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Russia and central Europe from Brindisi and the other ports al mg the 

 coast. Though the tree may be seen in almost any garden here, and is not 

 uncommonly found on the mountains, the only person who has made a 

 hobby of its cultivation is the Prince of Belmonte, who has large pro- 

 perties in the province of Salerno not far from the ruins of Paestum. 

 Besides planting several trees in his shrubbery, the Prince has a long 

 avenue of them leading up to his house, which is particularly interesting, 

 and is, we believe, the only avenue of its kind. The trees are planted 7 

 metres apart and the largest of them has a trunk of 85 centimetres 

 (about 2 feet 9 inches) in circumference. This tree is 18 years old, and 

 its top is from 6 to 7 metres in diameter, and 4 or 5 in height. In 

 common with the other trees of the avenue the fruit is of the best des- 

 cription, and each tree may be taken to yield annually 50 chilos, or say 

 120 lbs. of fruit, worth here about 6 shillings. This may be spoken of 

 as the ornamental part of the work, while the plantations of Licosa and 

 Tresina are more on the scale of a commercial enterprise. They are 

 both germane to our present purpose, as they show in what different 

 circumstances the carob will grow and nourish. The Licosa grove is in 

 a plain by the seaside, and the difference of the trees is very remarkable, 

 some of them growing with great vigour, others not flourishing at all. 

 The reason of this must be the existence of land-springs beneath the 

 surface with which the weaker trees come into contact, and by which 

 their growth is checked. There is no other apparent reason, and as the 

 grove consists of about 1,500 trees there is scope for observation. The site is 

 very much exposed to the wind, and in the first attempts at forming the 

 grove as many as 70 per cent, of the plants were lost. There were 

 other causes too which led up to this heavy loss. First, the whole thing 

 being an experiment, they did not know at what period and in what 

 way it was best to graft the trees, and also the grafters had not any- 

 thing like the skill which they have since acquired. 



The grove at Tresina is planted in altogether different conditions. 

 Here we have a hilly country fully 1,000 feet above the sea, and here 

 the outside loss of plants has been 20 per cent., which is not more than 

 occurs in the planting of ordinary forest trees. The plantation consisted 

 originally of 7,000 trees, but has been largely increased year by 

 year, and the Prince expresses every confidence that in a few years' time 

 he will clothe the barren slopes with a mantle of luxuriant green. 

 Professor Savastona asks very pertinently why, if these results can 

 be obtained at Tresina, they should not be obtained elsewhere, and 

 thousands of barren acres of Italian mountains be made useful and 

 productive. And in fact, since he wrote upon the matter, 

 the spread of this cultivation has been steady and continuous. 

 We have shown pretty plainly that Prince Belmonte has attained success 

 only by patient experiments extending over a considerable number 

 of years commercially speaking he is abundantly satisfied with the re- 

 sults obtained, but he does not relax his efforts. He rears some 8,000 

 seedlings every year, and has a skilled staff to conduct all the necessary 

 operations with the result that he grows a valuable crop on ground 

 which before was absolutely unproductive ; and if the landed proprietors 

 of South Africa profit by his experience and are equally persevering-, 

 and the tree as is anticipated, proceeds to grow like a weed, its intro- 

 duction should form a mine of wealth to our industrous colonists. There 



