PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. ixv. 



for mountain plants at a low altitude. The question 

 of State forestry in this country has been debated, 

 but as yet I believe very little has been done, 

 though there are large suitable tracts of land available. 

 Though it is an investment that takes a long time to shew 

 profit, it is a valuable one for the future, and would give 

 employment to many unskilled labourers in the present. 

 The State can look forward a generation or two with much 

 more satisfaction than private individuals, and many countries 

 have found it most profitable. Improvements have lately 

 been made in the varieties of Indian wheats and cottons 

 which tend to benefit the Indian farmer. In America some 

 cacti are used as food for cattle, the chief objection being 

 the quantity of saline matter contained in them. A curious 

 experiment carried out at Woburn shews that the presence 

 of grass underneath a tree interferes with its growth, even 

 when the grass is not growing in the soil but in pans of earth 

 resting on it. The heating of soil to a temperature con- 

 siderably above that of boiling water appears greatly to 

 favour the growth of plants in it, but the cause, which is 

 ascribed in some way to bacteria, does not seem clear. 



GEOLOGY. 



The catalogue of earthquakes compiled by Prof. Milne 

 from various historical records from the beginning of our 

 era to the end of last century is necessarily defective in the 

 earlier portions, but would probably contain most of the 

 more violent earthquakes in the then more civilised portions 

 of the earth and would help in any attempt to ascertain any 

 laws of periodicity which may govern them. Some of the 

 oldest records are in Corea where they date back to 57 B.C. 

 A very destructive earthquake occurred in Turkey on Aug. 

 9 last, the epicentre lying somewhere to the N.W. of the Sea 

 of Marmora. It affected an area of about 20,000 square 

 miles and killed 3,000 persons. With regard to the luminous 



