92 ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS. 



volumes of pungent smoke, which more or less unfit them 

 for fuel. Hard woods like tamarind, acha,* acacias, 

 Arabica, Sundra, &c., burn with a fine clear flame and pro- 

 duce excellent charcoal. The manufacture of charcoal for 

 iron smelting, forges, &c., may be profitably carried on, in 

 connection with a Fuel Plantation ; but this article is so 

 light that it will bear carriage greater distance than fuel, 

 and pay, and can therefore in many instances be more 

 cheaply produced in Natural Forests, where the manufac- 

 ture of this article is permitted to be carried ou by Govern- 

 ment or private individuals. 



It is hardly within the scope of this article to describe 

 minutely the manufacture of charcoal ; suffice it to say, that 

 it should never be made by the clumsy and wasteful native 

 method of digging a pit, &c. The work should be con- 

 ducted on scientific principles. The admission of air being 

 carefully regulated as combustion proceeds, at the right 

 moment it is totally excluded, the whole of the wood having 

 been carbonised to the very core of each billet. The fire is 

 extinguished from want of air, and when the charcoal is 

 cold, it is collected, and ready for sale. 



And now, a word or two about the tap-root. It is very 

 necessary to a young plant, indeed, in some species, indis- 

 pensable. It is the pump by which the young plant sucks 

 up nourishment and moisture from often great depths. It 

 is only necessary to examine the tap-root of the palmyra 

 (Borassus Flabelliformis) seedling. It looks like a carrot, 

 with a very long tail, and grows straight out of the nut 

 without any appearance of foliage. It is not till long after- 

 wards that the primary leaf appears. How unlike the 

 cocoanut, where the leaf first appears out of the eye of the 

 nut, the rootlets running in a fibrous network into the husk 

 and over the shell of the nut ! Why this difference ? Because 

 the cocoanut generally and naturally grows ou the seashore, 

 or the banks of tidal creeks; the nuts consequently, usually 

 fall into the water, and drifting to the shore, speedily take 



* Hardwickia linata. 



