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BUFFALO-GNAT

286

BULGARIA

Mississippi valley. It is one of the suckers, and the flesh is poor.

Buffalo=Gnat, a rival to the mosquito in bloodthirstiness, a dreaded enemy of man and beast, that ravages in the Mississippi and Missouri valleys. These gnats kill poultry and domestic animals. Their bite is poisonous and, attacking as they do in droves, causes much loss of blood. They fly and bite in the day time. The larvae are aquatic, found on rocks and logs in swift streams.

Buffalo - Grass, a highly valued grass common in the West, from Manitoba to Texas. It is low and spreading, spreads rapidly by runners, is easily propagated and is adapted to regions of little rainfall. All stock enjoy it.

Buffalo=Moth. See CARPET BEETLE.

Buff on (bufftin, Fr. buff on), Georges Louis Leclerc, Count de, a French scientist (born 1707, died 1788). He was of a wealthy family and educated for the law; but, after traveling for a time, decided to devote himself to science. In 1739! ne was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences, and appointed director of the Royal Garden. This gave him opportunity to study animals widely. His Natural History, in fifteen volumes, is written in the finest literary style and created a great popular interest in natural history. Rosseau is said to have kissed the steps of the pavilion in which the book was written. He was a great thinker and one of the pioneers in the modern doctrine of evolution. The History of Birds, The History of Minerals and Epochs of Nature are other works of his which are well-known.

Building-Material. In the mammoth structures which our modern building era has made us all familiar with, more important than ever is the necessity of having good sound material for their erection, so as to withstand the severe strain now imposed upon all departments of the builder's and constructor's work. In earlier times the erection of buildings was for the most part a matter of mere masonry, calling into exercise, in addition to the architect, the bricklayer's or stonemason's work; to-day, in this era of immense steel structures, the demands are more extensive and complicated, calling not only for materials of greater strength and endurance, as well as for increased fireproof protection, but also for elaborate plumbing, heating and ventilating arrangements, and for stone, granite, concrete or iron and steel that win resist crushing weights and defy deterioration by the changes in weather and temperature. So vast, and occasionally so elaborate, are the structures of our modern day that the building of them, under the architect's supervision, has to be undertaken not only by specialized labor, but let out to various contracting and sub-contracting firms.

each responsible for its own assigned task, and turned out by the use of material either where the building is to be erected, or, more generally, in yards, workshops and factories where specialized work is made ready, as demand calls for, on a large scale, and that whether it be vaults, beams, joists, arches, balustrades, railings, baths, doors, windows, mantels, moldings, staircases, encaustic tiles, wardrobes, belts and belting, roofing material, boilers, radiators, furnaces, ranges, sinks and light and heating plant. When these rough essentials are furnished and placed, then come the plumbing, lathing and plastering operations, the fireproofing, glazing, painting, papering and general finishing and decorating,—the processes of all being well known, and the materials of which, including the skilled labor in using and applying them, should be of the best quality and the most workmanlike and satisfactory.

Bulb. In a certain sense a bulb is a bud whose leaves have become fleshy through storage of reserve food. This simply means that it is a shoot whose axis has remained short and whose overlapping leaves have become thickened. A further difference between a bud and bulb is that in the latter case it is not the whole leaf, which is thickened, but merely the leaf bases, as in the hyacinth and onion.

Bul'bel, bulbs which grow from the main bulb, or which are formed by the breaking apart of the main bulb. What is known as the potato-onion is an example of the latter phase.

Bulb'let, small bulbs which are borne in connection with the foliage or flowers. For example, "top onions" bear bulblets in the flower cluster, while the tiger lily bears bulblets in the axils of its leaves.

Bulga'ria, including Bulgaria proper, occupies a part of the Balkan Peninsula, and lies between the Danube and the Balkan Mountains, and, with Eastern Rume-lia to the south, is a tributary principality of the Balkan Peninsula, under the Sultan of Turkey. On its eastern border is the Black Sea, on its western Servia; while it is bounded on the north by Rumania and on the south by Turkey.

Natural Resources. With a fine agricultural country, a broad seaboard, the fine waterway of the Danube on her northern boundary, a mild climate, one of the most liberal constitutions in Europe and an energetic people, Bulgaria has great possibilities.

Occupations. There is in Bulgaria considerable agricultural and cattle raising industry; also wine-making, tobacco growing and manufactures of silk and the attar of roses.

Cities. Sofia, the capital, has a population of 102,769. The other chief towns ajre Varna, 41,317, a fortress on the Black