192 AGEICULTUIJAL REPORT. 



TliC couditions of wood-gTOwtli most favorable to the dcvelopmcut 

 of pear-tree bliglit will form the subject of farther investigations, with 

 the view to assist the practical cultivator to counteract, if iiossible, 

 this troublesome and so frequently fatal disease. 



FIJI ISLAND COTTOK 



The Department is informed by Mr. Isaac M. Browcr, United States 

 consul at the Fiji Islands, that sea-island cotton, which is an annual 

 plant in the United States, becomes perennial in those islands, and 

 that its growth is much more vigorous there than here, and that for 

 a term of years there is a continuous crop from the same planting. 

 He has plucked cotton from a plant five years old, but the fiber is de- 

 fective in one particular, and is objected to by the Liverpool merchants. 

 They informed him that they feared that Fiji cotton is subject to some 

 form of disease which caused it to knot, a fault which may be seen 

 with the naked eye. Mr. Brower placed a specimen in my hands for 

 microscopic examination. I placed one of these knotty specimens on 

 a glass slide, put on it a drop of gum-water, over which I next i)laced 

 a glass disk, pressing it down and submitting it to a power of about 

 75 diameters. The nature of the knots, so called, became evident. 

 The cotton fiber had, in consequence of an extreme twisting motion, 

 become so intertwined that an artificial knot was formed. Mr. Brower 

 stated, on seeing the nature of the knot under the microscope, that the 

 l)resent system employed to separate Fiji cotton from the seeds, viz, the 

 use of rollers, is apt to draw the knotted fibers more tightly than would 

 be the case if the cotton-gin were employed. 



When water is poured from a pitcher it generally partakes of a spiral 

 motion, sometimes from left to right, at other times from right to 

 left. The spiral motion is modified by the form of the surface over 

 which it passes. Were the mouth of the pitcher plastic, the spiral mo- 

 tion would modify its shape, bringing it into harmony with that motion ; 

 the tendency of the water to move in a spiral direction, so far as it had 

 force to overcome the resistance of the plastic substance, would shape 

 it in harmony with that tendency. 



The animal and vegetable kingdoms exhibit many examples of organic 

 bodies partaking of the spiral form ; many varieties of shells display 

 perfect tapering spirals, and generally they take the same direction, viz, 

 from right to left, viewing them with their apex turned from us. There 

 are exceptions to this rule ; some have been found with the spiral 

 thread winding from left to right. Many vines exhibit this tendency. 

 It has been observed that persons who have suffered from headaches or 

 from fever, frequently lose their hair. As a remedy, shaving of the 

 head has been resorted to with good results. The hair grows faster, 

 but it has been found to become wavy with a tendency to twist or curl 

 when very frequently shaved during a term of years. The human hair 

 differs from hairs on leaves in its mode of growth in some particulars. It 

 has individual roots, and springs from under the epidermis. The hairs, or 

 cotton threads, of the cotton-seed resemble, in some respects, the human 

 hair. They spring from under the outer dark brown skin or testa, and 

 individually exhibit root formation. When a section of the cotton-seed 

 is examined microscopically, it is found to consist of three principal 

 parts, viz, the outer coating or testa under which is situated a lining 

 membrane composed of a series of double cells surrounding and inclos- 

 iug the nucleus ; from these cells the cotton fibers proceed. When a 

 small portion of this series is combined with a little gum-water and 



