7S* 



THE TROPICAL AGRTCTJLTURIST. 



April i, 1885. 



ain occasionally visible higher than any other in the 

 main range, and probably over 12,000 feet. This I have 

 not seen, but I am convinced that there are many_ things 

 yet to be learned about the most elevated portions of 

 this mountain chain. Seen from any point of view, it 

 forms a magnificent mountain prospect. Its mysterious 

 unexplored recesses are rendered more gloomy than any 

 scene in the world from the dense forest and the masses 

 of vapour and cloud with which they are always clothed. 

 A few savage Sakies are the only inhabitants. I may 

 add that perhaps in no country in the world is explor- 

 ation rendered so difficult from the extraordinary thick- 

 ness of the jungle and the steepness of the mountain 

 ridges which unceasingly cross the traveller's path.— J. E. 

 Tenison- Woods, Penatyg.— Nature. 



A Wisconsin Farmer claims to have found a sure cure 

 for potato bugs. His plan is to put one or two flax seeds 

 in each hill of potatoes. He says that the bugs will shun 

 it every time, and for ten years he has thus been suc- 

 cessful in growing potatoes while others have failed.— 

 Melbourne Leader. 



Potash and Lime as insecticides are thus noticed in the 

 Melbourne Leader :— " We have been favoured by Mr. Henry 

 Stevenson with specimens showing the effects of the potash 

 remedy for the woolly and other aphides, as well as upon 

 the growth of the trees. It will be remembered that last 

 year we gave the details of Mr. Stevenson's first experi- 

 ment, whereby he completely cleared a badly infested apple 

 tree of the aphis in a few months by the application of 

 lime and potash to the roots. This tree, which remains al- 

 most entirely free from the iusects, is now in perfect health, 

 and making shoots that are already a foot in length. Ac- 

 companying this was a branch from a tree of French 

 Reinette apple, which was also much infested with the aph- 

 is, though not so badly as the former. The mixture was 

 applied to this about four monthsago, and it is now clean, 

 clothed with healthy foliage, and bearing a dozen apples on 

 a foot in length, with a shoot a foot long on the end. Shoots 

 from a peach tree, which was treated at the same time as the 

 last, are also clean and healthy." 



The Immense Economical Importance of Government 

 Botanic Gardens, especially in young colonies, is well 

 shown by the last report of the (Jurator of the Gardens 

 in Brisbane. Omitting the distribution of ornamental 

 trees, shrubs, &c, to the gardens of public institutions, 

 as well as that of ornamental pot plants, we find that 

 economic plants have been distributed on a very large 

 scale. The demand for these has been uuprecedeutedly 

 large, and no application is ever refused so far as it can 

 be supplied. .About 3,000 economic plants were sent out 

 during the year; these consisted chiefly of various kinds 

 of coffee, tea, cocoa (Theobroma caeau), cinchona, and 

 vanilla. Grafted Indian mangoes and plants of the Bra- 

 zilian nut ( Bertholletia exceha) have been given to likely 

 growers, and the demand for the latter is so great that 

 application has been made to the universal feeder of these 

 institutions, Kew, for more. Besides acting as a collecting 

 and distributing agency, the Brisbane Gardens do what is 

 perhaps of even more value, viz., ascertain by experiment 

 the conditions under which certain foreign plants will 

 grow best in the colony. The most important trials re- 

 cently have been with regard to cinchona, which, Mr. 

 Pink shows, may by care in its early stages, be success- 

 fully cultivated in Queensland. The hop plant has been 

 tried, and appears a success, 10 cwt. being the produce 

 per acre the first season, while in England under similar 

 circumstances it is only 4 cwt. Sugar is at present the 

 staple of the colony, but no efforts are spared to discover 

 new kinds elsewhere which may be better adapted to the 

 place. Hundred tons of various kinds of cane, chiefly 

 from Mauritius, were sent to planters during the year. 

 Economic and valuable timbers also receive much atten- 

 tion, and the gardens have now ready for transplanting 

 20.000 trees of various kinds, including cedirs, olives, silly 

 oak, English oak, English ash, poplars, and chestnuts. The 

 recent experiments have conclusively shown that Queens- 

 laud can introduce among her staple produce-crops such 

 valuable anil remunerative products of the soil as coffee, 

 hops, and cinchona. As an example of the care and labour 

 devoted to tin; work, it may be mentioned that every 



method of cultivating the cinchona in Ceylon and South 

 America was tried in the gardens without much success ; 

 and finally Mr. Pink was compelled to devise a method 

 of his own, which proved successful. — Nature. 



Transmission of Western Australian (Out) Flowers 

 &< ., iiy Mail Steamer to Victoria.— The distance from 

 King George's Sound to Hobson's Bay is about 1,540 miles 

 in a straight line, and it, therefore, speaks well for the 

 packing and transmission when I remark that the flowers 

 were received in so fresh a state that one would suppose 

 they had been gathered only on the day the packages 

 were opened, instead of twelve days before that time ! 

 The plants, too, enclosed in a canvas covered box (excep- 

 tionally well packed) were found to be in the best possible 

 state of health. So far as the flowers are concerned, 

 packed them in damp moss in circular tins, such as would 

 hold a pound weight or so of coffee, closed the lids and 

 pasted the junctions over with paper, both to prevent 

 the evaporation of moisture as well as to protect the 

 contents from the action of the atmosphere. The follow- 

 ing is the list: — 



Banksia coceinea Hovea ilicifolia 



Boronia crenulata Johnsonia lupluina 



elatior Pimelea imbricata var. pili- 



heterophylla ■ gera 



Ohorozema angustif olia ,, sulphurea 



Gonospermum cteruleum Iliciuocarpus tubercalatus 

 Oosmelia rubra Tetratheca pubescens 



Dampiera (species) Verticordia Fontanesii 



Hovea elliptica Xanthosia rotundifolia. 



— Gardeners' Chronicle. 



Tin; Pruning of Fruit Trees. — The timely and judicious 

 pruning of furit trees is the most important part of their 

 cultivation, yet it is that part which recieves but little 

 attention. When fruit trees have been neglected for some 

 years it takes some time and labour to get them into 

 form again, but when trees have been looked over care- 

 fully, every season from the time of their being planted, 

 they will not require much annual labour to keep them 

 in shape. The prirciples on which pruning is founded 

 and its general effects are pretty well understood. If 

 the stem and branches of a plant contain a hundred 

 buds, by removing half of these the shoots or fruits pro- 

 duced by the remainder wdl be supplied with a greater 

 amount of nutriment than if all had remained. On the 

 other hand, when the whole of the buds of a tree are 

 so abundantly supplied as to produce chiefly leaves or 

 shoots without blossoms, then by cutting off a portion 

 of the roots the supply of water is lessened, a moderate 

 degree of vigour is produced, and instead of barren 

 shoots blossom-buds appear. By these methods of prun- 

 ing — now the roots and then the branches — the growth 

 is controlled and fertility induced. If a fruit tree were 

 not deprived either annually or biennially of a part of 

 the wood or buds which it produces, its fruits would 

 gradually diminish in size, and though the fruit might 

 be more plentiful it would lack juiciness and flavour. All 

 fruit trees grown in orchards should be mostly grown 

 in the standard form, this being the natural form they 

 assume, and in which they attain the largest size and 

 produce the greatest quantity of fruit with the minimum 

 of labour. Standard trees require only to he pruned to 

 keep them in shape and to prevent over-crowding of 

 the branches. Pruniug is also resorted to for the purpose 

 of adding vigour to feeble trees. Unfortunately, orchard 

 trees receive, as a rule, very little attention in pruning. 

 All cutting away of large branches in healthy trees 

 should be avoided, and this can be done by making it 

 the practice to examine them every season, when the 

 sueprtluous shoots can be cut out. In orchards where 

 pruning has not been regularly attended to, large limbs 

 will sometimes have to be removed. Where this is 

 necessary, the cut should be slanting, and the wound 

 should be smeared with tar or some composition, or 

 be covered with a caj> of lead or zinc, to prevent the 

 entrance of moisture. Tar-covered wounds, if surrounded 

 by healthy bark, rapidly callus «ver, and are to be 

 preferred to any other, unless the surface is very large. 

 Trees with luxuriant growths, if yielding only worthless 

 sorts, should be headed back and grafted with superior 

 kinds ; if too old, remove the trees, and plant better 

 sorts, — Clanleners' Chronicle. 



