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As I cannot go to Jamaica myself, I take the liberty of sending a 

 packet of these seeds to you, hoping that means maybe found to try the 

 plant in Jamaica. I fancy there are already one or two specimens in 

 the Gardens at Castleton. The seeds before planting should have a bit 

 of the hard outer shell chipped off to allow water to get more readily at 

 the germ within, and cattle should be kept from the young plants as 

 they eat them very greedily. 



CAROB OR LOCUST-BEAN TREE. 



[The Carob Tree has for many years been growing in some of the 

 Public Gardens, but has not proved to be satisfactory. It will probably 

 grow in many dry rocky places in the island where the Guango which 

 hears a similar pod will not flourish ; but the results obtained so far have 

 not wan anted a recommendation to Penkeepers to plant it. 



However, the following Foreign Office Report (No. 431, Sept. 1897), 

 by Mr. Neville-Rolf e, H. M. Consul at Naples, places the matter in a 

 new light, and efforts will be made to obtain grafted plants of the best 

 variety. — Ed.~\ 



Carob cultivation. — In the course of last spring a well-known gentle- 

 man from South Africa made enquiries at this Consulate concerning the 

 cultivation of thecarob or locust- bean tree and the possibilities ofits intro- 

 duction into the Cape Colony. The carob is a tree the fruit of which 

 consists of a long pod which not only forms excellent horse-food, but is 

 very largely eaten by human beings, especially children, on account of 

 its sweetness. The pods contain very hard beans which are useful only 

 for seed, as horses leave them in their mangers, and if by chance they 

 swallow them, it is found that they do not digest them. The tree bears, 

 moreover, thick dark ever-gi'een foliage which gives a cool and grateful 

 shade. It grows in many places in the Mediterranean where nothing else 

 will grow, notably on the arid hills of Malta, and it seems certain that 

 in the endless varieties of soil and climate to be met with in the Cape 

 Colony there must be many districts where it would grow freely. The 

 successful result of such an experiment would be simply invaluable to 

 the colony if merely as a supply for horse-food, for one of the greatest 

 difficulties in travelling at the Cape is to feed one's horses, the price of 

 forage in some districts being extremely high, and the supply often 

 distressingly short. Forage, moreover, as it consists of oats with their 

 straw, is not readily portable, but carobs enough for a pair of horses for 

 a day can be carried in a small bag. The carob in Italy grows along- 

 side the oranges and lemons, and there can be no reason why it should 

 not grow with the magnificent orange trees of Wellington, and become 

 as superior to the carob of Italy as the Cape orange tree is superior to 

 its Italian prototype. In places like Graaf-Reinet, and Aliwal North, 

 the success of the experiment seems absolutely certain, while, judging 

 from the way the tree prospers on the dry stone of Malta, where it 

 grows with apparently no soil to help it, there is good hope that it might 

 take kindly to the " Kopjes" near Colesberg, the bush veldt of the 

 Western coast, the lower slopes of the Drakenfelds. or among the trees 

 of the Knysna forest. The writer being well acquainted with the Cape 

 Colony has had much pleasure in investigating the matter thoroughly, 

 and, after lengthened consultation with practical arboriculturists, the 

 following modus operandi has been decided upon. First, a sufficient 



