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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST [June i, 18S8. 
Steamship " Pekin," two large collections of seeds speci- 
ally sellected as likely to grow in sandy soil without the 
very best and sweetest of water. Lists of the seeds 
supplied will be found in the Monthly Proceedings. 
CasuaeiNA Mdricata, Roxb. — Experiments and en- 
quiries are now on foot to ascertain and bring to notice 
the value of this tree as a producer of timber useful for 
building purposes, pavement, and other economic uses, 
as it seems positively wicked to chop up trees a 
hundred feet high, straight as a dart, and girthing at 
breast height five or six feet, for fuel, which is prac- 
tically the sole use to which they are now put. 
Mr. Chisbolm, the late Consulting Architect to Go- 
vernment, has spoken very highly of the timber for 
building purpo-es; and Mr. Thorowgood, the Engineer 
of the Madias harbour works is now making ex- 
periments with it for the pavement of level-crosssiugs 
over the Beach Railway. Mr. Thorowgood's experiments 
are yet in their infancy, but it is believed that the 
traffic will prevent the white-ants, the bane of wood- 
work in the tropics, from doing much mischief, and 
that the cement in which the blocks are set will 
prevent warping, to which this wood, being immature, 
is specially liable. Should the trial be a success, it may 
be expected to revolutionize the dusty thorough fares 
of Madras. 
From a paper entitled " A description of wood and 
Asphalt, as used for the pavement of streets in Cities 
and Towns " read on 7th April, 1886, before the Insti- 
tution of Civil Engineers of Ireland, at Dublin, b;' Mr. 
Parke Neville, and published in "The Universal En- 
gineer " of 24th April, 1886, we learn that about two 
dozen different wood pavements have been tried in the 
City of London, and that the average life of the pave- 
ment in streets carrying the heaviest traffic was 9 years, 
at a cost of two shillings and seven pence half-penny 
per squire yard. On 29th April, 1879, papers were 
read before the Institute of Civil Engineers, which, 
amongst other facts, demonstrated that hard, tough 
wood should be selected to creasote, creasoted beech 
pavement ou Sunderland Bridge having worn le s in 
fourteen years than granite sets in four years ; that 
it is an absolute necessity for wood pavement that it 
should have a thoroughly good concrete foundation ; 
and that the cost of maintaining wood pavement 
to get seven years life from it is one-eighth and of 
scavenging one-sixth of Macadam. With such facts 
before us, there can be no doubt of the advantages of 
wood p ivement generally, and there appears to be every 
probability that Casuarina timber will, on fair trial, 
be ascertained to be specially well suited for the 
purpose. The planting of the tree on a large scale 
has been practiced for so short a time, and the wood 
has been 60 much used in an unmatured state for 
fuel, that comparatively little mature timber has 
been handled ; but in hardness, toughness, density, 
and specific gravity, it is almost unrivalled. Hard wood 
is scarce and costly in Europe, and if it should appear 
on experience that Casuarina wood is equal to or 
better than other woods in use, Madras has in her 
hands, a source of almost incalculable wealth. An- 
other reason why experiments which may lead to the 
retention of growing trees till they reach something 
like mature age should be pressed and encouraged, is 
that the price of Casuarina wood for fuel has fallen 
during the last, fifteen months nearly thirty per cent. ; 
large plantations in the market can find no purchasers, 
and petty owuers are grubbing up their young tree 
to realise before the jirioc falls still lower, without 
any htetitjon uf replanting. Should large clearances 
be made followed by the abandonment of the fuel 
p] mting enterprise, the result may be disastrous. 
Tl e hi ligenous and established sand-binding plants 
havfl been smothered by the Casuarina trees, and the 
consequence of the removal of the latter can only be 
the transformation of, at a moderate estimate, fifty 
miles of Ooa t line North and South of Madras, meta- 
i orpho 1 ! in the last twenty years into fine forest, 
into a chain of bare and blowing sand-dunes, the inland 
edges overl aping and hopelessly destroying the cul- 
i ;ii.'l li will, while those on the seaside contribute a 
i quota to the alre ady surcharged streams which 
lircateu to choko the now harbour. The fall in the 
price of firewood was the immediate result of a glut 
in the market caused by the Cyclone of 9th November, 
1886, intensified by the bringing in of vast numbers of 
trees killed by the drought in the early part of 1887, 
but it is not utdiki ly to continue from the expected 
introduction of cheap coal from ti e Singareni coal 
fields. 
Upper Buejia. — In addition to the usual flower and 
vegetable seeds furnished on indent to th<; military 
authorities for the use of our troops, a large quantity 
of seed potatoes was applied fur and sent to Upper 
Burma. From accounts received privately, large areas 
of the country are likely to prove, suitable for the 
growth of potatoes aad other English vegetables. 
Natal. — The Society's interchange of plants with 
Natal has been much restricted by the rigid enforce- 
ment of the rules of the Emigration Department, the 
commanders of ships not being allowed to take up 
the space on deck with plant cases. Captain Reeves, 
however, continues to persevere in his good work of 
distributing useful plants, carrying a few eaeh voyage 
in his private cabin. He has now been force 1 however 
to turn his attention more to seed^, and during the 
past year carried to Natal a quantity of Black Pepper 
seed obtained on his application from Travancore 
and the Western Coast. 
Japan Clover. — This plant, Lespedezi striata, bi 
strongly recommended by, and received by the Society 
from Dr. Schomburgk, the distinguished Botanist in 
charge of the gardens at Adelaide, has not succeeded. 
The plant is said to furnish a very valuable bite for 
stock in the hot season on the Californian plains, 
and may be worthy'of further trial, especially as the 
seed is observed to be quoted at a not unreasonable 
price in the catalogue of one of the leading firms of 
Seedsmen in England. 
Teff. — A quantity of seed of Eragrostis abyssiuiea, 
an African cereal, was received from Kew, sown in 
the gardens, and distributed. The plant grow well 
both in Madras and on the hills, and certainly flowered, 
but the ears did not seem to fill, iu Madras at least. 
The grain is very small, and though the value of the 
plant for both grain and forage is undoubted, it is 
not likely to claim a share in the attention of the 
native cultivator who is too poor to grow anything for 
forage, or to risk any doubtful experiment, aud already 
possesses Oholum, Rsggy, and Paddy, which, in good 
seasons, grow and produce a thousand fold with little 
more labour and attention than that required to plough 
the land and sow the seel. 
4 
Ensilage of Meadow Grass.— M. Emile Mer has 
just completed a careful study of all the methods em- 
ployed for preserving forage. The following are the 
conclusions he has published. — 1. The grass ensiled 
fresh cannot be consumed sufficiently rapidly to make 
good forage, because it is already sour after the first 
ferment ft tion. 2. When it is ensiled half faded, the 
process of turning sour is sufficiently slow to admit of 
waiting some months ; but in order to utilize it when 
it is still partly iu the state of sweet ensilage, it should 
still be eaten as quickly as possible, that is, wheu the 
mass has cooled and the settling down ceased. — 3 For- 
age ensiled fresh cannot be preserved from one year 
to another aud probably it would be the same with 
grass ensiled after being- dried. — 4. Putting into the 
silo should be proceeded with very carefully when the 
forage is partially withered because it more easily 
moulds, either because the settlement being more 
difficult, the air has more accessor because it contains 
more air from having commenced to wither. For these 
reasons the cover should bs thicker. — 5. The consump- 
tion of sour ensilage is very bad for cattle even when 
given in small quantities and with other food. Sweet 
ensilage mixed with hay, in equal parts, has not this 
defect. The author adds : It is undoubtedly prefer- 
able to be able to ensile freshly cut forage even if 
cut after rain as was latterly believed possible, but as 
the advantages of the system of ensilage are far from 
being so brillant as has been supposed, it is doubtful 
whether it can ever be of any service. — Universal, Press 
Association. 
