396 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



"ILLUK GRASS;" 



Colombo, March 12th. 

 Deah Sir, — With respect to the question 

 asked in one of your previous issues as to the 

 best and cheapest way to get rid of "illuk" 

 grass, I should advise your enquirer to try the 

 following plan which 1 have always found cheap 

 and effective : — " Provide your weeders -with 

 sharp-edged weeding currandies and let them 

 chip the ' illuk ' grass down level with the 

 ground and repeat this again and again as 

 soon as, say, 3 inches of growth makes its ap- 

 pearance." In thre9 months or so, the roots 

 will all die off under ground. I have tried 

 forking the roots out and many other remedies, 

 but the chipping back process is the cheapest 

 and surest way to eradicate this most trouble- 

 some grass.— Yours faithfully, 



Golua Pokuna, Katunayaka, March -24th. 

 Dear Sik, — The Acting Director. Royal Bota- 

 nic Gardens, Peradeniya, to whom specimens of 

 Maduvel, or Kirimadu, and Pupula were sent, 

 at his request, for identification, kindly informs 

 me that the botanical names of these plants are 

 Ipomcea cymosa and Veruonia Zeylaniea respec- 

 tively. — Yours faithfully, 



GERALD T. NICHOLAS. 



THE ALGAROBA TREE IN HAWAII. 



A Priest's Invaluable Gift. 

 Honolulu, Hawaii, Jan. 5.— Almost every 

 visitor to Honolulu has probably had his atten- 

 tion called to a gnarled and twisted old tree, 

 with top broken or cut away some twenty feet 

 above the ground, which stands partly upon the 

 sidewalk and partly within the grounds of the 

 Roman Catholic Cathedral on Fort street, a few 

 blocks from the waterfront. A square wooden 

 sign nailed to the rough trunk, just below the 

 mass of straggling, decrepit branches which 

 cast a poor shade over the dusty street, bears 

 the following inscription in gold letters : — 



First Aloakoba Tree 



of the Hawaiian Islands 

 Imported and Planted in 1837 



By Father Bachelot. 

 Founder of the B. C Mission. 

 Father Bachelot, the pioneer French priest 

 who established the Catholic mission in Hono- 

 lulu in 1827, probably had but little idea of the 

 service which he was rendering the Hawaiian 

 Islands when on his return from a trip to Cali- 

 fornia ten years later he brought with him the 

 little algaroba seedling and planted it in the 

 corner of the mission grounds, then in the out- 

 skirts of the village of Honolulu. But from that 

 one tree have all the islands of the group become 

 heavily forested with one of the most valuable 

 of all the trees at present in the territory. It 

 has clothed in verdure thousands of acres 

 which from lack of water were utterly barren. 



The Algaroba (Prosonis juliflora) is a native of 

 the arid South-western section of the United 

 States, where it is generally known as Mesquite, 

 although differing from the mesquite of Texap 

 and New Mexico. In Hawaii it seems to have 



found even more congenial conditions than hi 

 its native habitat, and the trees often attain a 

 height of fifty or sixty feet, and a girth of six 

 feet or more. Beside the value of the hard dur- 

 able wood for building purposes, fence posts and 

 fuel, it has a much greater value as a feed for 

 stock, and it is for this purpose that it is most 

 valued in Hawaii. Cattle and horses eat the 

 foliage readily, as well as the sweet seed pods, 

 and thousands of head of cattle have no other 

 feed the year round. The large honey industry of 

 the islands has been made possible largely from 

 the splendid pasturage the bees fine, in the alga- 

 roba blossoms. - At the present time the econo- 

 mic value of the algaroba is attracting much at- 

 tention. It is pi'edicied that within a short time 

 the very abundant seed pods of the tree will sup- 

 ply a considerable part of the horse and cattle 

 feed which is now imported in the form of barley, 

 corn, oats, etc. These pods contain by weight 

 almost fifty per cent of tugar, which causes it to 

 be greedily eaten by stock, while the seeds are 

 rich in protein, having about the same food 

 value as tlax seed. Heretofore but a small part of 

 these seeds has been available for food, owing to 

 the hard covering which resists digestion unlesB 

 it is broken. The pods could not be ground owing 

 to their mucilaginous character which caused the 

 gumming up of ordinary milling machinery. A 

 Honoluluinvenior has just devised a very simple 

 machine which has proven admirably adapted 

 for the work, however, and it is probable that it 

 will soon come into very general use. Dr E V 

 Wilcox, director of the U.S. Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station, estimates that land in algaroba 

 should produce not less than $100 per acre in 

 feed, basing the price of the product at about 

 half of the cost of imported forage. 



Experiments in making alcohol from the 

 algaroba pods, show that it will yield about 500 

 pounds of alcohol per tjn ; while the food value 

 of the seeds is not affected by the distilling pro- 

 cess.— Will J Cooper.— Hawaii Promotion Com- 

 mittee Press News, 



BRITISH GUIANA RUBBER OUTPUT. 



Reports from British Guiana show that the out- 

 put of balata for the year was 973,269 lb. , as against 

 (534,242 lb. last year. The rubber produced 

 was also greater, 6,873 lb. having been gathered 

 as against 2,563 lb. The price of balata was 

 fairly maintained, while that of rubber fell ; 

 the value of the latter is, however, again going 

 up. The palo Colorado or cucuracho tree of 

 Mexico, claimed as a new source of rubber supply, 

 is stated to possess a sap which yields over 

 33 1-3 per cent of pure caoutchouc. It grows 

 abundantly in the Pacific slopes of Sierra Madre 

 Mountains, at an elevation of from 2,500 ft. to 

 4,000 ft. above sea level. The tree reaches an 

 average height of 24 ft., and is from 8 in. to 14 

 in. in diameter. The tree is tapped in the same 

 manner as the true rubber tree, and when 

 tapped gives a thick white sap, which becomes 

 semi-solid when exposed to the air. When 

 tapped the larger trees produce over 2 lb. per 

 day, but after one or two days' run the cut has 

 to be closed with clay, so as to allow the tree 

 to regain its vitality.— -H. <fe C. Mo.il, Feb. 12. 



