Chips and Slips. 303 



Sweet Gum as Tan Bark.— One of the most useless trees of the Southern 

 States, and yet the most abundant, is the beautiful Sweet Gum, Liquidamhar 

 styracifliia. In the last number of the " Monthly Reports of the Department 

 of Agriculture," Mr. McMurtrie, the chemist of the department, says that the 

 bark contains 8"36 per cent, of tannic acid, which is more than any of the oaks 

 give, avS per the same table, which we give below. The " Quercitron," we sup- 

 pose, is Quercus tinctoria, and not nigra, as therein stated. 



Per cent. 



Ground sumac (mixed), "Wincli ester, Ya. ... 



Sumac (i?/t?« co?("ft«s), Ha'lsborough, Va. ... ... 



Sumac {Rims glabra), Georgetown, B.C. ... ... 



Leaves of sweet fern (Compfonia asplenifolia), near Boston, Mass. 



Ti^ases oi Polygonum amphih'min,^&bvii&ka, 



Fphecira antlsypMlitica, table-lands of Arizona and Utah 



Bark of sweet gum {Liquidambar styraciflua). District of Co- 

 lumbia ... ... ... ... 



Bark of red oak (^Quercus rubra). Canton, 111. ,,, 



Bark of white oak {Quercus alba), Canton, 111. 



Crashed qnercitron hark {Quercus nigra), Winchester, Va. 



Bark of Quercus coccinea. Canton, 111. 



Bark of Quercus macrocarpa, Canton, 111. 



Bark of hemlock {Abies Canadensis), Van Ettenville, N. Y. ... 



The Chilian Pine.— The beautiful conifer {Araitcaria imbricata) is looked 

 upon as a fruit-tree in its native country. Chili and Araucaria. The Indians 

 and other inhabitants of those countries eat its seeds raw, roasted, and boiled ; 

 they are said to be very nutritious ; about 200 form a good meal for an adult. 

 One seed-cone contains from 200 to 300 seeds, and every tree bears many such 

 cones, which, when they have arrived at maturity, drop to the ground. The 

 seeds lie in such great numbers on the ground, that only a part of them are 

 collected. The Indians have also a way of making a kind of brandy from these 

 seeds. 



Waste op Timber.— Within ten years, no less than 12,000,000 acres of forest 

 have been cut down or burned over in the United States. Much of the timber 

 is used for fuel, 25 cities being on record as consuming from 5,000 acres to 

 10,000 acres each. Fences use up much timber, and railroad ties require the 

 product of 1.1)0,000 acres per annum. The amount of pine and lumber timber 

 yet standing in the forests of the timber States is estimated at 225,000,000 

 feet. The sum of 144,000,000 dollars is invested in the timber industry, 

 employing 2,000,000 men, 



A Large White Oak.— A newspaper paragraph tells us that " a white oak 

 tree, recently felled in Michigan, measured twenty feet in circumference, and 

 revealed 380 rings in the grain ; so it must have started about the time 

 America was discovered." 



Landlord and Tenant in Scotland. — A curious case of a farmer who was 

 sent to prison for failing to cultivate his land has lately come before the law 

 courts in Scotland. A farmer in Inverness-shire having failed to plouo^h and 

 otherwise cultivate three-fifths of his farm, which by his lease it was affirmed 

 he was bound to do, and having been called upon to fulfil his oblication, and 

 failing to do so, he was apprehended and imprisoned. In the lease, which the 

 landlord had registered in the books of council and session, there was a specific 

 obligation upon the farmer " to cultivate and manage the land according to im- 



