102 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. IAugust t, 1888. 
seeds supplied will be fouud in the Monthly pro- 
ceedings. 
Casuarina Muricata, 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 an hundred feet high, straight as a dart, 
and girthing at breast height five or six feet, for 
fuel, which is practically the sole use to which they 
are now put. Mr. Ohisbolm, the late Consulting 
Architect to Government, has spoken very highly of 
the timber for building purposes ; and Mr. Thorow- 
good, the Engineer of the Madras Harbour Works 
is now making experiments with it for the pavement 
of level-cros.->ings 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 thoroughfares 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 Institut- 
ion of Civil Engineers of Ireland, at Dublin, by Mr. 
Parke Nevillp, and published in " 1 he Universal En- 
gineer" of 21t,h 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 pavement in streets carrying the heaviest traffic 
was 9 years, at a cost of two shillings and seven 
pence halfpenny per square yard. On 2')th April, 1879, 
papers were read before the Institute of Civil En- 
gineer's which amongst other facts, demonstrated that 
hard, tough wood should be selected to creasote, 
creasoted beech pavement on Sunderland B ridge having 
worn less in fourteen years than granite sets in four 
years ; that it is an absolute necessity for wood pave- 
ment 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 scavanging one-sixth of Macadam. With such 
facts before us, there can be no doubt of the advan- 
tages of wood pavement generally, and there appears 
to be every probability that Casuariua 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 so much used in an unmatured state 
for fuel, that comparatively little mature timber has 
been handled ; but in hardness, toughnest, 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 incaculable wealth. 
Another 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 pl»ntations in the market can 
find no purchasers, and petty owners are grubbing 
up their jouug trees to realise before the price falls 
still lower without any intention of replanting. Should 
'arge clearances be made followed by the abandon- 
ment of t fuel planting enterprize, the results may 
be disastr s. The indigenous and established sand- 
binding phuts have been smothered by the Casuarina 
trees, and i le consequence of the removal of the latter 
can only be the transformation of, at a moderate es- 
timate, fifty miles of Coast line North and South of 
Madras, metamorphosed in the last twenty years into 
Hue forest, into a chain of bare and blowing sand- 
dunes, the i ilitnd edges overlapping and hopelessly 
destroying the cultivated land, while those on the 
seaside contribute a liberal quota to the already 
surcharged streams which threaten to choke the new 
harbour. The fall in the price of firewood was the 
immediate U dt 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 ulk- 
likely to continue from the expected introduction of 
cheap coal from the Singatene Coal field. 
Japan Clovkr. — This plaut, Lesjiedeza striata, so 
strongly recommended by, and reeeived 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 Ualalornian plains, 
and may be worthy of further trial, especially as 
the seed is observed to be quoted at a not unreason, 
able price in the catalogue of one of the leading 
firms of Seedsuion * in England. 
Teff. — A quantity of seed of Eragrostu abyBitinici, 
an African cereal, was received from Kew, sown 
in the gardens, and distributed. The plant grew weil 
both in Madras and on the Hills, and certainly 
flowered, but the ears did not seem to fid iu Madras 
at least. The grain is very sm ill, and though the 
value of the plant for both grain and forage is un- 
doubted, it is not likely to claim a share in attention 
of the native cultivator who is too poor to grow any- 
thing for forage, or to risk any doubtful experiment, 
and already possesses Chjlum, Raggy, and Paddy, 
which, in good seasons, grow and produce* thousind 
fold with little more labour and attention than that 
required to plough the laud and sow the seed. 
Victoria Rf.gia. — A remarkable and mysterious 
mortality has over taken all the splendid specimens of 
this grand water-lily which used to grace Madras. It 
is believed that no one of the old and large plants 
survives, but the Society has got seeds from Mr. 
Storey, in Rajapootana, and from Calcutta, and now 
has two or three promising young plants. 
PLANTING IN NETHERLANDS INDIA. 
(Translated for the Straits Times.) 
The Governmeut coffee crop in Java, this year, 
stands a fair chance of being as short as that of 
last year. The estimate, last month, came to no 
more than 468,360 piculs. Its compulsory cultivation 
by the natives, for Government, places the latter at 
an advantage over private growers. They have to 
pay quit rent, assessment, coolie poll tax, and export 
duties. Since 1885, on many coffee estates, the quit 
rent alone has swallowed up all profits too often. On 
most estates, owing to the ravages of l*af disease, 
the taxes alone e.it up every cent of profit. Re- 
monstrance to the Government in the direction of 
securing a lightening of these fiscal burdens has 
proved of scant avail. The Colonial Minister would 
not move the load even with one finger. The only 
concession to the luckless planters was an assurance 
that newly opened estates will be privileged with 
exemption from quit rent for ten years. For them 
only will incidence of the quit rent be materially 
lightened. Holders of land on long leases have been 
excused from the payment of poll tax on their ten- 
ants, amounting to five guilders a head. 
The authorities in Java look with disfavour upon 
the emigration of the natives of that island abroad, 
especially to work as coolies. The officials at the 
head of the different provinces, view with aversion 
the migration of their people into foreign parts, 
from fear lest it should be taken as evidence of 
misgovernment on their part. 
— -* 
Messrs. Thos. Christy & Co. have sent us 
samples of their kola chocolate and kolatina, which 
preparations, they state, are steadily growing in 
favour among chemists as handy articles for sale 
over the counter. The kolatina, which is put up 
in glass bottles, is a sweetened paste of ground 
kola and cocoa; it is taken as a beverage with 
boiling milk or water. The chocolate is pfi.rud for 
sale in cakes of eight tablets, neatly put up in 
tin boxes. — Chemist & Druggist. 
* Messrs, Carters & Co. 
