corrosive sublimate in methylated spirit, and proceed to wire Some prepare a tow body of about the required shape and size, and stretch the ekin on that, others put the ends of the wires into a large cork, and stuff tbe prepared tow around that sb occasion requires, lastly, sew the opening, pin the wings in position, wind tbe cotton round the body to shape, and set aside to dry. Micawbek - (1) The New South Wales fl^g is a blue ensign with a green vvrralh towards the left-hand i corner, containing a red crocs, in the centre of which is a lion find a white star at each extremity, the ground work of tbe sections caused by the cross being white. (2) The Few Zealand flag ia ' nlao the sirnens a blu° ennign. It ie riividfd into four sicMons by a red orort), both left hond irct,io»s atul the lower r'{;ht liiind 01 <■ beii>;{ white. The ripper ripht-haud sec' ion Is Mibclivdsil into four sections by n rrd Given, the gr-tiiwl work of the teclions being bliio wilh :: »bile etnr in thn If centre of ech (3) The Few Zealand contof snns I i is typical of local itidustii'e, such ut wcl. 'giio.ullil ture, mining. &c , In conjunction with a repre- \\ aentation of a bishop and a Maori. (-0 The Aus- | tralian coat of prms has a kangaroo aud an emu at / either t-ide of a bbielii contaiDirg eintli-ros of / national industries. (5) I'he advantege like'y to } accrue is lhat the colony will be constantly before the British public, and our resources will concequently attract attention which they might ri t otherwise 1 eceive. (6) Aluminium is one of the metals present in clay, grtuiite, aud other rocky and earthy substances. The prop' rties of A. aro. that it is a white metal, somewhat resembling silver, but poesessiGg ab'uish hue. which reminds one of zinc It ia very realisable and ductile, nud in tenacity ifc approaches iron. When htat.ed in a furnace it fuses, and c»n thrn bi cast in moulds into ingots. Exposed to dry or moist air it it unHJterable, and does not ox'dise bo much as lead and zinc do. Cold water has certainly no action upou it, and in the majority of experiments hot wsittr has not sensibly affected It. Sulphui etted hydrogen, the gao which go readily turnisheß thesilves in households, forming a blacli film on the surfice, does not act on A. When fuel *nd cast into moulds it is a soft; metal like pure silver, arid has 4 density of 2 56 ; but when humraered or rolled it becomes as hard as iron, and its density mc rases to 2 67. It is therefore a very li'shfc n ctnl, being lighter than glnss, nnd only <me-fom'. h r>a heavy as silver. (7) Yes, one or two have, ye believe, d"ne so, but we cannot nt present recall thf Ir names. Milfobd Souwp.— Messrs Sutherland and Moreton forward a' lengthy letter in reply to a recent Pais«

Ing Note on their joint venture at the Sound, the giat of which is that their card is printed with terra cotta ink, not gold ; that the chalet is not a public house, but elm ply what it professes to be ; and tbat what they oner to their Jewith brethren is a mutter between them 'and the firm, and no business of anyone else. Hichabd Nobman writes:—" I forward you three plants for identification. One 1b like a teaiel ; 16 hnsyel'ow flowers, vtinged seeds, and is covered with prickles. I used to see an odd plant of it in past yea's, but this past season being very wet it 1b quite common. I caw nearly half an acre of it. The 'etinkweed' is now very common. It has ftnuU black seeds like coarse gunpowder, and a small blue flower. The other plaut grows on the dry ground of a dam made to catch rain water, I do" not »cc it anywhere else, but I have a dim recollection of seeing 6om« of it some years back growing in a drled-up dam. It has a fragrant aromatic smell and ayellow flower, and lies flat on the ground." — (1) The teHsel-like plant is the contaurea calcifcrapa (star thistle). (2) The stink vi-cii fa aii Australiau weed (nitrarettla equaroaa). (•'l) Wf shall require better a; id fresher specimen! o,' the other plant for identification Taxed Citizen.— Attacks on a loca^offlcer's method of performing his business are not ■permissible over a norn de plume ; in addition to which you' have transgressed our rules by writing on both sides of the p iper. The Hessian Fly.— Mr A. 0. Purdie kindly supplies us with the following remarks on this subjt^ct: — This destructivn Insect hse nt, last found us way into the South Ulaud of New Zealand. 16 has been known to exist in the North Island for \ears. If the fields of wheat and barley begin to look uuhealthy, we shall find on inspection, if they are attacked by the Hessian fly, dark coloured objects packed tightly between the outer coverings, or pn.-teotingbladei, and the knots )of the Second j>>liits above the rooti of the plants. From their p-ouliar shape and colour, and their remarkable letemb'ance to grains of Unseed, they are called "flax seeds'' in America. The following description from Mr Whitebead'f , F L.S., F.G.S., " Report of the Commmioners appointed by thf. fiiig'ish Government on the Visitation of the Hesnan Fly," will be of interest: — " The H< ssiait fl.y (Oecldomyla destructor) resembles a tiny gnat, being about the eighth of an inch long ltd body is brown, with the bead and fore part of the body of a rather darker colour. The wings are grey, or smoke coloured, and have loDg fine fringes around them, with peculiar veins characteristic of the Cecldomyias. Its long horns, or antenna;, aie like strings of beads. The flies lay their eggs on the blades of the wheat and barley, plants and the lap a; proceeding from these eggs' will attack 2nd injure the v, heat and barley plants 1 Bach female fly, according to Mr Herrick, a muohquoted American authority, lays from 80 to ,100 eggs, and places from 20 to 40 upon a single leaf, in the creases of the upper parts of the blades of the young corn plants. The eggs are «oon hatched— if the weather Is favourable, in about eight days. The egg is about the fiftieth of an inch long, cylindrical, and translucent, of n pile red colour, becoming in a few hours irregulatly spotted with deeper red, according to Mr Herrick in the American Journal of Science. The larva or maggot is without legs, having 14 joints It is close on the eighth of an inoh in length when full grown, being then of s clouded white hue, and showing faint greenish lines under the tkin. After the larva has been batched it proceeds from its birthplace on the leaf above almost invarlab'y to the second joint of the stem, at the base of the blade or leaf, and fixe* itself bead downwards and close to the soft stem, and with its rudimentary mouth and ittancborproeess.aa is supposed, absorbs the juices of the plants. '1 hie cauies unhealthlness of the plant, and If there are throe or four larva} round one stem it bbnds dnwu. and in these circumstances the plant cannot develop perfect grain, and thus the crop is seriously injured. The amount of injury caused by the Hessian fly, according to the report of the oommiisioners appointed by the Government to inquire into the vitifcntlon of the fly to England and Scotland, varies from a few damaged stems on an acre to the loss of 12 bushels of grain per acre. Ihe greatest amouut of reported Injury to one particular crop was In Scotland , where the loss was estimated at 12 bushels per sore. Wheat and barley plants hnve so far onh , been noticed to be attacked in Great Britain by,,tbe fly." It would appear from the letter of a -correspondent recently received by the Witness tbat pupa ca«e» of the Hessian fly are very prevalent in most of the later crops in the North Taieri district In view of the urgent importance of preventing the distribution of these pupa cases and their subsequent development into Hessian flies, in" the first warm days of spring, every means should be adopted at once by local authorities to warn agriculturists of the danger. The light grains and "cbogo," the weed seeds, and all other refuse whioh falls through the riddles and screens ihould be carefully examined. If pupa cases are found, the light grains and " chogs should be disposed of, so as to effectually prevent the distribution of the insect, while the weed seeds and other refute should be burnt. Where pupa oases are found in the straw a large proportion of them might be destroyed by outting the stems above the second joint and ploughing in the stubble directly the corn is carried off, care being taken tbat all the stubble is buried, or the land may be scarified and the stubble carefully collected and burnt. W. N. A.— The articles required for a camping-out expedition are as follows for a party of thr<-e: — 6xß tent with poles, guy ropes, and fly to keep rain out, frs ing-pan, 3in billy (two quart), three pannikins knives, forks, spoons ; some tinned meats, bread, &o. ; small tomahawk ; piece of American cloth to put under the bedding to keep out damp. 1 t would also be as well to take a qupply of tent-pegs cut the size required. Gudewife. — (1) Apples can be dried by either eun heat or fire beat. Whichever method is employed they must be pared, cored, and sliced ; and cheap, -handy machines can now be had for both paring, coring, and slicing. For the primitive way of drying In the sun, the rings of apples can be threaded on strings and hung up in a suitable place. But this is a slow* process compared with that of drying by artificial heat. Of course there are different methods of doing tbia, thf ugh the principle is the same in most drying machines— viz , exposing the fruit to the ascending air heated br a furnace, the fruit being placed on open trays. The following is a very simple and efficient apple drier:— The drier ie a metallic box, having wire g.iuze top and bottom, and containing racks upon whioh to pace the fruit. There is a hot air chamber below the wire gauze bottom, adapted to rest on or be suspended over the top of a cooking stove by cords from the ceiling, whioh are attached to drums on the Sides of the drier, so that by turning a crank the drier can be quickly raised up and suspended above the stove, when the latter is wanted for cooking purposes, without wholly BiiepMiding the drying proceos With tbia kind of n drier the ordinary stove may bo utilised for the better without iraterial interference with the cooking iterations, nud on the other band the cooking opeiatiuns will not materially interfere with the firier. A ttheet metal slide ia sometimes insprted under tho Irnys to prottct Uip tmit from the s 1 earn that may rise at times. It may also be pHcod ofer th« trays to prevent; the escare of hot i-.fr wlien {'ppired! It may bo added that in America an Alden evaporator rtquiro« about 4cwt of coals to dry 100 bushels of apples, which it (-ffects i 7» about 24 hours. 'J ho apples aro mostly windfalls, and bought at the rale nf 20c to 30c per 1001b. K.ich evai orator n quires three of Hubbard's npple-parers at'd slice™ to keep it. going, requiring two girls to attend to each Before drying, the fruit is bleached with the fumes of burning eulphur, whioh whilen it without affecting taeto or qualir.y. Then the neceesnry manual attendance b'>xos for taking the fruit, and many other etceteras must be ta'fen into account ; and afl.er all, each bu.hel of apples jie'da only 51b of diicd fruit, whfch in America is worth 3Jd per lb on the&p:>t, though selling in London for Is per lb. (a)Fiom the ab ye you will infer thnt all kino's ;<re mi d, but 1 hfrf can be no doubt that the coking tarieti'.s are much pi eferable to the eating ones. Constant Bbadeb, Gore.— The answer to all three questions is No.