1880.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



279 



It is a matter wholly for intelligent experiments, 

 with the chances in favor of success. Whatever 

 has been attempted in this country in the past 

 has unfortunately not been done intelligently. 

 At the outset Mr. Fortune was sent to China for 

 seed, without any definite idea of what was to be 

 done with the plants. These were scattered 

 '' promiscus like" as the negro preacher said, 

 and perhaps most of them might as well have 

 been thrown away at once. On the fiirm of Mr. 

 Craven, in Liberty County, Georgia, several hun- 

 dred of these plants got through alive, and are 

 now about fifteen feet high. The farm has been 

 purchased recently by a Mr. Jackson, a British 

 subject, who has spent fifteen years among the 

 tea planting regions of India, who is so full of 

 faith that it can be made a success, that he set 

 out the past spring a great number, and now has 

 100,000 plants under culture. 



There is little in this beyond what we have 

 known before. We knew that the soil and cli- 

 mate is well suited to tea culture, and the novelty 

 is that a foreign gentleman has become enthused 

 over these facts. Unfortunately we all know 

 how many are the little elements which go to 

 make up success, and which enthusiasts from 

 abroad find only after a few years of experience. 

 We must not dare much hope of success on this 

 enthusiastic venture, however much we may 

 wish for it. 



To us the greatest difl&culty seems to be in the 



great difference between the cheap labor of India 

 and China, and our own; and then the profits 

 would be like the growth of the tea plant itself, 

 too slow for the majority of American capitalists. 



The value of the pound of tea to the acre for 

 the first five or ten years, would probably be 

 very slim in comparison with what a corn crop 

 would produce. If Mr. Jackson or any other 

 gentleman can work out the figures well, he will 

 be one of the Nation's great benefactor. 



Duration of Timber. — We give in another 

 column a sensible article on Catalpa posts. It 

 shows that what we have said about the variable 

 nature of the same kind of timber, deserves close 

 attention. There is no doubt but the duration 

 of timber depends on a host of circumstances 

 that are rarelj^ noted. Timber from a mature 

 tree, or from a very young tree, is not likely to 

 last as long as timber from a lusty middle aged 

 tree. The season when cut makes a great differ- 

 ence. And again the circumstances surrounding 

 the post has much to do with durability. Not 

 long since the writer asked the foreman of a lot 

 of track layers how long the white oak railroad 

 sills lasted, he replied, " on this embankment 

 not more than five or six years, but there in that 

 cut, where the earth is damp and cool, they will 

 last twenty or twenty-five years." 



There is in fact no question in which circum- 

 stances alter cases so much, as in the duration of 

 posts and exposed timber. 



Natural History and Science. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



FERTILIZATION OF YUCCA. 



BY DANIEL WITTER, DENVER, COL. 



Noticing what you said in the last Gardener's 

 Monthly about the fertilization of the Yucca, I 

 thought you might be interested in knowing that 

 I have gathered seeds of angustifolia for three 

 years past. Last year and the year before, I only 

 found it producing seed at one place, on Bear 

 Creek. I have before found it in bloom upon the 

 high plains. I have attributed my failure to find 

 it there the past two years to the dryness of the 

 seasons, and that where I have found it the roots 

 penetrate through the sandy soil upon which 



it grows into the decaying ro(;k beneath, where 

 there is always considerable moisture, and, I 

 should think proper nourishment for such plants. 

 As to the Pronumba yuccasella, I have invari- 

 ably found a great portion of the seed destroyed 

 by some worm eating through the centre of them, 

 and I have noticed the holes where it eats into 

 or out of the pods, but I have never seen the in- 

 sect, nor do I remember now whether or not 

 every pod was more or less eaten, but that is my 

 impression now. I think, however, that some- 

 times only one or two of the cells would be eaten 

 out, sometimes wholly and sometimes only par- 

 tially, leaving in some pods most of the seed 

 good, and in others only a few. 



