Thus it will be seen that the sorghum yields to the farmer more than twice as much per acre as either of the leading cereals, and as a gross product of agriculture and manufacture on our own soil more than six times as much per acre as is usually realized from either of these standard crops. * * * * * A new process for producing iron and steel direct from the ore has been brought out in Russia. Under the new process iron ore, after being submitted to the smelting processes, is taken direct from the furnace to the rolling mill and turned into thin sheets of the finest charcoal iron. At present the process has only been commercially applied with charcoal fuel, but experiments are stated to have shown that equal success can be obtained with coke. The secret of the process lies in the construction of the furnace, which is said to be simple and inexpensive. * * * * * THE MENGES THERMO-MAGNETIC GENERATOR AND MOTOR. We have received from M. Menges (of the Hague) a most interesting description of an apparatus on which he has been at work for some time past, with the object of generating electricity by the direct conversion of heat, or, as it might be more accurately described, by a more direct conversion than that of an ordinary dynamo. M. Menges' apparatus depends, like that of Edison, upon the fact that the magnetic metals lose their magnetic permeability at a certain temperature. It differs greatly, however, from its predecessor in important points, especially in the fact that it does not require the aid of any external source of motive power. In Edison's pyromagnetic dynamo it will be remembered that it is necessary to provide some small amount of motive power from an extraneous source in order to revolve the shield by which the heat is alternately directed on one half or the other of the armature cores. M. Menges' apparatus is, on the contrary, wholly automatic. We proceed to give a free translation of the description furnished us by the inventor. In attempting to employ the thermo-magnetic properties of iron or nickel in the construction of machines for the generation of electricity upon an industrial scale, we are met with the difficulty that the heating and cooling of large masses of metal not only involves great loss of heat, but also requires much time. Hence, to obtain a useful effect of any importance, it would appear necessary to employ machines of dimensions altogether impracticable. By the device and method of construction now to be explained this difficulty has, however, been completely overcome.