January i, 1885.] 



TTTE TROPTCAL AGRICULTURIST 



555 



Australian Timber. — From a report of the Board ap- 

 pointed to inquire into and experiment on the best kind 

 of timber grown in the Australian colonies, and adapted 

 for the construction of railway vehicles, it appears that 

 the woods which the Commissioners mention as among 

 those suitable, are blackwood, mountain ash, bluegum, and 

 Gippsland mahogany. Under test the blackwood presented 

 results which were superior to any other timber. The 

 mountain ash was second to the blackwood for railway 

 purposes. It should be felled, the Commissioners think, 

 during the winter months, when it has attained maturity, 

 and is between four and five feet in diameter, and it might 

 remain felled for six months before being broken dm™ 

 into planks for seasoning. Bluegum should be treated in 

 the same manner. Going somewhat beyond its reference, 

 the Board deals with the question of timber licenses, and 

 recommends that getters be compelled to pay for the timber 

 felled, and to confine their operations to a given area, or 

 otherwise that selected lots of trees be sold by tender. It 

 is also strongly recommended that a forest board should 

 be called into existence. — Wool and Textile Fabrics. 



The Li-Ohi Fruit.— This very typical Chinese fruit, which 

 has attained a certain amount of popularity in England, 

 possesses an interest far exceeding its virtues as a pleasant 

 luxury. Its history dates from 140 B.C., when the Emperor 

 Wati endeavoured to introduce it from Annam, its native 

 habitat, into his garden at Chang-an. Hundreds of plants 

 were brought to China for many successive years, but they 

 all failed to acclimatise, and it was found useless to make 

 any further efforts. This fact, however, only increased the 

 value of li-ehi, which in 200 B.C. was sent as a tribute from 

 Annam to the Emperor Kao-tsu at a frightful cost of 

 human life. As the fruit only keeps fresh for ten days at 

 the most, and it was necessary that it reached Ohang-an 

 in good condition, relays of men were required to run at 

 full speed, bearing a load of li-chi, and in this forced 

 travel the majority of them broke down through sunstroke 

 by day and the attacks of serpents and wild beasts by 

 night. In the middle of the eighth century, the Princess 

 Wang, whose appetite for li-chi was unappeasable, estab- 

 lished a pony express, and although this also was carried 

 out at a great sacrifice of horseflesh, the end justified the 

 means, as, smitten by her great beauty, the Emperor Husan 

 Tsuug made her chief lady of his harem, notwithstanoing 

 that she was already his son's wife. This little family 

 difficulty was soon arranged, and an exchange was made 

 of another beauty out of the seraglio, with whom the son 

 was quite satisfied. The Princess Wang was not peculiar 

 in her liking for li-chi, for although the medical men of 

 the time considered them as heating, persons have been 

 kuown to eat a thousand a day. The poet Su Tung-po, 

 who was in exile at Canton, allowed himself the moderate 

 quantity of 300 per diem, and wrote a poem in their favour, 

 declaring that they were delicious enough to reconcile a 

 man to eternal banishment; moreover, it is stated in the 

 Genii Records that there were individuals who, from having 

 attained immortality by using its flowers and fruits, were 

 called li-chi genii. Ko-Hung, a great authority among the 

 Taoist philosophers, praised it unceasingly as a " marrow 

 tonic," but, notwithstanding his constant us^ of it, he died 

 at eighty-one under some uncertainty as to whether he 

 had become a li-chi genius or not. Perhaps sonic of these 

 attributes may be accounted for by the fact that the li-chi 

 tree does not come to maturity until it is fifty years old, 

 but, once begun, it will continue to bear fruit for 500 years, 

 while its timber keeps sufficiently sound for use for nearly 

 a thousand years. With such virtues, one ought scarcely 

 to speak of its minor good qualities, which are of value 

 in hastening small-pox pestules, and as a tropical applic- 

 ation for boils, swellings, ami toothache. It is singular in 

 its habit of growth, being found in China growing on the 

 hills in Kwaugsi and in the plains in Kwang-tung, but in 

 all cases at a distance from water. For the first five years, 

 according to Dr. M'Gowan in the North China Herald, it 

 requires to be protected from cold, being remarkably sen- 

 sitive to frost and electricity, which is very prejudicial to 

 it, so much so that a thunderstorm will cause the flowers 

 and fruit to be small. It is singular that when the fruit 

 is cut it should be at once taken from the tree, other- 

 wise the birds and bats will make a clean sweep of it, 

 although they will not touch it as long as it remains upon 

 the tree uncut. — Puhlic Opinion. 



Fence Posts that will last. — A writer in an exchange 

 says:' — "I discovered many years ago that wood could be 

 made to last longer than iron in the ground, but thought 

 the process so simple that it would not be well to make a stir 

 about it. I would as soon have poplar, basswood or ash 

 as any other kind of timber for fence posts. I have taken 

 out basswood posts after having been set seven years that 

 were as sound when taken out as when first put in the 

 ground. Time and weather seemed to have no effect on 

 them. The posts can be prepared for less than two cents 

 a piece. This is the recipe: — Toke boiled linseed oil and 

 stir in pulverized coal to the consistency of paint. Put 

 a coat of this over the timber, anil there is not a man 

 that will live to see it rot." — Honda Dispatch. 



The Shape ok Orange Trees.— "Just as the twig is bent, 

 the tree's inclined." You can give your trees almost any 

 shape or form by a judicious pinching of the soft, delic- 

 ate young shoots. Do not let these get large enough 

 for the knife or clipping-shears; but if they are inclined 

 to grow off weak, long and straggling, pinch them into 

 proper shape with the thumb and finger nails. Tie the 

 drooping recumbent shoots upright to the main stem of 

 the tree, or to a stake set for the purpose, and nip the 

 end off to give them a "stocky" growth. Do not allow 

 more than a single stem or trunk to grow up from the 

 ground; let the branches come out low, and endeavour to 

 give your tree the form of an obtuse cone, or blunt pyramid. 

 Go among your trees often, and observe them carefully. 

 All irregularities of growth may readily be corrected, if 

 taken in time, and the wonderful vitality of the orange 

 tree makes it an excellent subject for correction an experi- 

 ment. — Eds. Florida Dispatch. 



A Great Food Staple. — The last Gazette contains a very 

 interesting report by Mr. Benett, the Director of Agri- 

 culture, on the wheat production of these Provinces. It 

 brings the whole information available up to date, and 

 sketches with some pretence to accuracy the future of the 

 wheat trade. On an average of the past five years we 

 learn that in the N.-W. Provinces there are 1,859,755 acres 

 of irrigated and 1,724,419 acres of unirrigated land under 

 wheat ; in Oudh there are 962,817 acres irrigated and 364,301 

 unirrigated, making up the imposing total of nearly five 

 millions of acres under the cultivation of a food staple which, 

 though largely consumed in the place of production, is 

 available also in large quantities for export. The question 

 naturally arises — how much of the produce of this area is 

 available for export, and what are the chances of Indian 

 wheat in competition with the outturn from the almost 

 inexhaustible stores of North America ? Mr. Benett cal- 

 culates that the average outturn per acre may be taken 

 as 22 bushels on irrigated and 12 bushels on dry land. An 

 estimate framed by the Government of India has put the 

 average produce at 13 bushels only, a little more than is 

 estimated as the average produce in America; but this 

 estimate can only have been obtained by supposing that 

 half the area under wheat is grown on inferior land, which 

 is, as Mr. Benett justly points out, far from being the 

 case. Wheat is always sown on the best land in the vil- 

 lage, where there has been no previous crop (except in 

 some cases indigo), and is almost invariably manured where 

 irrigation is available. Moreover, it is much more carefully 

 cultivated than other food crops, and is indeed, as pointed 

 out by Mr. Wright in the Revenue Administration Report 

 for last year, next to sugarcane the mainstay of the intel- 

 ligent Jat cultivators, who make the Meernt Division a 

 rival to the Province of Oudh as the granary of India. 

 In the Meernt district as niuch as 52 per cent of the rahi 

 area is under pure wheat, of which 60 per cent is irrig- 

 ated. That the cultivation of wheat is steadily increasing 

 is beyond doubt, and there is no reason to believe that 

 the limit af increase has been reached. Nor is there any 

 need to fear, as some alarmists would have us that wheat 

 is being cultivated to the exclusion of other food staples. 

 . . . We can only say that we cordially agree with Mr. 

 Benett's recommendations as to the opening up of good 

 metalled feeder roads to the principal stations where wheat 

 takes the rail. There can be little doubt, he says, that the 

 present market price of wheat is materially increased by 

 the cost of dragging it along miles of sandy unbridged 

 roadb, and it is not unlikely that the cost of carriage by 

 road keeps many tracts out of the market altogether. — 

 Pioneer. 



