34° 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [November i, 1887. 
all to be d ;lusive. To say nothing of the inconve- 
nience that may have been caused to makers and 
othfrs, suoh an occurrence is a little apt to lessen 
the respect for "authorities," and to show thit 
Talleyrand's advice not to indulge in too much zeal 
is not only applicable to young men. — Pharmaceutical 
Journal. 
THE CORK TREE IN THE FORESTS 
OF TUNIS.* 
The forests of Tunis, which cover an appreciable 
part of the surface of the country, were, until the 
French occupation, subject to no supervision, and 
suffered from the many causes resulting from the 
want of that supervision. In 1883, the French, alive 
to the importance of preserving what remained of 
these forests, which are the property of the State, 
placed them under the management of a separate de- 
partment, which has carefully explored their extent, 
and conclusively demonstrated that they are an im- 
portant element of national wealth. 
The explorations of the new department have result- 
ed in the division of the forests into two main groups ; 
one consisting of the cork tree and deciduous oak, 
locally known as "Zen," covering the north-western 
angle of Tunis where it abuts on the Algerian frontier 
and the sea, inhabited by the Kroumirs, and separated 
from the rest of Tunis by the river Mejerdah. These 
trees grow in a stratum of sandstone, which again 
reposes on the upper chalk, and they completely 
disappear where the latter stratum crops to the sur- 
face. They cover an area of about 360,000 acres, on 
330,000 acres of which flourishes the cork-tree, and 
on 30,000 the "zen.'-' 
It is to the cork-forests that the attention of the 
new administration has been mainly directed. They 
are situated in a country with a very sparse popul- 
ation, dwelling in huts formed of the branches of trees. 
Their number is estimated at 12,000 souls, or only 
one individual to thirty acres. It was open to the 
French administration, which wields the authority of 
the Bey, to adopt one of the three following systems 
in dealing with the woods and forests, viz., their sale, 
their concession for fixed periods, or their manage- 
ment by the State. The last was chosen as the 
system best adapted for their preservation and ex- 
tension, particularly as it was held to be of paramount 
importance to favour the increase of rainfall in the 
country; the quantity of which is supposed to be 
intimately connected with the extent of the forests. 
That they were more extensive in the times of the 
Komans, and that they conduced to augment the 
annual rainfall, may be inferred from the discovery 
of numerous aqueducts among hills which are now 
absolutely denuded of trees and destitute of springs. 
Much has been done during recent years in improv- 
ing the condition of these cork-forests. Koads have 
been cut through them, and at stated intervals spacious 
alleys have been frayed to serve as a means for 
arresting the march of the destructive fires which 
frequently ravage them. Above all, much progress 
has been made in barking the cork-trees, and oper- 
ation which consists in stripping the rough bark of 
the trunks of the trees, to the height of five or six 
feet from the ground. This virgin bark is without 
value, and only for ten years after the trees have 
been robbed of it, is the inner bark available for 
commercial purposes, the trees giving a crop of cork 
every ten years. To meet the expenses incurred in 
these operations, there were available the sums 
accruing from the sale of the trees already felled, and 
(jf the bark of the "zen" for tanning. The director 
of woods and forests has drawn up an estimate of 
the receipts and expenses of his department for three 
consecutive decennial periods, according to which in 
twenty years, or at the commencement of the third 
decennial period, the anticipated expenditure per 
annum is £27,000, while the expected receipts are 
£90.000— leaving a profit of £09,000. 
The above calculation regards the cork-forests only 
which grow on the sandstone to the north of the 
* From a report by Mr. Consul Sandwith, 
Mejerdah river, in the region lying between the 
Algerian frontier and Bizerta. Little has been done 
towards working the less valuable forests to the south 
of that river. An experiment has been made in 
planting with trees a small tract of mountain land 
near Hammam-el-Buf, some ten miles to the east of 
the town of Tunis. The operation consists in digging 
holes at short distances, and in dropping in each a 
few seeds of the pine tree. Several hundred acres 
have thus being planted with tolerable success, at an 
expense of £i 10$. an acre. 
The worst enemies of the forests are goats. Some 
French colonists have taken steps to exclude these 
animals from their estates, and the result has been 
that shrubs which never attained the height of more 
than two or three feet, have in four or five years 
assumed the dimensions of trees. This is particularly 
apparent in the large domain of Enfida, near Susa, 
belonging to the Franco- African Company, where the 
thuja, which covers much of that domain — from a 
dwarf shrub, has now. within the space of six years, 
attained a height of twenty to twenty-five feet. — 
Pharmaceutical Journal. 
■ ♦ 
TEFF OR THAF. 
{Erayroatis abyssinica, Link.) 
(From the Bulletin of the Botanical Department, Jamaica.) 
Teff is a cereal, a native of Abyssinia, growing at ele- 
vations between 4,000 and 7,000 feet. The grain 
is of a white or brown colour. It is very small but yet 
prolific, returning from 20 to 46 times the seed. It is 
made into flour by crushing it in a stone mill, and the 
husk is separated by sifting. The best kinds of Teff 
give a very white flour, exceedingly light, and easily 
digested. To make the finest kind of bread the sift- 
ing operation is repeated several times. 
Until the end of last year this grain was quite un. 
known outside the boundaries of Abyssinia, but the 
Director of Kew Gardens, being of the opinion that it 
might be introduced with great advantage into mount- 
ainous districts of the British Empire, obtained a 
small supply from its native country. A portion has 
just been received from Kew, with information which 
will prove useful to those who wish to make the ex- 
periment of growing it. 
CULTIVATION. 
Olkraur, 27th Sept., 1886. 
Thaf (in the Tigrina language) or Thief (in the 
Olmharigna language) belongs to the family of grasses 
and resembles the finest lawn grass. 
There are two kinds: White Thaf and red Thaf. 
Both are, moreover, of two different qualities, accord- 
ing to the time of sowing, and are in consequence dis- 
tinguished by the names of the Seasons : " Thaf- 
Hagaiz " and " Thaf-Tseddia." The first is called 
"hagaiz" from the name of the season which, accord- 
ing to Abyssinian reckoning, includes all our winter and 
the commencement of our spring : it is sown at the 
end of Megabit, in Myazya and Ghembot (March, April, 
and May). The second is called " Tseddia " f rom the 
name of the commencement of the rainy season, which 
follows that of Hagaiz and precedes that of Keremt ; 
it is sown in June and the commencement of July. 
Thaf-Hagaiz is of slow, and Thaf Tseddia of rapid 
growth. These conditions produce great difference in 
quality, Thaf-Hagaiz being considerably superior; the 
white, especially, is used for the table by the Court 
and Chief's. Thaf-Tseddia is of very inferior quality, 
and the flabby s cake, or the " Tabita " which is pro- 
duced from it flour, is as disagreeable to chew as if 
it were mixed with sand. 
It is therefore the early sowing and vigorous growth 
of Thaf-Hagaiz, due to being two months longer in the 
ground, that render it of superior quality. 
I ought, however, to add that "Hagaiz"' and "Tseddia" 
cannot be sown indifferently for one another. 
The experiments which the natives tell me have been 
made have not met with much success. The seed of 
Thaf-Hagaiz must be used for the first sowing, and 
that of Tseddia for the second. The difference between 
them, both in the case of the white or red, is quite 
perceptible to the naked eye, by the want of plumpness 
