J27 



that it cuts off the water supply from the 

 plant. This disease is knowh as "wilt" 

 and in Charleston, S. C.,has been growing 

 rapidly. The Department has found 

 several species which will resist the attacks 

 of this destructive pest and its work along 

 this line through Mr. Webber will be the 

 hybridization of these with plants more 

 liable to be destroyed by "wilt." 



A manufacturing company in the 

 United States recently made inquiries of 

 the State Department regarding the use of 

 harvesting machinery in India, in cutting 

 grass and grain. India is not a hay- 

 producing country, writes Consul-General 

 Patterson from Calcutta. The grass is cut 

 and used green for horses, but is not 

 cured as hay. The common fodder for 

 cattle is rice straw. In the vicinity of 

 Bengal, rice and jute are the principal 

 crops, and the quantity of grass grown is 

 extensively grown in the western part of 

 India for which Bombay is the principal 

 shipping port. 



A colony of vegetarians are living on 

 Tagula Island, a tiny bit of land in the 

 Dutch archipelago, about 700 miles south- 

 east from New Guinea and 1,000 miles 

 northeast from Australia. Under the 



leadership of a Methodist clergyman, the 

 Rev. James Newlin of Ohio, some seventy 

 people sailed from San Francisco in 1890 

 for Hawaii. They believed that a higher 

 plane of Christianity was to be reached by 

 a vegetarian diet and freedom from con- 

 tamination with degenerate mankind. So 

 they gave up their friends and homes in 

 the eastern states. Tagula Island was 

 fiually chosen for their colony, and the 

 fifty good natured natives there welcomed 

 the new comers. There have since been 

 accessions to the colony of people from 

 England, Australia, and America. 



Time and time again has the question of 

 docking the tails of horses been discussed 

 and always humanity comes out on top. 



All the driving horses in Russia have 

 long tails and the coachman of an ordinary 

 Russian carriage takes no trouble to pre- 

 vent the reins from dropping about his 

 horse's hind quarters. In spite of. this, 

 however, the reins rarely become entangled 

 with the tail, and even if they should do 

 so the horses never kick. This striking 

 fact is an eloquent answer to those who 

 uphold the cruel practice of docking, on the 

 grounds that otherwise the horse is liable 

 to flap his tail over the reins. 



