GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2300, 9 July 1921, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

German flame-throwers, of which the French captured 70,000 towards the end of the war, are now being used to exterminate locusts. Recently, sections of the Var department were visited by thick clouds of locusts, blown across the Mediterranean from Algiers, and the voracious insects menaced with ruin this rich agricultural region. Volunteers were called up, and, armed with flame-throwers, attacked the plague, with the result that within a few hours thousands of bushels of dead locusts were lying on the ground. Flame-throw-ers are still being employed, and will be‘so used as long as the locust invasion continues.

Interesting experiments were made some time ago at Harvard University which seem to demonstrate that engineers usually un-der-estimate the maximum loading caused by dense crowds on bridges, floors, and platforms. Forty men, averaging 1(13 pounds in weight, placed in a-box six feet square, caused an average pressure of 181 pounds to the square foot on the floor. An engineer has estimated the weight per square foot of the densest crowds on the New York elevated railways at only 40 pounds, but since the Harvard ‘experiments the opinion has been expressed that the maximum loadng on the elevated cars and platforms may be nearer 181 pounds titan 45 pounds. This applies to other close packed crowds. A remarkable phenomenon oft' the Goodwin Sands was described by the chaplain of the Mission to Seamen motor launch in the following words: —“We paid our usual visit this morning to the South Goodwin lightship. After leaving, we ran into a slight haze. We were then on the western edge of the Goodwins, running homewards. Suddenly we observed eastwards, about 200 ft. over our heads, the distinct outline of several sailing ships, and one large steamer, clearly depicted in the sky. The entire hulls and masts, sails and funnels were visible, and vessels were gliding along as though on the surface. The view of these mirage or phantom ships lasted for fully live minutes, disappearing as we ran into clearer weather. We looked round, but could nor discover the real ships.

A giant blackberry has just been discovered growing wild on the mountain slopes of Cundinamarca province, Colombia, and a few plants have been taken to the United States by an agricultural explore] 1 of the Office of. foreign Seed and Plant Introduction Department of Agriculture. In describing this new fruit, he writes: “A species of Uubus which produces, as a wild plant, fruits two and a-half inches long by an inch and a-half in thickness, and these of fairly good quality for eating, cannot fail to possess great, interest to North American horticulturists. The giant berry grows at elevations of between 8,000 and 10,000 ft., but so near the Equators that frost is unknown even at thal altitude, and in a region where there is much moi-iui'c throughout the year. The plants have never been cultiviifed, but the berries arc commonly to be found in the markets of Bogota and other large cties, Their seeds are rather large, the flesh is not as juicy as most of ihe cultivated blackberries. The flavour resembles that of the loganberry more than that of cultivated berries, and the colour is a light crimson tending to become .wine-coloured when overripe.”