9O 
NA TORE 
[ Mov. 23, 1882 
extensive and there is so much connected with them that belongs 
legitimately to the subject of forestry that we have no doubt the 
journal will meet with a wide circulation. 
THE Annual Report of the Public Gardens and Plantations in 
Jamaica for the year ending September 30, 1881, has just reached 
us, and from it we gain some idea of the work that is being 
carried on in the island under Mr, Morris’s care in the dissemina- 
tion of useful plants. It is satisfactory to find that of late years 
a considerable amount of attention has been directed to the ex- 
tended cultivation of economic plants in all our Colonies, a 
branch of culture that must in the end prove of more lasting 
value to mankind generally than the growth of any mere horti- 
cultural novelty or scientific rarity. Mr. Morris’s Report from 
beginning to end is a record of what can be done by a single 
establi-hment in the introduction of new plants and their distri- 
bution amongst planters in the several colon’es. As an illustra- 
tion of this Mr. Morris says ‘‘there is much activity displayed 
even by the poorest peasants in obtaining and cultivating new 
and important plants, and I cannot but hope, that before many 
years have elapsed this activity will result in the greater pros- 
perity and wealth of the island, and in placing it in the first rank 
as exporter of fruit and raw materials to the markets of England 
and America.” Regarding Jamaica in particular, Mr. Morris 
says: ‘‘It is evident that Jamaica must depend for its prosperity 
and success almost entirely on the resources and products of an 
azricultural character. We have no large stores of timber, we 
have no minerals, we have no manufacturing industries, and we 
cannot hope to struggle successfully with other countries in the 
more advanced arts and sciences. We nevertheless possess a 
rich and productive soil, a salubrious climate, abundant springs, 
and a vast extent of uncleared mountain land ; and it is mainly 
on the due utilisation of these valuable natural resoarces that 
our prosperity must ultimately depend. Under these circum- 
stances the chief aim of the Department has been directed 
towards bringing into notice the nature and character of such 
resources, and to fostering and promoting any well directed 
efforts for their utilisation, The position and prospects of 
several new industries, such as Liberian coffee, cacao, tobacco, 
oranges, mangoes, pine-apples, spices, india-rubbers, fibre- 
yielding plants, &c., are carefully noticed with this view, and 
the success which has already attended these comparatively 
recent efforts would indicate that capital and energy are alone 
wanting to place the island in an important position as to the 
source of most tropical productions.” Naturally a good deal of 
attention has been paid to cinchona cultivation, and a large 
number of plants of the best varieties have been raised, seeds 
and plants having been distributed to private plantations, and 
sold in considerable quantities during the year. The cultivation 
of the jalap plant promises also to become one of considerable 
importance in Jamaica, 
To give an idea of the dairy-industry in France, M. Hervé 
Mangon recently stated (at an agricultural gathering) that the 
milk produced in the country would, if collected, form a stream 
about I metre in width and 33 centimetres in depth (say 3 feet 
4 inches and 1 foot 1 inch), flowing night and day all the year, 
with a mean velocity of a metre per second. Young animals 
drink a part of this enormous volume of milk, man takes a good 
part of it, and the rest is transformed into cheese and butter. 
No branch of agricultural industry has so progressed during the 
last fifty years as the making of butter. In 1833 France bought 
abroad 1,200,000 kgr. of butter, and sold to foreigners only 
1,100,000 kgr, She now exports 34 to 35 million kgr. of butter 
annually, and receives in return from abroad (especially from 
England) a sum of more than 100 million francs. La Manche 
alone furnishes more than one-third of the total exportation. 
A VALUABLE investigation of the origin of metalliferous lodes, 
by Prof. Sandberger, of Wiirzburg, has recently been published 
at Wiesbaden. The various theories are discussed, more espe- 
cially those of ascension, and of lateral secretion or levigation. 
Till 1873 the author was a partisan of the former, but he was 
led to make a chemical study of the gangues and lodes in the 
Black Forest, and by 1877 he had got so far as to obtain proof, 
for the greater part of the mining districts in Germany, that the 
lodes had been formed by levigation of the encasing rock. The 
second part of the work is elevated to a special study of the 
environs of Wild Schapbach in the Blick Forest, as illustrating 
the theory of levigation, (An outline of these researches appears 
in Archives des Sciences, October 15.) 
AN improved feed-water heater and purifier has been recently 
described to the Franklin Institute by Mr. George Strong. It 
is said to effect a saving in coal of 22 per cent., and an increase 
of evaporation of 1°09 pounds of water per pound of coal. Con- 
sidering that all substances likely to give trouble by deposition 
would be precipitated at about 250° F., he obtains this in the 
heater by action of exhaust steam, aided by a coil of live steam 
from the boiler. He also uses a filter formed of wood-charcoal, 
and-bone black firmly held between two perforated plates. 
(Further details will be found in the Yournal of the Institute 
for November.) 
Ir appears from the Shen-fao, a Chinese newspaper published 
at Shanghai, that the Chinese are taking practical steps in the 
matter of foreign education. A school for the education of 
Chinese boys in foreign matters has been established in the 
Pun-yen district of Canton, and it has already fifty scholars. 
So far the school has been a success, and to meet the require- 
ments of the scholars it is proposed at the next Chinese New 
Year to solicit subscriptions to enlarge the school premises. 
The teachers are Chinese well versed in English, and the school 
bids fair to be followed by many others of a similar kind. A 
satisfactory circumstance about it is that the institution has been 
founded by the people themselves with official countenance or 
assistance, and that Chinese gentlemen competent to teach these 
schools are now to be found. European teachers and professors 
are of course absolutely necessary for a time; but their want of 
knowledge or imperfect knowledge of the language of the 
country must cause them to be make-shifts at the best. 
UNDER the title of ‘‘ Les Grandes Ascensions Maritimes.” M. 
W. de Fonvielle has published (Paris, Ghio) a brochure giving 
an account of several balloon ascents over the ocean, including 
some, such as the late Mr. Powell’s, which have come to griet 
by being driven into the sea. 
Tue Tenth Annual Report of the Lambeth Field Club speaks 
hopefully of its condition ; it seems to be doing good work. 
THE public dinner in celebration of the 1ooth anniversary of 
the first experiment at Annonay by Joseph Mongolfier was given 
on Saturday at Paris by the Académie d’Aérostation Météoro- 
logique. Three members of the Mongolfier family were present. 
Several speeches were given, and a general committee was 
appointed to organise a national celebration on June 5, 1883, 
the anniversary of the first public experiment at Annonay before 
the Etats Généraux du Forez. 
THE Yournal Officiel states that the director of the Compagnie 
du Cap has given to the Paris Museum of Natural History a 
diamond weighing 43 carats, enveloped in its native rock. It is 
supposed that this generous donation will determine the public 
authorities to send to the museum a part of the jewels of the 
French Crown, which are now kept in the Bank. The question 
of their sale has not yet been settled, in spite of several parlia- 
mentary and extra-parliamentary reports. 
NeEws from Perugia now states that the earthquake began on 
October 28 at 6 p.m., and with short interruptions lasted until 
