426 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



crouched upon, some have passed into the 

 exclusive possession of the " first churches," 

 some into the exclusive possession of the 

 townships, and some are said to be still 

 owned jointly by township and church. 

 Where the towns have come into possession 

 they have frequently given the charge of the 

 commons to village or township improvement 

 associations. Only a few of the rural town- 

 ships have acquired new public open spaces 

 in recent years. In Manchester public rights 

 in certain sea beaches have been established 

 and a long strip of roadside woodland has 

 been deeded to the town in trust. In Shef- 

 field a beautiful pine grove is held in trust 

 for the public by five trustees. Georgetown 

 has laid out nine small spaces within forty 

 years. In the cities of the State the General 

 Park Act, passed in 1882, has borne excel- 

 lent fruit. 



Sanitary and Climatic Influence of For- 

 ests. Concerning the sanitary and climatic 

 relations of forests, Mr. B. E. Fernow con- 

 cludes, after a discussion of the subject, that 

 the influence claimed for them in promoting 

 greater purity of the air through the greater 

 production of oxygen and ozone does not 

 seem to be sufficient ; that the protection 

 they afford against sun and wind and conse- 

 quent absence of extreme conditions may be 

 considered a favorable factor ; and that the 

 soil conditions of the forest, which are un- 

 favorable to the production and existence of 

 pathogenic microbes, especially those of the 

 cholera and yellow fever, and the compara- 

 tive absence of wind and dust, in which such 

 microbes are carried into the air, may be con- 

 sidered as constituting the principal claim for 

 the hygienic significance of the forest. We 

 may summarize, he says, by saying that the 

 position of the forest as a climatic factor is 

 still uncertain, at least as to its practical and 

 quantitative importance, but that its relation 

 to water and soil conditions is well estab- 

 lished. As a climatic factor the forest of 

 the plain appears to be of more importance 

 than that of the mountains, where the more 

 potent influence of elevation obscures and 

 reduces to insignificance the influence of 

 their cover. As a regulator of water con- 

 ditions the forest of the mountains is the 

 important factor ; and since this influence 

 makes itself felt far distant from the loca- 



tion of the forest, the claim for the atten- 

 tion of government and for statesmanlike 

 policy with reference to this factor of na- 

 tional welfare may be considered as well 

 founded. Every civilized government must 

 in time own or control the forest cover of 

 the mountains, in order to secure desirable 

 forest conditions. 



The Scrnb Lands of Australia. The 

 London Times's correspondent, in his little 

 book on Queensland, mentions the " lawyer 

 vine " as the worst obstacle which the clearer 

 of land in that country has to encounter. It 

 is a kind of palm that grows in feathery 

 tufts along a pliant stalk, and festoons itself 

 as a creeper upon other trees. From be- 

 neath the tufts of leaves the vine throws 

 down trailing suckers as thick as stout 

 cords, armed with sets of sharp red barbs. 

 These suckers sometimes throw themselves 

 from tree to tree across a road that has not 

 been lately used, and make it as impassable 

 to horses as so many strands of barbed wire. 

 When the vines escape from the under- 

 growth of wild ginger and tree-fern and 

 stinging bush that fringes the scrub and 

 coil themselves in loose loops upon the 

 ground, they become dangerous traps for 

 man and horse. In the jungle, where they 

 weave themselves in and out of the upright 

 growths, they form a net that at times defies 

 every means of destruction but fire. The 

 work of clearing ground thus encumbered is 

 not light. In some districts it is done by 

 Chinamen. They are not allowed to own 

 freehold land in the colony, but scrub land 

 is often leased to them to clear and use for a 

 certain number of years. The ground, when 

 it is cleared, is extraordinarily rich, and they 

 appear to recoup themselves for their labor 

 with the first crops they grow upon their 

 leaseholds. The owner afterward has it in 

 his power to resume his land, and the China- 

 man passes on to clear and use the scrub. In 

 this way the Chinese are employed as a sort of 

 self-acting machine for the opening of the 

 country. They devote themselves principal- 

 ly to the cultivation of fruit. A walk round 

 a Chinese garden is an instructive botanical 

 excursion, so many and strange are the edi- 

 ble varieties of fruit to which one is intro- 

 duced. Spices, too, and flowers flourish 

 under the care of the Chinamen, and the 



