40 



ting its need, alkalies were allowed to accumulate until the lands were 

 no longer productive. It is a noteworthy fact that the excessive de- 

 velopment of alkalies in India, as well as in Egypt and California, are 

 the results of irrigation practices modern in their origin and modes, 

 and instituted by people lacking in the traditions of the ancient irriga- 

 tors, who had worked these same lands for thousands of years before. 

 The alkali lands of today, in. their intense form, are of modern origin, 

 due to practices which are evidently inadmissible, and which, in all 

 probability, were known to be so by the people whom our modern 

 civilization has supplanted. 



EUCALYPTUS AND MALARIA. 



Evidence exists that fever has disappeard in houses in Jamaica 

 which have befen planted round with Eucalyptus trees. Whether this is 

 to be accounted for by the fact that these trees absorb immense quan- 

 tities of water from the soil, making it drier, or in some other way, is 

 not quite certain, but the extract from Bulletin No. 25 of the U.S. 

 Department of Agriculture (Entomology), " Notes on the Mosquitoes 

 of the U. States," may be of interest in Jamaica. " In addition to 

 the use of eucalyptus oil on the skin to keep mosquitoes from 

 biting, the growth of Eucalyptus trees is said by certain persons to 

 drive mosquitoes away, and trees of the genus Eucalpytus have been 

 especially recommended for planting in malarial regions. Mr. Alvah 

 A Eaton, of California, wrote us in 1893 that in portions of California 

 where the blue gum occurs no other remedy need be sought for. 

 Further than that, he stated that no matter how plentiful the mos- 

 quitoes, a few twigs or leaves laid on the pillow at night would secure 

 perfect immunity. The same year Mr. W. A. Sanders, of California, 

 .sent the following interesting account of the value of eucalyptus trees 

 in answer to our published request in Insect Life. 



' I have the largest and oldest grove of trees of Eucalyptus Globulus 

 in this part of California, and have had fifteen years of opportunity to* 

 study these trees as insect repellants, and deem it my duty to respond 

 to your request on page 268 of Insect Life. 



' Thirty-three years ago I spent a portion of one summer with a 

 Dr. McConnell, who had just returned from some years of residence 

 among the Eucalyptus forests of Australia. We were in the Sequoia 

 (Sequoia sempervirens) forest of the coast region of our State. The 

 mosquitoes were so bad that it was nearly impossible to work during 

 days when there was no wind. The doctor assured me that our com- 

 mon mosquito was never found in the Australian Eucalyptus forests, 

 and swamps, but added, There's a " spotted mosquito" nearly as bad 

 there in some places. He, not being an entomologist, was unable to 

 tell me whether the " spotted mosquito" was a species of the genus 

 Culex, or of some allied genus. 



' The doctor being a reliable, close observer, I determined to test the 

 antimosquito qualities of the Eucalyptus ; so when I began to improve 

 my house here nineteen years ago, one of thefirst things I did was to get 

 a lot of Eucalyptus seed from Australia and plant out a grove of the 

 trees. The tallest of them are now over 140 feet tall, and can be seen. 



