Scientific American Supplement, No. 613, October 1, 1887 by Various

V >> Various >> Scientific American Supplement, No. 613, October 1, 1887

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

Large portions of Jackson, Wood, Monroe, Marinette, Juneau, and Green
counties are natural cranberry marshes. The Wisconsin Valley division
of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway runs through a closely
continuous marsh, forty miles long and nearly as wide, as level as a
floor, which is an almost unbroken series of cranberry farms. The
Indians, who inhabited this country before the white man came, used to
congregate here every fall, many of them traveling several hundred
miles, to lay in their winter supply of berries. Many thousands of
barrels are now annually shipped from this region; and thus this vast
area, which to the stranger looking upon it would appear utterly
worthless, is as valuable as the richest farming lands in the State.

In a few instances, however, this fruit is cultivated in Wisconsin in
a style similar to that practiced in the East; that is, by paring the
natural sod from the bog, covering the earth to a depth of two or
three inches with sand, and then transplanting the vines into soil
thus prepared. The weeds are then kept down for a year or two, when
the vines take full possession of the soil, and further attention is
unnecessary. The natural "stand" of the vines in the sod is so
productive, however, and the extent of country over which bountiful
nature has distributed them so vast, that few operators have thought
it necessary to incur the expense of special culture.

One of the best and most perfectly equipped marshes in Wisconsin is
owned by Mr. G.B. Sackett, of Berlin. It is situated four miles north
of that village, and comprises 1,600 acres, nearly all of which is a
veritable bog, and is covered with a natural and luxuriant growth of
cranberry vines. A canal has been cut from the Fox River to the
southern limit of the marsh, a distance of 4,400 ft. It is 45 ft.
wide, and the water stands in it to a depth of nine feet, sufficient
to float fair sized steamboats. At the intersection of the canal with
the marsh steam water works have been erected, with flood gates and
dams by means of which the entire marsh may be flooded to a depth of a
foot or more when desired. There are two engines of 150 horse power
each, and two pumps that are capable of raising 80,000 gallons per
minute.

When, in early autumn, the meteorological conditions indicate the
approach of frost, the pumps may he put to work in the afternoon and
the berries be effectually covered by water and thus protected before
nightfall. At sunrise the gates are opened and the water allowed to
run off again, so that the pickers may proceed with their work. The
marsh is flooded to a depth of about two feet at the beginning of each
winter and allowed to remain so until spring, the heavy body of ice
that forms preventing the upheaval that would result from freezing and
thawing--a natural process which, if permitted, works injury to the
vines.

There is a three-story warehouse on the marsh, with a capacity of
20,000 barrels of berries, and four large two-story houses capable of
furnishing shelter for 1,500 pickers. The superintendent's residence
is a comfortable cottage house, surrounded by giant oaks and elms, and
stands near the warehouse on an "island," or small tract of high, dry
land near the center of the great marsh. The pickers' quarters stand
on another island about 200 yards away.

A plank roadway, built on piles, about two feet above the level of the
ground, leads from the mainland to the warehouse and other buildings,
a distance of more than half a mile. Several wooden railways diverge
from the warehouse to all parts of the marsh, and on them flat cars,
propelled by hand, are sent out at intervals during the picking season
to bring in the berries from the hands of the pickers. Each picker is
provided with a crate, holding just a bushel, which is kept close at
hand. The berries are first picked into tin pans and pails, and from
these emptied into the crates, in which they are carried to the
warehouse, where an empty crate is given the picker in exchange for a
full one. Thus equipped and improved, the Sackett marsh is valued at
$150,000. Thirteen thousand barrels have been harvested from this
great farm in a single season. The selling price in the Chicago market
varies, in different seasons, from $8 to $16 per barrel. There are
several other marshes of various sizes in the vicinity.

The picking season usually begins about Sept. 1, and from that time
until Oct. 1 the marshes swarm with men, women, and children, ranging
in age from six to eight years, made up from almost every nationality
under the sun. Bohemians and Poles furnish the majority of the working
force, while Germans, Irish, Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, negroes,
Indians, and Americans contribute to the motley contingent. They come
from every direction and from various distances, some of them
traveling a hundred miles or more to secure a few days' or weeks'
work. Almost every farmer or woodsman living anywhere in the region of
the marshes turns out with his entire family; and the families of all
the laboring men and mechanics of the surrounding towns and cities
join in the general hegira to the bogs, and help to harvest the fruit.
Those living within a few miles go out in the morning and return home
at night, taking their noon-day meal with them, while those from a
distance take provisions and bedding with them and camp in the
buildings provided for that purpose by the marsh owners, doing their
own cooking on the stoves and with the fuel furnished them.

The wages vary from fifty cents to a dollar a bushel, owing to the
abundance or scarcity of the fruit. A good picker will gather from
three to four bushels a day where the yield is light, and five to six
bushels where it is good. The most money is made by families numbering
from half a dozen to a dozen members. Every chick and child in such
families over six years old is required to turn out and help swell the
revenue of the little household, and the frugal father often pockets
ten to twenty dollars a day as the fruits of the combined labors. The
pickers wade into the grass, weeds, and vines, however wet with dew or
rain, or however deeply flooded underneath, making not the slightest
effort to keep even their feet dry, and after an hour's work in the
morning are almost as wet as if they had swum a river. Many of them
wade in barefooted, others wearing low cowhide shoes, and their feet,
at least, are necessarily wet all day long. In many cases their bodies
are thinly clad, and they must inevitably suffer in frosty mornings
and evenings and on the raw, cold, rainy days that are frequent in the
autumn months in this latitude; yet they go about their work singing,
shouting, and jabbering as merrily as a party of comfortably clad
school children at play. How any of them avoid colds, rheumatism, and
a dozen other diseases is a mystery; and yet it is rarely that one of
them is ill from the effects of this exposure. As many as 3000 or 4000
pickers are sometimes employed on a single marsh when there is a heavy
crop, and an army of such ragamuffins as get together for this
purpose, scattered over a bog in confusion and disorder, presents a
strange and picturesque appearance.

Indians are not usually as good pickers as white people, but in the
sparsely settled districts, where many of the berry farms are
situated, it is impossible to get white help enough to take care of
the crop in the short time available for the work, and owners are
compelled to employ the aborigines. A rake, with the prongs shaped
like the letter V, is used for picking in some cases, but owing to the
large amount of grass and weeds that grow among the vines on these
wild marshes, this instrument is rarely available. After being picked
the berries are stored in warehouses for a period varying from one to
three weeks. They are washed and dried by being passed through a
fanning mill made for the purpose, and are then allowed to cure and
ripen thoroughly before they are shipped to market.

From statistics gathered by the American Cranberry Growers'
Association it is learned that in 1883 Wisconsin produced 135,507
bushels, in 1884 24,738 bushels, in 1885 264,432 bushels, and in 1886
70,686 bushels of this fruit. By these figures it will be seen that
the yield is very irregular. This is owing, principally, to the fact
that many of the marshes are not yet provided with the means of
flooding, and of course suffer from worms, droughts, late spring or
early autumn frosts, and extensive fires started by sparks from the
engines on railroads running through the marshes. These and various
other evils are averted on the more improved farms. So that, while
handsome fortunes have in many cases been made in cranberry growing,
many thousands of dollars have, on the other hand, been sunk in the
same industry. Only the wealthier owners, who have expended vast sums
of money in improving and equipping their property, can calculate with
any degree of certainty on a paying crop of fruit every year.

Chicago is the great distributing point for the berries produced in
Wisconsin, shipments being made thence to nearly every State and
Territory in the Union, to Canada, to Mexico, and to several European
countries. Berries sent to the Southern markets are put up in
watertight packages, and the casks are then filled with water, this
being the only means by which they can be kept in hot weather. Even in
this condition they can only be kept a few days after reaching hot
climates.--_American Magazine._

* * * * *

SOUDAN COFFEE.

(_Parkia biglobosa._)

There are valuable plants on every continent. Civilized Europe no
longer counts them. Mysterious Africa is no less largely and
spontaneously favored with them than young America and the ancient
territory of Asia.

The latter has given us the majority of the best fruits of our
gardens. We have already shown how useful the butter tree
(_Butyrospermum Parkii_) is in tropical Africa, and we also know how
the _gourou_ (_Sterculia acuminata_) is cultivated in the same
regions. But that is not all, for the great family of Leguminosae,
whose numerous representatives encumber this continent, likewise
furnishes the negro natives a food that is nearly as indispensable to
them as the _gourou_ or the products of the baobab--another valuable
tree and certainly the most widely distributed one in torrid Africa.
This leguminous tree, which is as yet but little known in the
civilized world, has been named scientifically _Parkia biglobosa_ by
Bentham. The negroes give it various names, according to the tribe;
among the Ouloffs, it is the _houlle_; among the Mandigues, _naytay_;
in Cazamance (Nalon language), it is _nayray_; in Bornou, _rounuo_; in
Haoussa, _doroa_; in Hant-fleure (Senegal), _nayraytou_. On the old
mysterious continent it plays the same role that the algarobas do in
young America. However, it is quite a common rule to find in the order
Leguminosae, and especially in the section Mimosae, plants whose pods
are edible. Examples of this fact are numerous. As regards the
Mediterranean region, it suffices to cite the classic carob tree
(_Ceratonia siliqua_), which also is of African nationality, but which
is wanting in the warm region of this continent.

Throughout the tropical region of Africa, the aborigines love to
consume the saccharine pulp and the seed contained in the pod of the
_houlle_. Prepared in different ways, according to tribe and latitude,
these two products constitute a valuable aliment. The pulp is consumed
either just as it is or as a fermented beverage. As for the seeds,
they serve, raw or roasted, for the production of a tea-like infusion
(whence the name "Soudan coffee"), or, after fermentation in water,
for making a national condiment, which in certain places is called
_kinda_, and which is mixed with boiled rice or prepared meats. This
preparation has in most cases a pasty form or the consistency of
cohesive flour; but in order to render its carriage easier in certain
of the African centers where the trade in it is brisk, it is
compressed into tablets similar to those of our chocolate. As these
two products are very little known in Europe, it has seemed to us that
it would be of interest to give a description and chemical analysis of
them. We shall say but little of the plant, which has sufficiently
occupied botanists.

[Illustration: Figs. 1 TO 6.--PODS OF THE HOULLE AND MICROSCOPIC
DETAILS.]

The houlle (_Parkia biglobosa_) is a large tree from 35 to 50 feet in
height, with a gray bark, many branches, and large, elegant leaves.
The latter are compound, bipinnate (Fig. 7), and have fifty pairs of
leaflets, which are linear and obtuse and of a grayish green. The
inflorescence is very pleasing to the eye. The flowers, say the
authors of the _Florae Senegambiae Tentamen_, form balls of a dazzling
red, contracted at the base, and resembling the pompons of our
grenadiers (Fig. 8). The support of this latter consists only of male
flowers. The fruit that succeeds these flowers is supported by a
club-shaped receptacle. It consists of a large pod, which at maturity
is 13 inches in length by 10 in width (Fig. 1). This pod is chocolate
brown, quite smooth or slightly tubercular, and is swollen at the
points where the seeds are situated. The pods are straight or slightly
curved. The aborigines of Rio Nunez use the pods for poisoning the
fishes that abound in the watercourses. We do not know what the nature
of the toxic principle is that is contained in these hard pods, but we
well know the nature of the yellowish pulp and of the seeds that
entirely fill the pods.

[Illustration: Fig. 7.--PARKIA BIGLOBOSA.]

Although the pulp forms a continuous whole, each seed easily separates
from the following and carries with it a part of the pulp that
surrounds it and that constitutes an independent mass (Fig. 2). This
pulpy substance, formed entirely of oval cells filled with aleurone,
consists of two distinct layers. The first, an external one of a
beautiful yellow, is from 10 to 15 times bulkier than the internal
one, which likewise is of a beautiful yellow.

[Illustration: Fig. 8--FLOWERS OF PARKIA.]

It detaches itself easily from the seed, while the internal layer,
which adheres firmly to the exterior of the seed, can be detached only
by maceration in water. This fresh pulp has a sweet and agreeable
although slightly insipid taste. Upon growing old and becoming dry, it
takes on a still more agreeable taste, for it preserves its sweetness
and gets a perfume like that of the violet.

As for the seed, which is of a brown color and provided with a hard,
shining skin, that is 0.4 inch long, 0.3 inch wide, and 0.2 inch
thick. It is oval in form, with quite a prominent beak at the hilum
(Fig. 4). The margin is blunt and the two convex sides are provided in
the center with a gibbosity limited by a line parallel with the
margin, and this has given the plant its specific name of _biglobosa_.
The mean weight of each seed is 41/2 grains. The skin, though thick, is
not very strong. It consists, anatomically, of four layers (Fig. 5) of
a thick cuticle, _c_; of a zone of palissade cells, _z p_; of a zone
of cells with thick tangential walls arranged in a single row; and of
a zone tougher than the others, formed of numerous cells with thick
walls, without definite form, and filled with a blackish red coloring
matter, _cs_. This perisperm covers an exalbuminous embryo formed
almost entirely of two thick, greenish yellow cotyledons having a
strong taste of legumine.

When examined under the microscope, these cotyledons, the alimentary
part of the seed, have the appearance represented in Fig. 6, where
_ep_ is the epidermic layer and _cp_ constitutes the uniform
parenchyma of the cotyledonary leaf. This parenchymatous mass consists
of oval cells filled with fatty matter and granules of aleurone.

According to some chemical researches made by Professor
Schlagdenhauffen, the pulp has the following composition per 100
parts:

Fatty matter 2.407
Glucose 33.92
Inverted sugar 7.825
Coloring matter and free acids 1.300
Albuminous matter 5.240
Gummy matter 19.109
Cellulose 8.921
Lignose 17.195
Salts 4.080
-------
Total 100.000

The salient point of these analytical results is the enormous quantity
of matter (nearly 60 per cent.) formed almost exclusively by sugar. It
is not surprising, from this that this product constitutes a food both
agreeable and useful.

An analysis of the entire seed, made by the same chemist, has given
the following results:

Solid fatty matter 21.145
Unreduced sugar 6.183
Undetermined matters 5.510
Gummy " 10.272
Albuminoid " 24.626
Cellulosic " 5.752
Lignose and losses 20.978
Salts 5.534
-------
Total 100.000

The presence in these seeds of a large quantity of fatty matters and
sugar, and especially of albuminoid matters (very nutritive), largely
justifies the use made of them as a food. The innate instinct of the
savage peoples of Africa has thus anticipated the data of
science.--_La Nature._

* * * * *

THE HEIGHT OF SUMMER CLOUDS.

A knowledge of the heights and movements of the clouds is of much
interest to science, and of especial importance in the prediction of
weather. The subject has therefore received much attention during
recent years from meteorologists, chiefly in this country and in
Sweden. In the last published report of the Meteorological Council for
1885-86 will be found an account of the steps taken by that body to
obtain cloud photographs; and in the _Meteorologische Zeitschrift_ for
March last, M.M. Ekholm and Hagstrom have published an interesting
summary of the results of observations made at Upsala during the
summers of 1884-85. They determined the parallax of the clouds by
angular measurements made from two stations at the extremities of a
base of convenient length and having telephonic connection. The
instruments used were altazimuths, constructed under the direction of
Prof. Mohn, specially for measuring the parallax of the aurora
borealis. A full description of these instruments and of the
calculations will be found in the _Acta Reg Soc. Sc. Ups._, 1884. The
results now in question are based upon nearly 1,500 measurements of
_heights_; the _motions_ will form the subject of a future paper. It
was found that clouds are formed at all levels, but that they occur
most frequently at certain elevations or stages. The following are,
approximately, the mean heights, in feet, of the principal forms:
Stratus, 2,000; nimbus, 5,000; cumulus (base) 4,500, (summit) 6,000;
cumulo-stratus (base), 4,600; "false-cirrus" (a form which often
accompanies the cumulo-stratus), 12,800; cirro cumulus, 21,000;
cirrus, 29,000 (the highest being 41,000). The maximum of cloud
frequency was found to be at levels of 2,300 and 5,500 feet.

Generally speaking, all the forms of cloud have a tendency to rise
during the course of the day; the change, excepting for the cumulus
form, amounting to nearly 6,500 feet. In the morning, when the cirrus
clouds are at their lowest level, the frequency of their lowest
forms--the cirro-cumulus--is greatest; and in the evening, when the
height of the cirrus is greatest, the frequency of its highest
forms--the cirro-stratus--is also greatest. With regard to the
connection between the character of the weather and the height of the
clouds, the heights of the bases of the cumulus are nearly constant in
all conditions. The summits, however, are lowest in the vicinity of a
barometric maximum. They increase in the region of a depression, and
attain their greatest height in thunderstorms, the thickness of the
cumulo stratus stretching sometimes for several miles. The highest
forms of clouds appear to float at their lowest levels in the region
of a depression. The forms of clouds are identical in all parts of the
world, as has been shown in papers lately read by the Hon. R.
Abercromby before the English and Scottish Meteorological
Societies.--_Nature_.

* * * * *

ON THE CAUSE OF IRIDESCENCE IN CLOUDS.

By G. JOHNSTONE STONEY.

When the sky is occupied by light cirro-cumulus cloud, an optical
phenomenon of the most delicate beauty sometimes presents itself, in
which the borders of the clouds and their lighter portions are
suffused with soft shades of color like those of mother-of-pearl,
among which lovely pinks and greens are the most conspicuous. Usually
these colors are distributed in irregular patches, just as in
mother-of-pearl; but occasionally they are seen to form round the
denser patches of cloud a regular colored fringe, in which the several
tints are arranged in stripes following the sinuosities of the outline
of the cloud.

I cannot find in any of the books an explanation of this beautiful
spectacle, all the more pleasing because it generally presents itself
in delightful summer weather. It is not mentioned in the part of
Moigno's great _Repertoire d'Optique_ which treats of meteorological
optics, nor in any other work which I have consulted. It seems
desirable, therefore, to make an attempt to search out what appears to
be its explanation.

At the elevation in our atmosphere at which these delicate clouds are
formed the temperature is too low, even in midsummer, for water to
exist in the liquid state; and accordingly, the attenuated vapor from
which they were condensed passed at once into a solid form. They
consist, in fact, of tiny crystals of ice, not of little drops of
water. If the precipitation has been hasty, the crystals will, though
all small, be of many sizes jumbled together, and in that case the
beautiful optical phenomenon with which we are now dealing will not
occur. But if the opposite conditions prevail (which they do on rare
occasions), if the vapor had been evenly distributed, and if the
precipitation took place slowly, then will the crystals in any one
neighborhood be little ice crystals of nearly the same form and size,
and from one neighborhood to another they will differ chiefly in
number and size, owing to the process having gone on longer or taken
place somewhat faster, or through a greater depth, in some
neighborhoods than others. This will give rise to the patched
appearance of the clouds which prevails when this phenomenon presents
itself. It also causes the tiny crystals, of which the cloud consists,
to grow larger in some places than others.

Captain Scoresby, in his "Account of the Arctic Regions," gives the
best description of snow crystals formed at low temperatures with
which I am acquainted. From his observations it appears--(a) that
when formed at temperatures several degrees below the freezing point,
the crystals, whether simple or compound, are nearly all of
symmetrical forms; (b) that thin tabular crystals are extremely
numerous, consisting either of simple transverse slices of the
fundamental hexagon or, more frequently, of aggregations of these
attached edgewise and lying in one plane; and (c) that, according as
atmospheric conditions vary, one form of crystal or another largely
preponderates. A fuller account of these most significant observations
is given in the appendix to this paper.

Let us then consider the crystals in any one neighborhood in the sky,
where the conditions that prevail are such as to produce lamellar
crystals of nearly the same thickness. The tabular plates are
subsiding through the atmosphere--in fact, falling toward the earth.
And although their descent is very slow, owing to their minute size,
the resistance of the air will act upon them as it does upon a falling
feather. It will cause them, if disturbed, to oscillate before they
settle into that horizontal position which flat plates finally assume
when falling through quiescent air. We shall presently consider what
the conditions must be, in order that the crystals may be liable to be
now and then disturbed from the horizontal position. If this
occasionally happens, the crystals will keep fluttering, and at any
one moment some of them will be turned so as to reflect a ray from the
sun to the eye of the observer from the flat surface of the crystal
which is next him. Now, if the conditions are such as to produce
crystals which are plates with parallel faces, and as they are also
transparent, part only of the sun's ray that reaches the front face of
the crystal will be reflected from it; the rest will enter the
crystal, and, falling on the parallel surface behind, a portion will
be there reflected, and passing out through the front face, will also
reach the eye of the observer.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10