FEBRUARY 14, 1907 | 
NATURE 
A 
Pov ars 
«ot the industry in China, Japan, and south European 
countries. Finally, he offers some pertinent remarks as 
(o future production and the directions in which improve- 
ments may be effected. 
As an instance of a superstition connected with the 
moon’s phases, Mr. E. P. Stebbing refers in the Indian 
Forester (November, 1906) to a popular idea among the 
natives of India that bamboos should not be felled when 
the moon is full on account of the increased danger 
of attack by boring beetles. While, as usual, the argu- 
ment is unsound, there would appear to be a germ of 
truth in the superstition, as experiments, inconclusive, it 
is true, tend to show that the beetles attack bamboos 
stacked in the shade in preference to those placed in full 
light; but with regard to the wider question of felling 
bamboos, there is more reason for believing that this is 
best performed during months in the cold season when 
the beetles do not appear on the wing. 
Tue annual report for 1905-6 of the Agricultural Depart- 
ment, Jamaica, has arrived at a time when the sympathy 
and assistance of the mother country and many of the 
colonies is being extended to the inhabitants of that 
island. After suffering from a severe hurricane in 1903, 
agricultural industries again expanding, and the 
director of the public gardens and plantations in his re- 
port records a large increase in the export of bananas, 
citrus fruits, cocoa, and coffee. Reference is made to 
trial plots of tobacco at Hope Experiment Station and 
experiments with cassava, showing that the tubers grown 
for starch provide a serviceable crop for poor soils. Date- 
palm suckers and Kafir plum plants, Harpephyllum 
caffrum, are the latest, introductions. Dr. H. H. Cousins 
refers in his report to the investigation of the rum industry 
as the chief line of chemical work. 
were 
Tue December (1906) number of the Journal of the 
Royal Horticultural Society contains an account of 
chrysanthemum cultivation in Japan, by Mr. N. Hayashi, 
describing the favourite varieties; the preference of the 
Japanese for light and artistic flowers is well shown in 
the types chosen for illustration. Even more character- 
istic are the various effects that are obtained by careful 
and pre-considered treatment, such as stopping stem and 
branches in succession until as many as a thousand 
flowers are produced on a single plant. The same writer 
communicates an account of plants grown in Japan for 
their edible products, in which it is noted that the Japanese 
cultivate tiger-lily bulbs for food, but grow cherry 
trees mainly for show. ~Mr. R. H. Farrer expresses 
an English opinion on Japanese flowers, and among the 
list of suggested plants alludes to the beauties of Rhodo- 
dendron dilatatum, Lithospermum erythroxylon, Schizo- 
codon soldanelloides, and Iris gracilipes, but owing to the 
difference in soil and climate it is doubtful whether these 
plants can be successfully cultivated in the British Isles. 
Ar the Ceylon Rubber Exhibition it was suggested by 
Dr. J. C. Willis that, instead of, as at present, drying 
the plantation rubber until it only contains about 0-5 per 
cent. of moisture, it might be advisable to block it in the 
wet, freshly coagulated condition. Experiments with this 
object were at once carried out by Mr. Kelway Bamber, 
the Ceylon Government chemist. He prepared the rubber 
with creosote (to prevent decay and mould) and blocked it 
at once, getting blocks containing about 9 per cent. of 
water. These sold in London for 5s. 6d. per lb. against 
ss. 7d. to 5s. gd. for the ordinary dry Ceylon rubber, thus 
really getting a much better price. A circular (Circular | 
NO. 1946, VOL. 75] 
and Agricultural Journal of the Royal Botanic Gardens, 
Peradeniya, vol. iv., No. 1) has been lately issued dealing 
with this matter, and it would seem likely that the old 
way of making dry biscuits or sheets will soon be extinct. 
Tue Geological Survey of Queensland has issued an 
interesting report (Publication No. 201) on Black Ridge, 
Clermont, by Mr. Lionel C. Ball. The Black Ridge and 
the country northwards is at present the mainstay of 
mining in the district. The plateau is covered with basalt, 
which is underlain by Coal-measures and auriferous de- 
posits, the gold occurring in the lowermost portion of the 
basal conglomerate of the Coal-measures. It is believed 
that the gold was brought in by the same percolating 
waters that carried the cementing material of the con- 
and that it precipitated by hydrogen 
sulphide. Carbonaceous matter and pyrites do not appear 
to have been the precipitants. In another Publication 
(No. 205) Mr. Ball describes the Oaks View gold mines 
near Rockhampton, and the mines of the Talgai and 
Thane’s Creek goldfields. 
Tne last issue of the Central contains a most interest- 
ing article, by Mr. Maurice Solomon, on carbon making, 
and it is especially valuable from the fact that Mr. Solomon 
is able, from personal knowledge, to describe the processes 
employed in the only British carbon manufactory which 
has ever produced carbons of satisfactory quality. Mr. 
Solomon gives comparative tables of tests on carbons, and 
voltage records for the same. The comparisons are based 
on tests made by the National Physical Laboratory. 
Tur Electrical Review for February 8 contains a de- 
scription of the radio-telegraph installation for signalling 
across the Wash which has recently been completed by the 
Amalgamated Radio-Telegraph Company for the Post Office. 
The plant is installed at Hunstanton, in Norfolk, and Skeg- 
ness, in Lincolnshire, in both instances at the coastguard 
stations, being operated by coastguard officers appointed 
by the Admiralty. The installation is primarily for coast 
communication, but will be used by the Post Office for ex- 
perimental work. The mast is of the special design which 
is as yet confined to the De Forest system, being composed 
of rectangular baulks of timber bolted together, and is 
120 feet in height. The aérial consists of six 7/20 tinned 
copper wires, and is so arranged as to be readily lowered 
or raised. Illustrations are given showing the general 
view of the radio-telegraph station, and diagrams showing 
the construction of the mast, aérial connections, sending 
and receiving circuits. are also interesting. The working 
of the Wash installation commenced on December 1, 1906, 
and has been most successful, a speed of about thirty-five 
words per minute having been obtained in the electrolytic 
receiver and telephone circuit. 
In the January number of the Journal de Physique an 
interesting article on magnetic detectors and the action 
of electric oscillations is contributed by M. Ch. Maurain. 
The author comments on the very complex and apparently 
contradictory results obtained by the recent experiments 
of various investigators with magnetic detectors. In the 
first part of his paper M. Maurain shows (a) that when- 
ever clectric oscillations act on magnetism under given 
conditions, the result can be foretold; (b) on what the 
result depends. In the second part he deals with mag- 
netic delectors, on which it is possible to note the action 
of electric oscillations with regard to hysteresis in a re- 
volving field. He refers for his conclusions to a previous 
article of his in the Journal de Physique (June 17, 1906), in 
which he mentions the works of MM. Gerosa, Finzi, and 
Mai, and to subsequent experiments made by himself. 
glomerate, was 
