50 BABUL TREE HOW BEST PROPAGATED. 



repay in a thousand different ways ; the saving 

 manures for the fields by preventing the burning 

 of cow-dung, as is now the case, and which a good 

 supply of fire- wood might prevent, should of itself 

 render the subject worth the consideration of govern- 

 ment. But I must stop ; enough has been said on 

 the Babul, only let me add a most important point, 

 which is to know how to render the seed capable 

 of germinating; there are two ways ; first and best, 

 collect that which has been vomited by goats or 

 sheep; it may be had in a large quantity in the 

 places where they lodge at night, during the season 

 the seed ripens ; second, boil the seed for two or 

 three minutes in water. Treated in this way the seed 

 rapidly grows to a large tree ; it thrives in Gujerat 

 even better than in the Dekun. It is not to this 

 species, Lalla Rookh alludes, when he says 



" Our rocks are rough ; but smiling there, 



" The Acacia waves her yellow hair, lonely and 



" SWEET ; nor loved the less, for flowering in a wilderness." 



Sugar cane is not very extensively cultivated. 

 The Mauritius kind was introduced here, and last 

 year there were, I believe, upwards of a hundred 



