NOTES AND QUERIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3214, 20 October 1915, Page 47

NOTES AND QUERIES.

Questions for reply In coming Issue to bo received not later than SATURDAY night. Questions will NOT be replied to through tbe post. Fire. —The date of tho first fire at Guthrie and Larnach’s was August 23, 1874, and. of the second, January 23, 1887. Argument. —Scientists regard as superstition the power which is ascribed, to the moon. It is not admitted that it has a disturbing effect on individuals, nor that it has any injurious effect on meat or fish. Faeheh. —Your tomato plants have possibly failed, to strike owing to the absence of sufficient atmospheric heat. The coldness of the ground, even when the plants are under glass, is sufficient to cause them to rot. Concise, Matakanui.— (l) It is impossible to tell the names of the plant from the specimen forwarded—that is, the leaves. (2) Set a tub of new milk in a warm place. It takes rather more than Igal of milk to make lib of cheese, so that to make a 10lb cheese you would require about llgal of milk. Curdle it by dissolving a little rennet in hot water and adding it to the milk. It should curdle in six or eight hours. When well curdled, strain off the whey, and break up the curds small with the hands, and heap it up in little heaps so that it may drain well; add a handful of salt, mixing it well; let it stand for two or three hours, and break it email again. Then put a cheesecloth into a cheese-vat (a little perforated vat the size of the intended cheese), and fill it up with the curd. A board must then he placed -upon the top, and pressure applied, commencing gradually with 4cwt or scwt, and reaching to a ton the second day. Turn the cheese, and press further for a day. Take it out and grease well after dipping in brine, and place it on a dry, cool shelf to ripen, turning it every day for a month or two. (3) The address you seek is "The Bungalow, Short Beach, Connecticut.” Pioneer’s Daughter. —Your stamp is a New South Wales first issue, and, if in good order, is worth about 10s. Edievaee asks; —‘‘Will anyone please tell me where to get the old song - , by Eliza Cook, in which the following lines occur: “ ‘You are going far away, far away from poor Jeanette; < There is no one left to love me now, and you may, too, forget. With your gun upon your shoulder and your bayonet by your side, You’ll be taking some proud lady and bo making her your bride.’ ” H. H. —Crops are inclined to yield a lighter weight per acre and the soil to become exhausted under continual cropping of the same crop. Fertility can best be kept up with farm or stable manure applied shortly after lifting the carrots. The fertiliser necessary, failing the above, should be one containing nitrogen. If necessary, however, to continue growing roots, would recommend swede turnip to be sown with phosphatic manure. S. T., Westport.—-Mr H. M. Davey, consulting engineer, replies: —“There are, as you no doubt know, more than one class of steam e ngines—some quick speed, some slow, some with one sort of valves, and some with another. I will therefore give one class where a short ‘ D ’ valve is used; but of course the explanation may be more or less useless until you give me the speed, diameter of cylinder, and class of valve controlling the steam. Presuming you have a valve as above, and it is worked direct from an eccentric, the said eccentric should be so set that the valve opens for the next stroke a trifle before the piston has finished the last stroke. This is more important in the quicker speed of engine than in those that go slower, and the reason is that the incoming steam forms a cushion to prevent the piston rushing to the cylinder enl, and helps to start it on the return journey. That may be all you can do, unless you alter the length of the slide valve or get another, either of these only being needed if the cut-off now comes in the wrong portion of the stroke; but until you send me more information I could not advise you as to the position in the stroke that the said cut-off should be, as for that I would need to know about the amount of steam pressure and speed you work at. Kindly, therefore, write again sending the particulars asked for, together with a statement as to whether the engine is on the strong or on the weak side for the work you are making it do.” Dredge, Hokitika.—Mr H. M. Davey, consulting engineer, replies : —“I regret that in the reply in last issue there are two errors, and in both cases the figure 8 has been printed instead of 3. In the ninth line of the reply the number of strands should have been 37, and not 87; and under the 4in column the number printed 83 should have been 33.” J. M. . 0., Glenham.—Mr H. M. Davey, engineer, replies:—“ It would have been far better if you had said a little pioro about the article you wrote about. If correspondents generally were to read over their letters and consider that they wrote to persons who did not know what they knew, and so give a little more description, they would be likely to get far better and clearer replies. However, the cheapest mode of protection in New Zealand is the design protection, and in full extension it continues for 15 years, and for some inventions it is exceedingly good, while for others a patent is a far better protection, and this in full extension lasts for 14 years. If you could send a sketch and a description—or, better still, a model or a sample—then far more could be told you.”