THE PI.ANT WORLD 211 



only good for corn, sweet potatoes and tobacco in the rainy season. 

 There is no water nearer than the river. It might prove suitable for 

 peanuts, which grow very well on this island, and appear to like a lime- 

 stone soil. These would be a useful crop to alternate with corn. 



Tuesday, October 24. — To-day the S. S. Uranus from Ponape and 

 Saipan, with the Spanish commissioners on board, dropped anchor in the 

 harbor. They have come to collect the remaining property belonging to 

 the military branch of the Spanish government, in accordance with the 

 treaty of peace. The president of the commission, Lieutenant-Colonel 

 Cristobal Aguilar, called at my office and explained to me his mission. 

 Offered him every facility to carry on his work. Among the property 

 are a number of old guns near the palace, mounted on decaying carriages, 

 and old spherical projectiles which I do not think it will pay to carry 

 away from the island. Our blacksmiths might utilize the tires of the 

 gun-carriages for various purposes and convert some of the old muskets 

 into machetes and plow-shares. 



Received a communication from Fray Francisco Resano, formerly the 

 vicario of the Mariana Islands, whom the Governor recently sent away 

 from this island. He has been living on Saipan, one of the northern 

 islands of this group, which the Germans have recently bought from 

 Spain. Fray Francisco says in his letter that he has received orders from 

 the Superior of his order at Manila to proceed to Guam on the departure 

 of the Spanish authorities from Saipan, and that the padres stationed 

 on that island are to remain there until other missionaries shall arrive. 

 After their arrival he is to hand over the mission to them and then pro- 

 ceed to Spain. This, he says, is in compliance with the instructions of 

 the bishop. He requests me to ask the Governor's permission for him to 

 come to Guam, and if it be refused, to inform him by letter ; so that if he 

 be obliged to go to Manila it will be his excuse to the authorities. He 

 says that the Chamorros have been very good and are all Christians, so 

 that the bishop does not wish that they be abandoned spiritually, and it 

 would not be pleasing to Rome to leave so many Christians without 



priests." 



[to be continued.] 



The widespread character of the interest which has been awakened in 

 forestry within the last three years is strikingl}'- illustrated by the fact 

 that Brazil, with her hundreds of thousands of square miles of forests, is 

 becoming alarmed at the unscientific methods in use in that country ; 

 and in a recent issue of the "Sao Paulo Boletim da Agricultura" there is 

 given a resume of the past, present, and future aspects of the case, with 

 a warning note ringing through it all. O. W. Barrett. 



