probably due to buds which for some reason cannot force their way through the bark, but which remain just beneath it year after year. The young wood is disturbed each succeeding season by the presence of the bud and grows around it in fantastic forms, which are exposed when the saw cuts through the abnormal growth.

Maple, the bulletin goes on to say, is one of the chief woods used for agricultural implements and farm machinery, being so employed because of its strength and hardness. All kinds of wooden ware are made of maple, which holds important rank also in the manufacture of shuttles, spools, and bobbins. It competes with black gum for first place in the manufacture of rollers of many kinds, from those employed in house-moving to the less massive ones used on lawn-mowers. Athletic goods, school supplies, brush backs, pulleys, type cases, and crutches are a few of the other articles for which maple. is in demand.

Seven species of maple grow in the United States, of which sugar maple, sometimes called hard maple, is the most important. The total cut of maple in the United States annually amounts to about 1,150,000,000 feet.

CHEESE FROM PASTEURIZED milk

The University of Wisconsin is famed for its research work in the interest of the community at large. A recent report extols the advantages of making cheese from pasteurized milk. The sanitary gain is evident. Experiments of two years in the Dairy School of the University's College of Agriculture indicate an increased yield and better quality also. The experimenters systematically divided each day's milk into two portions to be used in a factory; one part was pasteurized and made into cheese by a representative of the College of Agriculture, while the remainder was handled by the local cheesemaker in the usual manner. The results of these tests were so satisfactory that it was decided to continue the work at other factories in 1913. Accordingly the new process was put on trial during the present season at factories located near Spring Green, De Forest, Waldo, and Sheboygan Falls. The pasteurized milk cheese has sold regularly at the ruling market prices, and the increase in yield is five per cent.

CIRCULAR SAWS OF PAPER

The latest use for paper is perhaps the most peculiar. According to a European journal, as reported in the "Scientific American," a factory is said to exist in England which is manufacturing circular saws from paper. These paper saws are used for the manufacturing of fine furniture, veneer, and other thin plates of wood, which must be treated with special care. Some time ago circular saws made from draw

ing-paper were shown in an English exposition. The saws were driven by an electric motor and produced fine boards, which could not have been made better even by the finest steel saw. The veneers made in this way are said to be so smooth that the cabinet-makers can use them without further planing.

WOODEN SHOES MADE IN THE UNITED

STATES

In this country beech is the favorite material for wooden shoes, the manufacture of which has reached considerable proportions in the United States, according to the Department of Agriculture, which has just issued a bulletin on the use of the wood. These shoes, the Department says, cost from 60 to 75 cents a pair and are good for two years. They are worn by those who have to work in cold or wet places, such as tanneries, breweries, and livery stables, and by workmen in steel mills and glass factories who must walk on hot grates or floors. Farmers, too, are classed among the users.

Beech wood is put to a very much wider range of uses than the average person would be likely to suspect. The Department says beech enters into hundreds of articles from hobbyhorse rockers to butchers' blocks. We walk on beech floors, eat off beech picnic plates, carry beech baskets, play with beech toys, sit on beech chairs, and in dozens of other ways use articles made of beech almost every day of our lives. Its freedom from taste fits the wood especially for articles which come in contact with foodstuffs, and beech meat boards, skewers, lard tubs, butter boxes, sugar hogsheads, refrigerators, dishes, spoons, and scoops are widely used.

Only one species of beech grows naturally in the United States, but few trees in this country have a wider commercial range. It extends from the Gulf of Mexico into eastern Canada, and in practically every place where it grows it is cut for market. The total yearly output of beech wood in the United States is approximately five hundred million board feet.

A MILITARY NOVELTY

A German authority describes an illuminating projectile of a new type manufactured by Krupp. The projectile, built like a shrapnel, contains a number of layers of flame bulbs in a black powder matrix separated by thin annular partitions. A black powder fuse runs through the center of the projectile like a core. The base of the projectile is filled with six "feathers" made of thin metal, which are held in place, folded up against the projectile, when it is fired. When the projectile reaches the highest point in its trajectory, an automatic arrangement releases the "feathers at the base, arresting its flight and causing it to float in the air point downward. At this moment the first layer of flame balls is thrown out. The other layers are thrown out successively, lighting up the field.-American Machinist.

The original deed to Manhattan Island, given by the Indians to Peter Minuit and attesting the sale in 1630 to Kilian van Rensselaerwyck, was sold lately at auction in New York City for $1,700. It had been in the possession of a collector and went to another collector. This document, it would seem, ought to be public property, and the municipality should make an effort to secure it.

When beauty enters a tournament with aristocracy, beauty wins. At least that is the impression one gets from this newspaper despatch from England: "At a dinner given in honor of the tenth anniversary of the new Gaiety Theatre's opening, four peeresses, all former Gaiety actresses, were present. They were: the Countess of Orkney, the Marchioness of Headfort, Countess Poulett, and Lady Churston."

Vincent Astor, the present head of the Astor family, has closed a profitable transaction for his estate, in a manner that indicates his inheritance of the thrift of his ancestors. He has leased a plot of ground on Thirty-third Street, opposite the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, for eighty years, at a rental of $121,250 a year, the total rent that the estate will receive from the transaction thus approximating $10,000,000. But eighty years is a long time, and perhaps the single tax or some other restriction may considerably reduce this great sum.

scarecrow

The word would never have come into being if the farmers of old had possessed the knowledge of our Department of Agriculture, for the nondescript images that have disfigured our corn-fields for generations are now declared by that Department to be superfluous. The crow is a good bird, according to the Department's experts. A careful examination of his stomach shows that the insects he kills more than counterbalance the small amount of grain he destroys.

Governor Glynn, of New York State, in an address before the convention of the New York Waterways Association, advocated the deepening of the Hudson River so that ocean steamers could go to Albany and connect directly with the new Erie Canal, which is approaching completion.

A Cleveland man, Mr. W. V. Backus, has had the happy idea of forming an Appreciation League, the aim of which is to promote happi

Miss Nancy Leishman, daughter of John G. A. Leishman, former American Ambassador to Germany, recently became the bride of Duke Karl of Croy, a descendant of Hungarian kings and member of a family that is related to many of the reigning houses of Europe.

The long-drawn-out but inevitable tragedy that results from taking bichloride of mercury tablets by mistake has had another exemplification in the pathetic case of Isaac Levy, a Brooklyn tailor, who took a large dose of the fatal drug and survived for more than a week, his powerful constitution and indomitable will giving hope at one time that he would defeat Death. Why will people persist in taking medicine in the dark? Let Goethe's motto, "More Light," be inscribed over every medicine closet.

Who was the inventor of that delectable combination known as ice-cream soda? Some one originated the idea, and that within the memory of persons not too old to have a vivid recollection of the time when such congealed deliciousness was unknown to the world. One newspaper correspondent claims that the happy idea was born in the mind of an Elizabeth, New Jersey, confectioner; another says that the honor belongs to a Detroit man. Quien sabe?

An amusing quibble on the part of a recently deceased New York lawyer succeeded in freeing two Chinese clients. They were accused of stealing electricity. Quoth the man of the law, addressing his opponent, "What is electricity?" The prosecution couldn't answer offhand, and the astute attorney secured the dismissal of the complaint on the plea that there could be no charge of theft unless a statement could be made of what had been stolen.

Not all waiters are eager for tips. An officer of the International Hotel Workers' Union, Edward Blochlinger, says: "I will keep up the anti-tipping agitation, and, whether it comes in six months or five years, I hope to live to see the day when the Legislature will forbid tipping. Then to get good waiters the hotels and not the hotel patrons will have to pay."

There is a surplus of labor even in a new industry like automobile truck driving. A strike of the drivers of motor mail trucks in New York City recently resulted in applications from 1,600 men to fill the places of 31 strikers.

While records of all sorts are being broken daily, this one should have consideration: A

man recently operated on in a Brooklyn hospital had carried a needle in his right leg since he was five years old. At the age of fifty-five his left knee began to swell, and on going to the hospital the badly corroded piece of needle was extracted, having passed through his body from right knee to left in its peregrinations of half a century !

Ten years ago Leonidas Hubbard, Jr., met his death by starvation while exploring that bleakest of lands, Labrador. His comrade on the trip, Dillon Wallace, who survived, recently went again to Labrador with a tablet as a memorial to his friend. In trying to reach the place where Hubbard died, his canoe upset and the tablet was lost. Wallace, however, persevered and finally carved this inscription on a boulder: "Leonidas Hubbard, Jr., intrepid explorer and practical Christian, died here October 18, 1903. John xiv., fourth verse.

Next to smoking in a powder works, probably the most foolhardy thing a man can do is to smoke in a garage; and yet the force of habit sometimes prevails even there. Three smokers in New York City garages were recently fined $20 each for their forgetfulness, and six other offenders who lit cigars in factories were reminded of their life-imperiling delinquency in the same manner.

Felix Berol, a memory expert, recently gave a lecture in which he stated that as a boy he had a very poor memory. He had, however, great strength of purpose, and gradually overcame his defect until he could accomplish a feat like this: At a dinner party of forty men, only three of whom he had met before, he asked that the other guests rise, one after another, and each one speak his own name. Then Mr. Berol repeated the thirty-nine names in their right order without a mistake.

Just when is the period of mild weather called Indian summer due? A newspaper wiseacre says the term is "loosely applied to what few days of pleasant weather are found in November." The new Standard Dictionary says Indian summer is "a period of mild weather occurring in the autumn," but complicates the question by suggesting the analogy of "the English St. Luke's or St. Martin's summer,". St. Luke's Day being the 18th of October and St. Martin's Day the 11th of November.

Mr. Andrew Carnegie, at a recent dinner, took occasion to praise the "War Lord" of Germany, the Kaiser, for his desire for peace, and also for the Kaiser's announcement that he would henceforth abstain from all alcoholic beverages. Emperor William is probably the first German potentate who has ever risked his popularity with his people by making such a pledge.

Sky-scrapers are not in favor with architects and other experts, according to a report of the

New York City Heights of Buildings Commission. Of forty experts consulted, thirty-seven declared themselves in favor of limiting the height of city structures. William Guerin, chief of the Bureau of Fire Prevention, in favoring limitation, said that the Fire Department cannot readily rescue persons from the outside of a burning building at a greater height than six stories.

A discourteous phrase used by a telephone operator caused the loss of a $3,500 order recently, says a daily paper. When the customer called up the firm, the girl attendant, instead of asking the customer's name in a tactful way, such as, “May I`have your name?" or, "Who is speaking, please?" put the pointblank question, "Who are you?" The response was, "I'm a man who is through buying from your house until I can have respectful treatment."

One suggestion that would help the telephone situation as between the caller and the operator has often been made, but needs repetition. It is that the operator should give the name of her firm at once, instead of saying "Yes" and thus necessitating an unnecessary question as to the identity of the firm. It saves a lot of time for an operator to say "Brown & Jones at once® in response to a call, instead of requiring the customer to say it as an interrogation.

Abandoned mines in Akron, New York, are being profitably used in growing mushrooms. The mines were damp, cool, and dark, and a shrewd Chicago man saw that they were ideal places for mushroom culture-better even than hot-houses in certain ways. Three crops a year are now being harvested from these supposedly useless mines.

The United States possesses more than half of all the motor vehicles in the world. In a total of 1,161,911 for the world, the United States has 628,185, England 125,728, France 89,185, and Germany 70,006. These figures are for 1912; the numbers at present doubtless far exceed those here given.

Hongkong, one of the greatest ports of the world, saw but one sailing ship last year; even the Chinese junks are being driven out of commission by the competition of power-driven vessels. Thirty-five years ago, says the American Consul at Hongkong, one-fourth of the total entries of vessels were those of sailing shipsno less than 688 in all.

"Travel" shows a picture of the work being done in restoring the Alhambra Palace at Granada, Spain. The arabesque border on the walls of the Court of Myrtles is being replaced, but unfortunately not in the inimitable style of the original tiling.. "The secret of reproducing the exquisite luster and coloring of this," says "Travel," "is a lost art."