44 
AGRICULTURAL NOTES. 
CAMPHOR IN FRANCE. 
The climatic conditions of southern France are such as to 
encourage the belief that the production of camphor there 
would be profitable, and the industry is at present receiving 
some attention. 
THE JAPANESE CAMPHOR INDUSTRY. 
Addressing a recent conference of camphor commissioners 
in Tokio, the Japanese Minister of Finance said that he was 
gratified to notice that the general public had become aware 
of the importance of the industry, and in order to meet the 
increasing demand he deemed it advisable to encourage culti- 
vation. It required forty to fifty years to obtain raw camphor 
in trunks and roots, and in order to cover the pressing demand, 
he advocated the plantation on a large scale. He regarded the 
industry as most lucrative, and the forestry bounty, as sanc- 
tioned by the Diet last session, is mainly assigned to camphor 
plantation with that object in view. While thus encouraging 
the plantation and the improvement of camphor manufacture, 
the government intends, he said, to promote also the exporta- 
tion of the product and to increase facilities for supplying the 
demand. For this purpose the government last year despatch- 
ed commissioners to Europe and the United States to investi- 
gate the subject. 
THE ARAUCARIAS. 
Considerable interest always attaches to these graceful coni- 
fers, and in Hawaii where the climate is peculiarly suitable to 
their growth it is unfortunate that they are not more widely 
grown. The trees, which are confined naturally to South 
America, Eastern Australia and the Pacific Islands, are re- 
markable from a botanical standpoint in that they are the sur- 
viving representatives of typical prehistoric flora. Their 
graceful and distinctive appearance renders them invaluable 
for use in landscape gardening. Araucaria cxcclsa, the well 
known Norfolk Island Pine ; A. Cooki, Captain Cook's Pine, and 
A. imbricata, the peculiar monkey puzzle, are well known 
species. The Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales for 
December last has splendid photographs of the Araucarias, 
especially of the first two species mentioned. These trees re- 
ceived greater notice than is given here, it will be remembered, 
in volume III of this publication. 
