181 



With us it will be seen Oaions cost over 3/7 per pound, while 

 over twenty pounds of imported onions of excellent quality can be 

 purchased for the same money. 



It is not what Ave can grow that should occupy the atten- 

 tion of our people, but what we can grow economically and at 

 lemunerative rates. 



191.— CEDAR— Ce*-e?a odorata, L. 



Residents and natives of the West Indies are in general well 

 acquainted with the West Indian Cedar and its uses, but American 

 and European visitors and " stay at homes" of other lands have 

 not the same acquaintance with this famous tree, nor are they well 

 informed of the class of wood to be looked for when the word cedar 

 is mentioned. This is not much to be wondered at Avhen we find that 

 there are woods from all parts of the world known as cedar, as well 

 as the West Indian, produced by trees of very different character, 

 and far removed from each other by Botanical classification. 



The common name Cedar, is applied to the wood of Junijperus 

 virginiana, or Virginian Red Cedar which grows in the United States. 

 By some there is no distinction drawn between this and Juniperus 

 Bermudiana, or the Bermuda Cedar. The wood from these two is 

 practically indistinguishable ; it is used for the same purposes, and a 

 fine essential oil can be distilled from either. Taking the two as one 

 species it is found to be present in Cuba, Jamaica, Hayti, and by 

 cultivation (if not otherwise) in several other West Indian Islands. 

 A large pencil manufacturer recently applied at this office for informa- 

 tion as to the possibility of growing it in the West Indies on a com- 

 mercial scale as he anticipated a scarcity of the Virginian wood. He 

 was informed that the tree was apparently indigenous to the hill lands 

 of Jamaica and Cuba, and that large areas in these islands could be 

 readily devoted to its cultivation if inducement offered. It could 

 hardly be expected however that property owners would expend large 

 sums on planting pencil cedar as .a speculation unless under some 

 guarantee; but it is nevertheless clear that if certain sums were 

 judiciously expended a steady supply of these woods could be main- 

 tained, sufficient perhaps to render the manufacturer iudependant of 

 American supplies. 



