304 



houses, 3 sanitariums, 500 sawmills, 163 schools, 9 slaughter- 

 houses, 57 stores, 16 municipal watersheds, and 182 water power 

 sites, with many other uses. Fees collected on 7895 of these 

 permits contributed a total of $175,840.40 to the general forest 

 revenues, but 10.447 of the permits were issued without charge. 



The permits cover more than 1,087.000 acres and 15.041 miles 

 of right-of-way, granted for various purposes, these figures in- 

 cluding 173,131 acres for municipal watersheds, 6572 miles for 

 reservoirs, canals, pipe hues, and other irrigation and domestic- 

 supply works. 



The steady growth of national forest business is shown in 

 columns of yearly figures going back to the last century. Be- 

 tween 1891, when the first forests were established, and 1900 

 there were only six timber sales. The number in 1915 was 

 10,905. The number of free timber permits has risen from 283 

 in 1901 to 40,040 in 1915, and of grazing permits from 2317 in 

 1901 to 30,610 in 1915. The special use permits, which were 

 only 298 up to the end of 1905, were increased by 5657 in 1915, 

 making a total during the last 11 years of 42,369. Of these 

 18,342 are now in force. 



POISONOUS BEANS. 



A question of the poisonous nature of certain forms of Lima 

 bean, dealt with recently in an article in the West Indian Bulle- 

 tin, has been responsible for a note on the subject in The Field 

 (London, July 17, 1915). In this it is stated that there is no 

 great difference between the plants of scarlet runner or French 

 beans and the Lima beans. The former are varieties of Phasc- 

 oltts z'ulgaris, while the Lima beans are cultivated varieties of 

 P. lunatits. They differ in the color of the flowers and P. luna- 

 tiis contains fewer seeds than P. znilgaris. The seeds of the cul- 

 tivated races of both species vary much in color. Those of the 

 scarlet runner and French beans are supposed to be poisonous 

 when mature, but as they are never eaten, except when they are 

 quite young and innocuous, this does not matter. Lima beans, 

 however, as pointed out in the West Indian Bulletin, are eaten 

 when mature, and there are cases of fatal poisoning resulting 

 from eating the dark-colored seeds. The subject of the poison- 

 ous nature of the Lima bean still continues to present pro])lems 

 ref|uiring further investigation as is shown more and more by 

 references to the subject which appear in the Bulletin of the 

 Imperial Institute. — Agriculhtral News. 



