7do 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST [Apml t, mi. 



Ox the Devonshire coast, a sea-grass Poryhyra- 

 laciniata) is boiled, chopped, mixed with a small 

 portion of oatmeal, and made into bread, which 

 keeps from four to eight days, and is much used 

 by the poor Welsh people, most of it being sent 

 to Swansea. — Am. Grocer, 



The strongest intoxicating liquor in the world 

 is probably " Sham-sho," used by the natives of 

 Burmah, and said to be made of rice and lime. 

 It is so powerful that it will dissolve a Martini- 

 Henry bullet in thirty minutes, and its ravages 

 among the natives are stated to be most de- 

 plorable. — Ihid. 



A new industry has been started in Vermont 

 for collecting the cones of the white or spruce 

 pines and extracting the seeds from them, which 

 are then sent to France, Germany, and other 

 parts of Europe, to renew the forests there that 

 have been cut down. Each bushel of cones yields 

 about two pounds of seed. — Ihid. 



Close and Open Forest Planting. — In order to 

 test the advantages or disadvantages of planting at 

 various distances, some experiments were instituted in 

 Germany some twenty-five years ago, and the results 

 have recently been made known. An area of about fifty 

 acres of the same average quality of soil and the 

 same exposure was planted, in ten-acre portions, at 

 distances ranging from four feet by four feet to 

 twelve feet by twelve feet. Careful measurement has 

 recently been made of the timber in each plot, and 

 the following table is alleged to show the results in 

 t-ach case. — 



Average Accretion 



Width of Planting. in the 2Eth Year. 



4x4 feet . . . 181-4 



6x6 „ . . . 152-3 



8x8 „ . . . 137-3 



10 X 10 „ . . . 136-4 



12x12 „ . . . 112-9 



It would appear from these figures that the crop 

 decreases in propotion as the width between the 

 plants is increased at planting time. But there is much 

 besides this meagre statement of the results at 

 tweuty-fivB years after planting required to enable us 

 fully to understand the value of this important ex- 

 periment in arboricultural practice. The management 

 of the several portions of the fifty acres under ex- 

 periment during the twenty-five years must form an 

 indispensable factor in coming to any conclusion as 

 to the value of these figures, which are put forward 

 as the ultimate result of the comparative experiment. 

 — Journal oj Forestry. 



Wood Ashes and theib Uses. — We have had ample 

 means of testing the value of wood ashes or char- 

 red earth, both as a means of warding off the at- 

 tacks of slugs and other garden pests from tender 

 vegetables, and as a material for enriching the soil 

 and consequently accelerating growth. The old 

 remedy, freshly-slaked lime, if used in excess, is 

 positively injurious to some crops, and after it has 

 lain on the damp soil a short period it loses its 

 burning character, and then slugs pass over it with 

 impunity. Ashes of every kind have been used, bai 

 more especially those from wood fires, and we strongly 

 recommend that every kind of garden refuse be con- 

 verted into ashes by burning it. At this season of 

 the year, when the thinning of shrubberies is generally 

 receiving attention, any or every kind of trim- 

 mings may be converted into valuable ashes, as when 

 once a good bonfire is kindled, and a glowing red 

 heat is obtained — no matter how green the wood and 

 leaves may be — the fire will burn away as fiercely as 

 the driest straw-stack, if kept constantly fed with 

 fresh material until the whole is consumed ; and there 

 is therefore no more certain way of getting rid of 

 noxious weeds, such as couch grass, bind-weeds, docks, 

 etc., than that of passing them through the fire, as 

 it destroys all seeds that generally abound in rubbish 

 heaps that have been rotted away by the slow process 

 of fermentation, — Journal of Forestry. 



Increase of Strength in Timber by Seasonino, 

 ETC. — It is stated as a curious fact, by a writer in 

 the Bidliiny News, that one of the properties especi- 

 ally conducive to durability in timber is its odori- 

 ferousuess —woods which are of this character being 

 the most durable. The name authority states that 

 the increase in strength due to seasoning in different 

 woods IK as follows . — Whito pine, f) per cent ; elm, 

 12-3 per cent; oak, 266 per cent; ash, 44-7 per cent; 

 beech, 61-9 per cent. The comparative value of differ- 

 ent woods, in respect to crushing strength and 

 stiffness, is thus shown : Teak, 6555 ; p:ngli8h oak, 

 4074 ; ash, 3571 ; elm, 3468 ; beech, 3079 ; mahogany, 

 2571 ; spruce, 2532 ; yellow pine, 2193 ; sycamere, 

 1833; cedar, 700. Regarding the relative degree of 

 hardness, shellbark hickory stands highest, and call- 

 ing that 100, white oak is 84 , whit"? ash, 77 ; dog- 

 wood, 75 ; white hazel, 72 ; apple, 70 ; red oak, 69 ; 

 beech, 65; black walnut, 65; yellow oak, 60; white 

 elm, 58 ; hard maple, 56 ; white cedar, 56 ; yellow 

 pine, 54. Ironwood, hornbeam, almond, hard beech, 

 teak, and thorn are of notable hardness, and, of 

 course, very serviceable where that quality is 

 essential. The finest floors are said to be seen in 

 Russia. For those of the highest grade, tropical 

 woods are exclusively employed. Fir and pine are 

 never used, as in consequence of their sticky character 

 they attract and retain dust and dirt, and thereby 

 soon become blackened. Pitch pine, too, is liable to 

 shrink, even after being well seasoned. The mosaic 

 wood floors in Russia are often of extraordinary beauty. 

 One in the Summer Palace is of small squares of 

 ebony inlaid with mother-of-pearl. A considerable 

 trade is done in Dantzic and Riga by exporting 

 small blocks of oak for parquet floors. — Journal of 

 Forestry. 



Mechanism of a Teke. — A tree { and I beg my 

 readers to follow this attempt at explanation closely — 

 all depends upon it ) receives its nourishment from 

 the roots. These correspond to the mouth iu the 

 human frame. Now, as in the human frame the nour- 

 ishment received is, after being supplied to the blood, 

 exposed to the operation of air in the lungs before 

 it is fit to give material to the body, so in a tree, 

 the nourishment taken in at these tree mouths, the 

 roots, passes to the lungs of the tree, and there, by 

 contact with the air, is rendered fit to supply fresh 

 material to the tree. These tree lungs are the leaves. 

 This operation is effected by the passage upward from 

 the soil around the roots, through the trunk, the 

 branches, and every twig of the tree to the leaves, of 

 a large quantity of water, containing in solution the 

 nutriment for the tree. Arrived at the leaves, a 

 process takes place which separates, by means of con- 

 tact with the air, most of the water the roots had 

 taken in, from the valuable nutriment, and throws 

 off, in vapour, the surplus water into the air. At this 

 time certain constituent portions of the air are utilized 

 and mingled with the nourishment retained. This is 

 all, now a small portion in comparison with what had 

 arisen from the roots, yet retaining enough water to 

 serve as a vehicle back, returned toward the roots, 

 depositing in its way, in leaf, bark, and root, what 

 is needed there for the growth of the tree. In these 

 they undergo, especially in the bark, further fitting 

 and digesting processes before they assimilate with the 

 substance of the tree- The water which was retained 

 to L-arry them down, being no longer needed, passes 

 out at the roots. Of the extent of the provison made 

 for evaporation by the leaves, some idea may be formed 

 from a consideration of the number of stomata 

 or stomates to be found in the leaves of plants. The 

 number varies iu different plants, for which vari- 

 ation a reason may be found in the different conditions 

 ol ijrowth to which they are subjected in their several 

 natural habitats. In the back of the leaf of the apple 

 tree there are about twenty-four thousand stomates 

 to the square inch. In the leaf of the lilac there are a 

 hundred and sixty thousand of them to the square 

 inch. In the leaves of the cherry-laurel there are 

 none on the upper surface of the leaf, but ninety thou- 

 sand have been counted on the lower surface. — Journal 

 of Fvrestri/. 



