24 



^THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[July j, i&M* 



Timber in New Zealand. — It is stated in the Colonies and 

 India that the export of timber, especially Kauri (Dammara 

 australis), from the northern part of New Zealand is very 

 large; numbers of vessels are constantly employed carrying 

 Kauri to the southern parts of the colony and to Australia, 

 where there is a good market for it. In addition to this 

 several large mills in Auckland are fully employed cutting 

 up the logs into sizes fit for building purposes. Between 

 400 and 500 hands are engaged in this work alone. — 

 Gardeners' Chronicle. 



Mangoes in Queensland. — "We have received from Mr. 

 A. "Williams, of the Green Hill nursery, some large and 

 well-matured fruit of the following choice mangoes : — Batavia. 

 Rose, Strawberry, Malda, and a seedliug of his own raising, 

 The Malda specimens are very large, weighing quite lilb. 

 each, of excellent flavour, and very juicy. The Hose is a 

 small sized fruit with pink cheeks, and is very sweet and 

 luscious. The Strawberry is of good size, and is already 

 well and favourably known amongst lovers of this tropical 

 fruit. The seedling, which has not yet been named, has a 

 rather rough looking exterior, and attains to a good size ; but 

 for quality it can hardly be surpassed. Mr. "Williams's crop 

 has been moderately heavy this year notwithstanding 

 the drought, which shows that under ordinarily favourable 

 circumstances the mango is a great success in Queensland. 

 It thrives admirably in the whole of the coast country, and 

 should be found in every tropical and semi-tropical orchard. 

 All the varieties mentioned above are either free of fibre 

 altogether, or have very little of it; and this is a very im- 

 portant consideration in the mango. — Queensland r,-. 



Meat for Trees. — The belief in the carnivorous require- 

 ments of trees has not quite become an exploded matter 

 in some parts of the Continent, if it has fortunately been 

 banished from amongst ourselves. Many of the older mem- 

 bers of the craft could tell some singalur doings as to root 

 feeding that occurred in the earlier years of this century, 

 which would fairly pair off with the following: — A gardener 

 in Prussia possessed an old Apple tree of the there well 

 known Ked Stettiner kind, which, in spite of all his care 

 and endeavours, refused to bear fruit, but yet made very 

 strong wood. In this difficulty he tried the effects of ring- 

 ing the bark, hut with but little result — the tree bore a few 

 fruits, of which some fell off during the summer; but this 

 was not the effect of too great a flow of sap, the ringing 

 having possibly prevented that. It occurred to him at last 

 that the roots were not obtaining the necessary food, and 

 just then a horse died; this was cut up into pieces and buried 

 in the soil round the tree, about as distant from the bole as 

 the branches reached. The results that followed this oper- 

 ation were astounding, for the hitherto unfruitful tree has 

 borne splendid crops of fruits ever since — of course, thanks 

 to the buried horse-beef in its larder. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



1 ) a m p Clay Preferable to Charcoal for the Transport 

 or Seeds, — We quote as follows from the proceedings of the 

 Madras Agri-Horticultural Society: — Read the following ex- 

 tract from the Gardeners'' Chronicle of 8th March 1S84, page 

 314 : — " The use of charcoal as a medium in which to pack 

 seeds to be sent to this country from abroad, is very common 

 indeed; in fact, a considerable number of scientific corre- 

 spondents seem to pin their faith to charcoal, as a packing 

 agent, to a remarkable extent. As far as our experience 

 goes, its use is, however, decidedly objectionable, as, apart 

 from its dirtiness, it absorbs the moisture from the seeds, 

 and in many esses so thoroughly, that all germinating 

 power is lost by the time the package arrives at its destin- 

 ation. All short-lived seeds seem to travel best in damp 

 clay or moist earth. Packed firmly in damp clay, Siebold 

 succeeded in introducing tea seeds from the Chinese tea 

 countries to Java, and also the seeds of a large number 

 of oaks, camellias, and other Japanese plauts from their 

 ative country to Holland. Seeds of tea, coffee, and a host 

 of other plants, which utterly fail to retain their gerinin- 

 ative faculty during a lengthened sea voyage when parked 

 either without any packing medium, or forwarded in char- 

 coal, grow readily when treated in the manner adopted by 

 Siebold. We are glad to see Mr. Prestoe condemning the 

 use of charcoal in his last Report on the Trinidal Botanic 

 Garden." Resolved, that the above extract, being likely to 

 be of use to some of the Society's foreign correspondents, 

 be published with these Proceedings. The remarks above are 

 quite iu accordance with frequent exeprieuce in the Gardens* 



Young Chicks that are subject to weakness in the legs 

 should receive a small allowance of fine bone meal in the 

 food. Weak legs come from forced growth, high feeding, 

 and close confinement, but it is not necessarily dangerous. — 

 Southern Planter. 



Flora of the Philippines and its Probable Deriv- 

 ation. — Under this title a communication was laid before the 

 Liunean Society (May 1) by Mr R. A. Rolfe, of Kew. As 

 recently computed, the whole pLueuogamic vegetation consists 

 of 3,564 species, belonging to 1,002 genera. Of 165 Dicoty- 

 ledonous orders 119 are represented, and of Monocotyledons 

 25 out of 35; the Gymnospermeai are poor in numbers. The 

 proportion of vascular Cryptogams to Phamogams is nearly 

 one-eighth, chiefly Ferns. Fifty-two species of Ferns are not 

 known elsewhere—asignificautfact. The endemic phamogamic 

 plants consist of 917 species, or a proportion of over one 

 quarter endemic; the Dicotyledons showing over one-third 

 to be endemic, and the Monocotyledons a little over one- 

 tenth, chiefly Orchids. A striking feature is the large num- 

 ber of endemic species, and the relatively few endemic 

 genera. The flora, in some respects, may be said to have a 

 Malayan aspect, but is wanting in many typical genera, even 

 such as flourish profusely in the neighbouring island of 

 Borneo. There is an appreciable Australian element mingled 

 with the above; yet, taking all data into consideration, Mr. 

 Rolfe arrives at the conclusion that the Philippines are 

 truly insular in the essentials of their natural history — this 

 not so much through there being an early separation of the 

 Asiatic continent which had a dip under the sea (submerg- 

 ence alone causing extinction of genera as Mr. A. Wallace 

 has inferred), but from their being largely volcanic and 

 geologically speaking of recent origin — presumably what is 

 believed to have been the case in certain other oceanic 

 islands — the vegetation therefore modifying itself accord- 

 ingly. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



Tropical Products in Queensland. — On Carroll's Creek, 

 about thirty miles northwest from Cooktown (says the 

 Herald), in an undulating, well-watered country, with magni- 

 ficent soil and but little timber, Mr. James Dick holds 640 

 acres, a portion of which he has paddocked for grazing, 

 another lot is cleared and cultivated as a nursery and fruit 

 plantation, and the remaining and greater portion is reserved 

 for sugar-growing. No expense has been spared in preparing 

 the ground and in introducing and planting an endless variety 

 of tropical plants, fruit trees, cereals, &c. .There are 3,000 

 coffee plants in the nursery averaging IS in. high, the product 

 of seeds planted fifteen months ago, all healthy, although 

 greatly retarded by last year's drought, ami there are 2,000, 

 which were planted nine months ago, averaging 2 ft. iu height 

 all remarkably healthy and evidently invigorated by late 

 rains. These are principally Liberian, but of the next best 

 thriving species, the Arabian, there are 500 plants from 3 ft. 

 to Zh ft. high, fresh and healthy, but not making such rapid 

 progress as the Liberian. The Java seeds did not thrive 

 well and but few plants are preserved. There are a few each 

 orange, citron, lemon, nectarine, &e„, trees, averaging about 

 3| ft., aud so healthy that they will probably bear next year. 

 There are two fine specimens of the cinnamon apparently 

 well acclimatised," but all the spice plants are hopelessly 

 dead. There is a jack-fruit tree two years old which has 

 reached 10 ft. and looks as if it would bear shortly. There 

 is a fine nutmeg tree 8 ft. high, and from the profuse growth 

 of the wild species in the neighbourhood, this ought to be 

 profitable planting could the plants or seeds be procured in 

 Brisbane, An indiarubber tree is shooting its thin stalk up 

 rapidly, and has readied 6 ft., having made 3 ft. in less than 

 four mouths. Several species of vines have been tried, but 

 even the survivors do not present a very hopeful appearance. 

 Two acres of cane were planted, the Cherribon, the Meera, 

 and the Black Java thriving best in the order named, some 

 of the first being now 8 ft. to 9 ft. high, but there being no 

 mill within accessible distance, the cane was used as feed 

 for cattle and pigs during the last dry season. Maize thrives 

 well on the meadows bordering the creek, and with cheap 

 transit to a market, its cultivation would pay splendidly. 

 There are about thirty other specimens of tropical and 

 Oriental fruit trees, the names of which it would be tedious 

 to mention, all of them apparently well rooted and thriving. 

 By last mail four varieties of cinchona and three of card- 

 amom seeds were received from Oeylon and will be planted 

 next week. — Qtteenslander. 



