Medford mail tribune., May 28, 1963, Image 10

TUESDAY. MAY 28. 1363
MEDFOHD MAIL THIBUNE. MEDFOHD, OREGON
Small
Worlds
Around
Us
Wtkin
Vucltbti i Trlbuna Syndlcito, 13V
10 A
Tiny Aphidt Produce Basil
For Fin Furniture Shellac
It has a strange beginning
and a mighty peculiar back
ground, the orange colored,
resinous material you buy in
a hardware store under the
name "shellac." Actually, it
comes from bugs, not a single
one of which Is larger than
a kernel of rice.
Thev are anhids that spend
their lives on the branches of
plants, sucking from the veg
etable tissues the sap that
feeds the tree. Those aphids
that form the basis of shellac
feed on the banyan trees, a
native of India.
In the leaves, branches and
aerial roots of a banyan tree
there 1 plenty of room for
billions of aphids, for this
tropical tree reaches gigantic
proporations. One Indian tree
Is said to have sheltered as
many as 3,000 trucks, and at
least 7,000 people can easily
find shade under its branches.
In those countless twigs,
leaves and branches an un
limited number of tiny plant
aphids can find grazing room.
Delicate Insects
The aphids, whether In a
banyan tree or on the bushes
of your own front yard, are
delicate little insects. They
are soft-bodied and defenseless-all
very lazy, barley mov
ing from one place on a limb
to another. They all have very
big stomacha and very small
heads. They eat lustily and
produce living young in vast
numbers.
A single aphid, If left alone
and furnished with all the
plant sap she can drink, can
produce an estimated 6,000
million others like herself in
her lifetime.
She and all her sisters
plunge their tiny beaks into
the tissue of the twig or leaf
and begin sucking sap. Tree
sap contains a very small
amount of food; lt'a mostly
water, so the plant louse must
drink vast amounts of sap to
get enough food to keep head
and body together.
The water is exuded about
as fast as it reaches the in
sect's stomach. This material,
expelled in vast amounts. Is
the honey dew that spots your
automobile, if it is parked un
der a tree where numbers of
aphids are feeding.
In India, this honey dew
becomes the basis of shellac.
Each aphid's ambition is to
keep Its body balloon-like
with a constant Intake of sap.
Resin Builds Up
And all the time the mil
lions of aphids on the banyan
tree are Inhaling sap, they are
exuding a resin which builds
up layer on layer on the twigs
of the tree. Within a short
time, the little branch is com.
pletely covered with lac.
These twigs, heavily encrust
ed with the material from the
Insect bodies, are gathered
and the resin melted off be
comes the "shellac" of commerce.
The wholesale gathering of
encrusted twigs from the ban
yan tree Is a profitable busi
ness as well as an unusual
source of a common product,
Shellac has many uses, one of
the commonest of which is,
of course, varnish.
The oriental people make
exquisite figures and orna
mcnts from lac, H Is the mate
rial utilized in their celebrat
ed lacquer work. Bowls,
dishes and vases as well as
many other articles are made
from this by-product of an
Insect's digestive processes.
Even the Vermillion dye, with
which much lacquer work is
colored, comes from those
same busy, sap-sucking bugs.
Through the chemistry of
digestion, body juices of tiny
insects and the sap of a tree
can protect the beauty of
woodwork In fine furniture
shellac, juice from a delicate
Insect whose numbers stag
ger the imagination.
Portland Living
Costs Reach Peak
San Francisco - WD - The
price of goods and services In
Portland, Ore., reached a new
high In April, the U, S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics said today,
The bureau's all-items Index
for Portland reached 106.2, up
0.3 per cent over January of
tills year and 2.2 per cent over
April of a year ago.
The over -the-quarter In
crease was general except for
food and medical care. Food
dropped 0.8 per cent in the
January -April quarter and
medical care 0.2 per cent.
Transportation accounted for
the biggest increase, 2 per
cent.
FOUNDER DIES
New York -WPP- Louis Llp
gky, 86, one of the founders
of the American Jewish Con
gress, died today at his home.
What can anyone say
about
ft
a newspaper strike?
Stores arid newspapers Scan't do without each other.'We
all knew it, but it took the costly New York strike to remind everybody
all over again. "The dailyrnewspapers and retail stores are equally de
pendent upon each other for the success of their enterprises?' "The stores
were not able to mount an effective' fashion campaign without the daily news
papers" rr. .At is essential to stimulate consumer interest through massive
newspaper advertising or a generally depressing effect on sales will set in, The
recent strike was aptly called fa creeping disaster9" "The downtown area
of any major city is a unified shopping center whose prosperity depends
'upon the traffic-pulling power of big store advertising. When this adver
tising is not present, as in the recent strike, the entire area feels the
effects." P( 'Without advertising,
Using, retail merchandising
"There is no substitute
as the major medium for
especially newspaper aduer
would be in a chaotic state"
for the daily newspaper
retail advertising9
Excerpts from a talk by Mr. Edward F. Englc, fcyv Manager of the Sales Promotion Division, NRMA, at
the annual convention of. the National Retail Merchants Association in Hollywood, Florida,' April 24th)