Portsmouth, N. H. Two photographs of the commotion caused by this explosion are reproduced herewith.

Probably the most powerful high explosive compound in use is that which has been adopted by the United States Government as a bursting charge for shells, known, from the name of its inventor, as "Maximite." This explosive is about fifty per cent more powerful than ordinary dynamite and somewhat more powerful than pure nitro-glycerin. NotwithNotwithstanding its high explosive property, however, it is practically insensitive to shock, and will not explode from ignition even if a mass of it be stirred with a white-hot iron. Heated in an open vessel it will evaporate like water, and shells are filled with it by the simple process of melting and pouring. Like "Lyddite," "Melinite," "Shimoseite," and other high explosives in use by foreign governments, Maximite is a compound of picric acid, but its actual composition is secret. It can be detonated only by a special fuse, the composition of which is also a government secret.

As showing the insensitiveness of this explosive to all ordinary forms of shock some elaborate tests have been made at Sandy Hook by government officials. In one of these a 12-inch armour-piercing projectile was charged with seventy pounds of Maximite and fired, without a fuse, through a seven-inch Harveyized nickel steel plate, the projectile being recovered intact from the sand abutment

behind the plate. A similar shell, this time armed with a detonating fuse, was then fired at another plate, and, exploding when about two-thirds through, shattered the plate to fragments and com pletely demolished the supporting structure.

The difference between gunpowderan explosive used as a propelling charge in rifles and cannon-and high explosives employed as a bursting charge in shells, torpedoes, et cetera, has already been explained. As originally made gunpowder was a loose mixture of pulverized sulphur, charcoal and saltpeter. Then it was actually a powder, not granulated, as is the present form of ordinary smoky black powder. The idea of granulation probably arose from the admixture of bituminous matter with the powder to retard the combustion. The first methodical granulation of gunpowder recorded was in France, in 1825. In 1854, Gen. T. J. Rodman invented prismatic powder, designing presses for molding the grains separately and giving them a uniform shape. He also made multi-perforated powder grains to insure progressive combustion.

The granular black powder of the present day is made by thoroughly incorporating the moistened ingredients-sulphur, saltpeter and charcoal-in a wheel mill. This mixture is then subjected to high pressure, and what is known as press cake is formed. This cake then is passed between crushing rolls, which break it up

into irregular fragments, or grains. These are then "tumbled," to round the edges and corners and to glaze the surfaces with graphite, when the grains are separated according to size and the rapidity of combustion desired. This form of granulation is chiefly employed for blasting purposes and small arms. The simplest form of grain for cannon is made by breaking the press cake into rectangular fragments.

A smokeless powder is one which leaves no ash when burned, but is converted wholly into gases. The smoke The smoke from common black powder is the product of its combustion, which consists of more than half solid matter, or ash. It was not until 1888 that anything like a practical smokeless powder was made. In that year the French government developed, by a secret process, a smokeless powder for small arms, which, being used in the Lebel rifle, became known as the Lebel powder. It is now known that this powder was simply a soluble variety of gun cotton dissolved in a volatile solvent, dried in a thin sheet and then cut up into small laminae.

All smokeless powders now made consist either of nitro-cellulose of some special degree of nitration, or of a mixture of different grades, whether with or without the addition of nitro-glycerin. The smokeless powder in use by the United

in

States Government is pyro-nitro-cellulose, which no nitro-glycerin is used, and which contains so little oxygen that a grain burned in the air leaves a large quantity of unconsumed carbon. Burned in a gun, however, under service pressures, most of the carbon combines with the oxygen to produce cartonic oxide, (carbon monoxide) instead of carbonic acid, (carbon dioxide.) The products of the combustion of these materials are practically all gaseous, and therefore smokeless, and consist mainly of carbonic oxide, free nitro

gen and free hydrogen.

British cordite is a smokeless powder, containing the greatest percentage of nitro-glycerin-58 per cent and consequently develops the highest temperature and the greatest amount of energy. It would require one-third more ругоnitro-cellulose compound to develop the same energy behind a projectile. Notwithstanding this, the greater erosive action of cordite at high pressures is so destructive to guns as to more than balance the additional expense of using greater charges of the American powder.

It would be impossible to use so hard and dense a material as smokeless powder, and one that burns through such a small thickness, without its being multiperforated. This is owing to the enormous initial areas presented to the flame, with the resultant high pressures developed by full charges if granulated sufficiently fine or made thin enough to burn in the gun without perforations.

As many as nineteen perforations may be made in a single grain of smokeless powder, though the usual number is about seven, the diameter of the cylinder and the distances between the perforations being governed by the size of the gun in which the grain is to be used. In the air this smokeless powder will burn. with comparative slowness, but under pressure its action is greatly quickened.

OW the small farmer of the United States is letting pass from him an opportunity that lies ready to his hand has just been brought forcibly to public notice. Recently there landed in Charleston a ship-load of immigrants from Northern Europe, the advance guard of many thousand expected at no distant date. These were not the kind of immigrants who may be seen at Ellis Island, but carefully selected laborers and small farmers invited by South Carolina to become citizens. Many of them brought sufficient money to purchase small farms, and when they have done so, there will be presented the somewhat remarkable spectacle of aliens, not even speaking the language of the land of their adoption, seizing an opportunity which

that land's own people, thousands of small farmers of worked-out and barren Northern and Eastern farms, have failed to see.

Nothing could better illustrate how little must be known, by this class, of conditions in the South than the fact that South Carolina found it necessary to establish her Department of Immigration, and send agents to Europe to secure desirable settlers; an example which will shortly be followed by Georgia and other Southern States.

While it is true that there is some emigration from the crowded Eastern States to the South, it is astonishingly small when considered in connection with the opportunities there afforded, particularly to the small farmer. Undoubtedly this is mainly due to a misconception of the conditions which exist-a misconception arising from a belief in the continuance

vast plantations, of farflung acres, where the small farmer is looked upon merely as "poor white trash" ; where he can never hope to attain to any social position, and where he drags out a miserable existence with the aid of a broken-down mule and several razor-back hogs. The absurdity of the idea can only be appreciated by those familiar with the actual state of affairs-a knowledge which may be gained either from direct observation or from statistics.

of a state of affairs long since ended, and kept alive by fiction and sickly sentimentality.

The average citizen who has never been South pictures to himself a land of

As a matter of fact, the day of the large plantation in the South is past; there are few, except such as are controlled by companies or syndicates. Prob

As to social status, in the South, as throughout the world, the agriculturist is the backbone of the community, and the small-farmer class, more than any other, furnishes the most influential and respected citizens.

While in the South King Cotton still rules, and always will rule, his domain is vastly smaller than even a few years ago, as the value of diversified crops is more and more recognized. And the extent of this diversity-and the possibilities-can scarcely be comprehended by a dweller in

an all-grain country, or a farmer who is limited at most to a choice of two or three crops.

Take as an example the State of Georgia: besides cotton, her farms produce corn, wheat, oats, rice, sugar cane-in fact, every grain and fruit known to the temperate zone. All the year round there is a sufficiency of green pasturage. The climate is unsurpassed; there come no killing freezes or fatal droughts. Vineyards, orchards and truck-farms pay handsomely, as do dairy and poultry businesses, ample markets being within reach, and farm lands may be purchased at a price almost unbelievable to the Easterner. And yet, in Georgia, there are thousands of acres of this land-as fine farm-land as the world can show, lying idle.

Let a particular instance be cited as an illustration of what is not uncommon. There was recently offered for sale in one of the most attractive localities of middle Georgia a farm of 400 acres, located five miles from the county seat,