664 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURrST. [April i, 1887. 



Government up to the end of last year : — 



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 raojj aoneMOjis v^x"^ 



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17, The i~iociety continues to liave the benefit of the 

 long experience of 1be Honorary Secretary who lias 

 managed its affairs since 1877, and has now, in addition 

 the able assistance, as Superintendent of the gardens 

 of a professional gardener who was sent out to Govern- 

 ment from Kew in 1870 to conduct experiments in 

 the cultivation of cotton in the Central I'rovinces; and 

 the Committee believes that its usefulness and the 

 import mce and extent of its work is limited only by the 

 funds at its disposal and the small amount of time 

 which the Honorary Secretary is able to devote to it 

 from his other duties. 



Read — the following letter from J. Grose, Esq , 

 Acting Director of Revenue Settlement and Agriculture, 

 to the Secretary to Government, Revenue Department 

 dated Madras, 8th December 1886, No. 2291 :— 



With reference to G.O., daiad 20th November last, 

 No. 7036, I have the honor to state that the Agri- 

 Horticultural Society of Madras have, on all occasions 

 on which they have been applied to, readily favored 

 this department with their co-operation, and that this 

 department has, whenever possible, freely utilised their 

 services in the matter of procuring, raising, and distri- 

 buting «eeds and plants of great economic value. 

 Besides supplying seeds of Keana luxvrians, Dili Jivi, 

 and of varieties of well-known foreign lobacco, the 

 Committee of the Society have procured shoots of the 

 edible Cactus from Malta, planted them first in their 

 own gariiens, and distributed them to the districts after 

 they had become well estiblishe'l. The Society has 

 also furnishpd valuable informalim and sngsestions 

 to this department on the subject of grafting the 

 edible Cactus on the common variety and on that of 

 jndiffenous salt plants for the reclamation of salt .soils. 



2. All that is stated in the report as to the utility of 

 the Society to the general public of this presidency 

 seems to me well warranted. 



Oedeh— dated 22ad December 1886, No. 1119 

 Revenue. The report read above, together with the 

 letter from the Acting Director of Revenue Settlement 

 and Agriculture, will be forwarded for the information 

 of the Government of India with reference to their 

 letter, No 711— 1201 -A (Revenue and Agricultural 

 Department) of 9th September 1886. Copies of the 

 Society's annual reports for the years 1882—85 will be 

 transmitted at the same time. 



2. Throughout the period ander review the Society 

 has been in receipt of a contribution of R4,000 from 

 Provincial funds, the former grant-in-aid of R3,.500 

 having been increased by R500 under G.O., dated 8th 

 March 1883, No. 538, Financial. It is satisfactory to 

 learn from paragraph 16 of the report that the receipts 

 of the Society from other sources have also increased 

 considerably during the same period. 



The ratio between the amount of the grant-in-aid and 

 the t otal income of the Society is considerably less than 

 the maximum prescribed by the Government of India 

 in their resolution, No. 7 — 274-278, of 17th September 

 1879. In recognition of the flattering testimony 

 borne by the Kew authorities to the good work of the 

 Society, a special grant of R1,000 was, in G.O., dated 

 Ifich September 1884, No. 1045 Financial, made to 

 their funds. This sum has been utilised for the pro- 

 vision of a botanical library, which, it is stated, is 

 freely and widely consulted. 



a. In hi.i letter read with the above, the Director of 

 Revenue Settlement and Agriculture bears testimony 

 both to the general public utility of the Society and its 

 ready co-operation with the Agricultural Department. 

 Cfovernment note with satisfaction that the Society's 

 library and botanical collections are extensively utilised 

 by students and lecturers, and are thus the means of 

 diff asing a knowledge of botany throughout Southern 

 India. Altogether, the period under review seems to 

 have been one of increased activity and usefulness, and 

 Government desire to place on record their sense of 

 obligation to the Honorary Secretary and the members 

 of the Committee, to whose exertions this desirable 

 result is mainly due. 



Tomatoes. — An American contemporary states that 

 during the past season there were put up 48,508.248 

 cans of Tomatoes in the United States, being one- 

 third less than the pack of 1883, the decrease in 

 acreage being heaviest in the eastern States. It is 

 said that a farmer in Salem Country, New Jersey, last 

 season raised 83 tons of Toma oes on 6 acres of land. 

 The crop was sold in the canning establishment for 

 7 dollars (nearly 30s.) per ton. — /ournal of HorticvJture. 

 Forests and Rainfall. --Prof. Cleveland Abbe in 

 a recent lecture before the Franklin Institute of 

 Philadelphia, attacked the " popular error " that forests 

 had any influence on rainfall. He showed that in 

 eastern Pennsylvania during the past one hundred years 

 there had been a slight increase in rainfall, though the 

 forests had almost wholly disappeared. He explained 

 that the increases or decreases in earth elevations in- 

 fluenced the annual r;iinfall, and not forests. It is too 

 bad, however, to charge this error to the " popular " 

 siele. It is an error propagated by so-called men of 

 science, and has been a pet theme with many a science 

 association, — and it has been the work chiefly of this 

 magazine to show that there was no foundation for the 

 notion that was worthy of the name of science. We 

 have protested against the error with considerable 

 earnestness, because of its injurious influence on practical 

 forestry. It has led to the waste of hundreds of 

 thousand of dollars in fruitless " commissions " and 

 legislative blundering, and prevented the forestry 

 question from standing ou its profit and loss foundation, 

 as a commercial undertaking should be— which by this 

 time might have led to profitable results.— (rarrfeners' 

 Monthly and HorticuUunst . [This comes to us from tie 

 United States. It is commmsease and truth. Run 

 depends on trade-winds, monsoaus and miuatains, 

 Forfsts are the effect not the cause of r«in.— -Ed,] 



