Notes. 89 



ent except that in the higher latitudes the proportion of snow is 

 Sfreater." 



The following extract from the report on the Botanical and 

 Afforestation Department of Hong Kong is of particular inter- 

 est, as showing the value of a systematic policy in the matter of 

 reforestation : — 



The time has now arrived for the colony to profit to the full 

 extent by the foresight of the Government of a former generation. 



In the late seventies tree planting was seriously undertaken, 

 and from the year 1882 to 1885 the annual expenditure of $12,000 

 was expressly sanctioned for afiforestation, and from 200.000 to 

 300,000 young pines were planted each year. As the island be- 

 came more completely covered with plantations, the operations 

 and annual votes gradually diminished, until the present time, 

 when the planting of a few thousand trees can be covered by a 

 small portion of the tree-planting vote of $3,450- -^s a result of 

 this policy there are now nearly 5,000 acres of pine upon the 

 island, and the oldest plantations, now between twenty and thirty 

 years old, are ready to fell and replant. 



The pine plantations are of very various ages and sizes and 

 much time has been devoted during the year to a careful examma- 

 tion of them and subsequently to delineating them on maps and 

 schedules so that a systematic working plan can be drawn up to 

 ensure, as far as possible, a uniform annual outturn of timber. 

 The surface of the island has been divided for this purpose into 

 seven main divisions, and each of these into six to eight blocks, 

 containing from 50 to 300 acres of pine plantations each. The 

 primary object of this preliminary inspection of the plantations 

 was to obtain statistics upon which to found a working plan for 

 the future, but the results have a further interest as showing what 

 return the Government have for their outlay of former years. — 

 Agricultural News, Barbadoes. 



Hon. A. B. Warburton in a letter to the Charlottetown 

 Patriot, writes in regard to the failure of the hay and straw crops 



