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[The editors are not responsible for statements made in the correspondence column. Anonymous communications cannot be considered, but the names of correspondents will be withheld when so desired] The Diesel Engine and the American Merchant Marine To the Editor of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN: In a recent issue comment was made in your columns on the failure of the American inventor to keep pace with his European rival. In the issue of October 7th, a very interesting article appears on the Diesel engine and its economy over the steam engine, especially when applied to oceangoing steamers. One of the remarkable, as well as regrettable conditions, as far as our shipbuilders are concerned, is the indifference displayed to improvements in hull and motive power, particularly motive power, that have appeared in foreign-built tonnage in the past few years. Foreign steamship builders are experimenting with the producer-gas engine, seeking to ascertain its economy as como. pared with the usual type of three-cylinder engine used generally in steamships; the oil-burning motor marine engine has been given a long test by foreign marine builders, and several steamers to be operated with gas engines are to engage in the trans-Atlantic trade this coming year, and possibly this fall will see one or more gas-driven ocean liners headed for our shores. These steamers that promise to run across this year will be passenger as well as freight. Iurope has no oil or fuel; it has to be imported, while the United States is the greatest producer of oil in the world, and yet our shipbuilders lag far and away behind the foreign steamship builder in applying the oil and gas engine to marine service. It is fair to speculate on what causes the paralysis of the American shipbuilder, and one of the apparent causes is that it is shielded too much from competition. The coasting trade-and by the coasting trade is meant every port in the United States and Alaska-from Eastport, Me., on the extreme northeast to farthest Alaska, in the northwest including Porto Rico, is called American coasting trade, and only American-built vessels can engage in the trade now; this gives a monopoly to the shipyards of the United States, and shielded from foreign competition the necessity for developing new and improved types of engines and steamers is not found necessary. As to seeking to compete with the foreign builder in the steamship trade of the world, the American gave that up long ago; the only way that he can see, to get. even the smallest footing in that trade, is for the government of the United States to pay him for making the attempt. This attitude is the more surprising, as we make iron and steel far cheaper than can any other country in the world, while our exports of iron and steel the past year have been of tremendous volume and the competition of foreign nations in these articles is of no avail against the American manufacturer. It is also true that the report to the Stanley committee made by the United States Steel Corporation showed that it sold steel plates $8 to $11 per ton under the domestic prices. That, evidently, is one reason why our shipbuilders cannot compete with the foreign builders; that condition can be remedied by putting steel and iron on the free Iist, and with these commodities free, independent yards would be started that would not be so conservative in applying the most modern development in marine engineering to ocean tonnage. The Panama canal will be opened in a couple of years; already one American line is to bid on the contract offered by the Postmaster-General for a line between the American and Pacific ports of the United States, and already it is given out that the steamers this line will require to carry out the contract if secured wfll tax the capacity of our coast yards, when combined wLth the government work. Further government contracts must be considered only on a different price basis It is not difficult to see that, in a few years, trade on th( Pacific will grow at a tremendous rate. Alaska has mineral stores that will keep a mighty fleet busy, to say nothing of the trade between Honolulu, Philippines and the UnHeu States. It is true that the Philippine carrying trade is not yet confined to American-built steamers, and it is lucky it isn't, for there is no American tonnage to-day that would engage in it except at prohibitive freight rates. If ever there was a time propitious for the restoration of the American flag to the deep sea trade, it is now. The new development in marine engineering will make the vast foreign tonnage built up to the present time practically obsolete. As stated in your issue of October 7th the economy of the Diesel engine is so great, that no coal-burning steamer can compete with the motor-driven. And yet we have still to learn of any intereSt being taken in this new marine departure by any American shipbuilder. It “as the same with the turbine engines. We followed far behind Europe, even in the experimental state. We were far behind Europe in taking up the automobile and the airship. It is true that we came to the front with a rush, and we may do so in shipbuilding eventually. What our iron and steel industries need is, less coadling by the government; the stimulus of competition will enable us to achieve a place in the deep-sea carrying trade of the world that subsidies will never secure for us. And again it becomes apparent that the tonic of free ships would be of immense benefit to our deep-sea foreign trade. A free ship bill now would allow our people to invest in these modern motor-driven ocean steamers and establish the American flag in' the carrying trade of the world, and the old bugaboo of the American wage scale would be of little consequence in this type of steamers as the coal heavers would be a thing of the past. Chicago, Ill. CHARLES DEPESEE. Nitrogen and the Soil To the Editor of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN: I am in receipt of a copy of the letter of Drs. Lyon and Bizzell of Cornell University. Their contention that they were the frst to announce the faot that non-legumes may secure a supply of combined nitrogen from legumes (when the two are growing together) should be qualifed. According to their own admission, their first article was received by the editor of the Journal 01 Industrial and Engineering Chemistry on April 21st, 1910, and appeared in July, 1910. The inclosed letter from Prof. A. D, Hall, Director of the Rothamsted Experiment Station, and editor of the Journal 01 Agricultural Science, will show you that my article was received by him in August or early September c 1909, UnfortunatEly, however, the issue of the number of the Journal of Agricultural SCience, containir.g my article; was delayed for more than a year, and the article in question appeared in print, therefore, in 1910, Instead of 1909. In this article of mine, I state distinctir that the non-legumes, separated by a porous wall from the legumes, were able to obtain very considerable quantities of combined nitrogen. Furthermore, the photographs show distinctly the benefit derived from the association. I did not submit analyses, even though those had been made, since I did not regard it necessary to submit figures in a preliminary publication. Furthermore, the bulletin pubhshed by Drs. Lyon and Bizzell, and entitled “A Heretofore Unnoted Benefit from the Growth of .Legumes” is dated March, 1911. rn other words, this Wlas submitted to the printer several months after my article in the .Tournal of Agricultural Science appeared in print. According to the admission of Drs. Lyon and Bizzell, the number of the Journal containing this article was received at the Cornell University Library in October, 1910. Hence, they were not justified iI designating their bulletin as they did by the title given above. It will be shown by the writ!r (in his 1 I i m n n i m d i m n i i I What Motor Trucks Mean F you are not using motor trucks, we take it for granted that you do not understand the benefits to be derived from them. Possibly you have the wrong viewpoint-perhaps you have been making too many comparisons with the horses and not really investigating what the truck meant to you as a machine to perform certain work. The individual or firm that has a better delivery system has an advantage-the kind of business doesn't matter-service is appreciated universally. If The White Company can place in your hands a more efficient means of making deliveries, they have given you an opportunity of extending your field-of broadening the horizon of your product -of making good-where you had been unable to go before. White Trucks Known for Performance HO into any large city in the United States-ask the men who have the _____| largest delivery problems, to see w hat they know about these White trucks. Almost regardless of whether they own them or not, you will find that they know their record for splendid performance. To the man about to invest in trucks, a list of White owners will appeal as almost a directory of the big business men. They have invested their good money in White trucks and their endorsement is the fact that they are continually increasing their equipment. No one buys and buys again the thing that fails to stand the test. We could tell you why-because it is all in the designing-in the building-in the care we take in the production of the truck. The important thing to you is that they do perform-that White trucks satisfy their owners-and, therefore, must be the kind that you want. lSOO-lb. delivery wagons, 1/i-ton, 3 -ton and S-ton trucks-all with a universal type of power plant. Let us submit a solution of your delivery problem. It will entail no obligation 540 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN .ecel ber !, 191 ] Poultry Secrets Disclosed We offer to all poultry raisers the essential knowledge and secret methods of many of the most successful poultry men of America. As a rule these secrets have been guarded with extreme care, for it is on them that the great successes have been built. They have cost years of labor and thousands of dollars. They will cost YOU only a trifle and a few minutes to write us. How We Obtained These Secrets Michael K. Boyer, Associate Editor American Poultry Advocate, has had exceptional opportunities and the closest friendship with poultrymen all over the country They have freely told him many of their most jealously treasured secrets, many others we have bought, and this scattered material, together with several of Mr Boyer's own valued methods, has now been coIIected in book form. It must be clearly understood that every secret printed has been obtained in an honorable way. "Poultry Secrets" First published in 1908, this coIIection of the carefully guarded secrets of famous poultrymen created a sensation 1 poultry circles It has run through thirteen editions, and is stiII selling at a lively rate. CONTENTS SECRETS OF FOWL BREEDING - Burnham' s Secrel of Breeding. Felch's Mating Secret. Mendel's Secret of Heredity. Secret of Alternating Males for Fertility. The Grundy Melhod. Curliss' Secrel of Halchmg More Pullets than Cockerels. DaVIS' Secret of Raising Every Chick. Babcock's Secrel of Developing Ihe Spike on a Rose Combed Fowl SECRETS OF FEEDING Secrel of F eeding Grams. Dr. Woods Laying Food Secret. F eeding Linseed Meal. Feedin! Meal and Salt. Proctor's Salt Secrel. Brac-kenbury', Secrel of Scalded Oals. Feeding Charcoal. Gril and Oysler Shells. Secrel of Green Feed. Secrel of Feed al Fifteen Cenls per Bushel. Sprouled Barley Secret. Smith's Secret of Preserving Vegetation in Poultry Runs. Important Feeding Secret. Miscellaneous Feed Poinlers. Chick Feed Secrels. Seely's Secrel of Dry Bran Feeding. Gowell's Fattening Secret. Gray's Fattening Secret. Greiner's Corn Feeding Secrets. McGrew's Secret of Feeding During Moulting. SECRETS OF HOUSING AND CARE - Secrel of Successful Y arding. Secrel of Telling the Laying Hen. Secret of 200 Eggs per Hen per Year. Lawney's Secret of Insect Killers. Secrel of Successful Moulting. Zimmer's Secret of Secu ring Foster Mothers. Broody Hen' Secrels. John Robinson's Secret. Secret of Chicks Dying in Shell. Secrel of Sealy Leg Cure. Sccrel of How 10 Hold a Fowl. Blan-chard's Secret of Stopping Cocks from Crowing at Night. EGG SECRETS-Brown' s Seerel of Preserving Eggs. Secret of Killing Ihe Ferlilily of Eggs. Secret of Obtaining Winter Eggs. Secrel of Ihe Angell Syslem. Secrel of Eggs A II the Year. Secret of Having Perfect Eggs. Kohr's Secrel of Selecling Layers. Kulp's Secret of Producing Great Lavers. Professor Rice's Fat Hen Secret. Crane's Secret of Holding Eggs lor Halching. Boswell's Secret of Testing Eggs. Dr. Woods' Egg Hatching Secret. MARKETS SECRETS- Judgmg Ihe Age of Dressed Poultry. Secret of Dressing Fowls. Secrel of Celery· Fed Broilers. Secrel of High Priced Slock. Truslow's Secret of High Prices for Ducks. SECRETS OF EXHIBITING -Drevenstedt's Secret of Exhibition Fowls. Heimlich's Secret of Exhibition Fowls Zimmer's Secret of Line Breeding. Rigg's Secret of Uniform Markings. Marshall's Secret of Training Show Birds. Lambert's Melhod of Growing Good Tails. Heck'sSe-crel of Adding Exhibition Weight. Fishel's Secret of Preparing Fowls for Early Fall Shows. 14th EDITION NOW READY Revised and up-to-date READ WHAT PURCHASERS SAY I received Far m Journal and .. Poultry Secrets,” and am very much pleased with both. The secrets are worth their weight in gold. Why, I paid $5.00 for the sprouted oat method. You certainly give a fellow over his money's worth. Andrew F. G. Morey, Utica, N. Y. I purchased a copy of “Poultry Secrets,” and find many helpful ideas in it, especially Dr. Wood's Egg Hatching Secret. Mrs. F. T, Darnell, Westfield, Ind. By putting within our reach these .. Poultry Secrets,” you are doing a more philanthropic work than giving alms or endowing hospitals, for you make it possible for us to make both ends meet. L. Boyce, Milwaukee, Wis. Received your book of “Poultry Secrets.” It's an exceptionally instructive work, and worth $10 to any progressive poultry-man . I would not care to take that for my copy if I could not get another. Robt. F. Kingsland, Montville, N. J. The Farm Journal came to hand, and later “Poultry Secrets,” also arrived, all of which I was very glad to receive and have been greatly interested in reading same, and think you are doing a glorious work in diffusing such valuable knowledge for so little money. F. B. Meade, Boston, Mass. As to “Poultry Secrets,” I wIll say. ( have lectured on this subject over the greater portion of this state for the pas I 6fteen years, and have about every book Ihal is published on t his subJecl in my library. and I consider thIS book of yours the most valuable I know, by far, for the general public. L. A. RIchardson, Marine, III. Is tillS cock properly held ? “Poultry Secrets"* tells you fo' to carry jo'ls, and scores 01 secrets far more important and fdferto unre'ealed. Profusely illustrated, with many fine drawings and diagrams. 64 pages Have you use for such a book ? Then read the Offer below. The POULTRY SECRETS BOOK is sold in combination with the Farm Journal, Philadelphia. The FARM JOURNAL is the standard paper for everyone who lives in or near the country, or ever has, or evel expects to. A particularly fine poultry department, more valuable than most poultry papers. 33 years old, 750,000 ,ubscriber, and more. Goes everv' where. Clean, clever, cheerful, amusing, intensely practical. Cut to fit everybody, YOllng or old, village, suburbs, or rural routes. Unlike any other paper and alway: has been. AMERICAN POULTRY ADVOCATE, the great New York State paper, published at Syta-cuse, and full of good reading matter, is always welcomed by the subscriber. Now in its 19th year. It is conceded to be one of the best poultry papers published in the United State,. Well edited by recognized authorities on the subject of practical poultry raising. Has a guaranteed circulation of 45,000 copies per month. SPECIAL OFFER For $1.00 (casl), mOTley order or check) we w'l1 senu postpaid the Poultry Secreta Book &* E
