CONTINENTAL NOTES — GERMANY. • 5 1 



Experiments with the cultivation of fruit trees have been very 

 successful. The Chinese have large numbers of apple trees and 

 pear trees, but neither kind bears edible fruit. Efforts have 

 been made by the Forest Department, ever since 1902, to induce 

 the people to graft their trees, and large numbers were budded 

 for them, but the grafts were destroyed, because the inhabitants 

 would not believe in the disinterestedness of these efforts, and 

 thought that by grafting the Government intended to acquire 

 some sort of a right over the trees. However, this mistrust has 

 disappeared, and in iqo6 the demand for grafts could not be 

 met, though 66,000 were distributed. The fact that in 1905 

 the first fruit from grafted trees that came into the market was 

 highly approved of, and realised good prices, had evidently con- 

 siderable influence on this sudden demand for grafts. It has 

 been suggested that fruit growing, which may involve a retail 

 trade and perhaps canning, is hardly a legitimate Government 

 business, and private enterprise is invited to step in where the 

 Government has shown the way. 



California is as yet the only source of supply for the whole of 

 the Chinese coast and the numerous steamers plying in those 

 regions. 



9. The Timber Trade Conference. 



By Geo. U. Macdonald. 



A British Timber Conference, under the joint auspices of the 

 Royal English Arboricultural Society and the Timber Trade 

 Federation of the United Kingdom, was held on Wednesday, 

 the 1 6th day of June 1909, in the office of the London 

 Chamber of Commerce, Oxford Court, Cannon Street, for the 

 purpose of discussing "Questions of interest bearing upon the 

 improvement and development commercially of the growing 

 and utilisation of native timber in the British Isles." 



At the present time, the whole question of forestry is receiving 

 more attention in the country, and more favour and support 

 from the British public, than it has hitherto done. It was, 

 therefore, a happy thought on the part of those responsible for 

 the convening of the Conference, to bring together for the 

 discussion of common objects men whose whole lives and 

 interests have been devoted in one form or another to this 



