212 PRACTICAL FORESTRY 
capabilities. The trade or exchange between north 
and soutn is destined to increase enormously. It will 
be the exchange of products of two unlike zones. 
The soil of the tropics is soft, and encumbered with 
luxuriant weeds. Transport is difficult, and efficient 
labor is often scarce and hard to handle. On the 
other hand, there is less danger from fire. Nature 
is most bountiful,.and the number and variety of 
species of woods and other products are enormous. 
Capabilities are here, in fact, limitless, but proper 
development will require the application of much 
energy, skill, and patience. 
Think of the great myrtle family, including about 
2,800 species, some of which are the most valuable 
plants on earth! Think also of the order Meliacex, 
including about 550 species, many of which have no 
equals as timber-producers! 
Think of the mahwa-tree (Bassia latifolia) of 
India. Few, except those who have visited the Orient, 
have ever heard of it. Yet it yields a never-failing 
crop of food, wine, and oil to many poor people, to 
say nothing of the countless other creatures which 
feed upon it. Birds and squirrels feast in the branches 
by day, and at sunset the pea-fowl and deer of the 
jungle steal out to feast on its succulent corollas. 
From the flower of this tree intoxicating spirits are 
manufactured to such an extent that on the island of 
