A STARTLING DISCOVERY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 9426, 4 July 1882, Page 3

A STARTLING DISCOVERY.

The more people reflect on Professor Barff's discovery that by heating boracio acid with glycerine a compound was obtained which keeps food perfectly sound and sweet for months, remarks the Pall Mall Gazette, th e greater will be their conception of the revolutionary character of boroglycerine. To begin with, the vast refrigerating vaults which have been constructed at Victoria Docks, in which 4300 •' muttons" can be stored at one tine, will be rendered useless, and the demand for refrigerators will suddenly cease. That, however, is one of the most trifling of the consequences of Professor Barffs discovery. A sultry day will no longer be able to spoil " the harvest of the sea," and London and all the inland towns will for the first time be able to enjoy a constant supply of cheap fresh fish. The revolution will fall heaviest on farmers. Mutton is a penny a pound in new South Wales, aud beef three halfpence a pound in Texas. If Devonshire cream can be delivered in. Zanzibar as fresh as when it left the English dairy, the one great element which has hitherto favored the British agriculturist in his struggle against foreign competition will disappear. Rents will fall once more, and the reluctance of the Irish tenant to purchase his holding will be greater than ever. Professor Barff may yet figure in history as the revolutionist who administered the coup de grace to the ancient landed system of Great Britain.