December 28, 191 1] 



NATURE 



28 



It was at one time considered impossible to combine 

 high quaHty and high yield, but it has been shown 

 now, both at Cambridge and at Pusa, that this is not 

 the case. Half a dozen wheats have been bred at 

 Pusa which give high yields of both grain and straw. 



The problem of producing strong wheats in India 

 suitable both for consumption in the country and for 

 export to England, and at the same time profitable 

 to the growers, is considered solved. Two short- 

 comings of the Indian wheats still await improvement. 

 These are want of standing power of the straw and 

 want of rust-resisting power. 



At the same time, the producing power of the soil 

 at Pusa has been doubled by hot-weather cultivation 

 (see Nature, February 17, iqio), by moisture con- 

 servation, and by embanking with occasional green 

 manuring. In this way a yield of 40 bushels to the 

 acre has been produced without irrigation or manure. 



It remains to be proved that the selected wheats 

 will do equally well in the farmers' hands in other 

 parts of India, and that the methods adopted at Pusa 

 eon be applied elsewhere. E. F. A. 



MY TROPIC ISLE.^ 



'X*HIS book, which is beautifully illustrated by 



^ appropriate photographs, as well as admirably 



written, is quite above the normal type of its class. 



within the area of tropical Australia. It was "an un- 

 polluted isle, without history, without any sort of 

 fame ... the most fascinating, the most desirable 

 on the coast of North Queensland," when permanent 

 settlement began on September 28, 1897. 



The author landed on this tropic isle weighing a little 

 more than eight stone, and in a frail physical state, 

 yet "trees had to be felled and sawn into proper 

 lengths for piles. . . . With blistered and bleeding 

 hands, aching muscles, and stiff joints he persevered." 

 Whilst the house was being built they lived in tents — 

 the "they" standing apparently vaguely, first for the 

 author and a few friends, then, it may be conjectured, 

 for a wife and children. Meanwhile, the Australian 

 blacks they had brought with them obtained fish from 

 the sea coast and killed scrub fowl and pigeons. Gaps 

 in the provender were filled up with tinned meat and 

 bread and jam. Later a small area of forest land and 

 a patch of jungle were cleared for the cultivation of 

 maize, sweet potatoes, and vegetables. Fruit-trees 

 were planted, and have since " been in the ascendant 

 to the detriment of other branches of cultural enter- 

 prise." 



The gradual emergence of a fairly civilised and com- 

 fortable house, of a regularly supplied larder from the 

 wild gifts of nature, from farm and plantation, is 

 quite as fascinating as the opening chapters of 

 "Robinson Crusoe." Then we are made acquainted 

 with the other inhabitants of the isle, insects, such as 



I'"i(;. I. — Umbrella Tree {lirassaia actinophylla). F'roiii " My 'IVoplc Isle' 



It is sufficiently romantic and suggestive of De Foe 

 to avoid very clear geographical indications or maps 

 to show the position of " My Tropic Isle," and one 

 is left to infer that it is an island or islet not far 

 from the coast of northern Queensland, and well 



1 " My Tropic Isle." By E. J. Banlicld. Fp. 315. (London T.Fisher 

 Unwin, 1911.) Price lof. (xt. net. 



NO. 2200, VOL. 88] 



large wasps, which build terra-cotta warehouses in 

 which to store the semi-animate carcases of grubs; 

 the solitary bees that turn by degrees favourite volumes 

 into a solid block of waxen comb. These and many 

 other insects and spiders are attacked by more or less 

 fantastic lizards, and by bats, "sharp-toothed and 

 with pin-point eyes, swooping in at one door and 



