September i, 1888] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
degree the purity of the morals and the soundness 
of the constitutions of his countrymen, he would 
at the same time expand their countenances and 
improve their whole exterior form to the highest 
elegance of symmetry and beauty." 
So much for last-century wisdom on the subject of 
the cup that cheers and does inebriate, and the cup 
that cheers and docs not. — Aberdeen Free Press. 
NETHERLANDS INDIA NEWS. 
(Tranilated for the Straits Times.) 
Java rice now competes successfully with locally 
grown rice in the United States. Growers there 
foel alarmed at the competition, and cry out for a 
heavy import duty on the Java article. At Savan- 
nah, Java rice has almost ousted the local product 
as in the retail trade, Java rice is not so nutritious 
the American grain, but looks better, and is cheaper. 
In Java, experiments have been made with the 
Maragogipe coffee, which flourishes in Brazil where 
it has been attracting attention for planting pur- 
poses. In Java, this kind of coffee bears large 
berries of handsome appearance, and as easy to 
manipulate and cure as the local variety. So far, 
it soems easier to prepare for market than the 
Liberian coffee. At Amsterdam, the Maragogipe 
coffee in the market equals tho best Java, and bids 
fair to command a higher price ou account of the 
larger size of tho berry. 
In West Sumatra, the Netherlands Indian Govern- 
ment has begun the construction of a railway from 
the coast to the Ombilien coal field in the interior. 
Though the forests in Netherlands India abound with 
valuable timber for the purpose, they are so unavail- 
able that America has to be drawn upon for supplies. 
FLOODS AND FORESTS. 
Nearly a century ago it was admitted that cli- 
mate is sensibly, if slowly, affected by the loss of 
trees. Later experience has proved that floods 
and droughts speedily follow upon their disappear- 
ance on any large scale ; and this they seem to be 
finding out in the valley of the Mississippi. 
Though as for that matter, within the last ten 
years the direot operation of the causo in widely 
distant countries has been recognized by every 
Forostry Department that has concerned itself with 
the inquiry. 
Tho United States Department of Agriculture 
was one of the first to raise the alarm. The forest 
area of the States has been over-estimated. It 
is now oflicially given as less than 500 millions 
of acres ; while many million acres are annually 
dostroyed by fire or laid bare by the demand for 
" lumber." Floods and droughts must, we are 
assured, be tho inevitable consequence of such 
havoc ; and that warning given, the havoc pro- 
oeeds. Bat tho oxamplo has not been quite lost 
upon neighbouring States. The Canadian Govern- 
ment does now give some attention to the mattor. 
The Argontino Republic, in forecasting the prospects 
of wheat-growing within its borders, declares that 
" tho one thing to bo guardod against is tho whole- 
sale destruction of forests." Floods and droughts 
have boon traced directly to tho samo causo in 
lhirma, Afghanistan, and portions of India. Norway 
has suffered sovoroly from tho exhaustion of her 
spruco and pine forests. Tho inundation a few 
y«ars ago in tho north of Italy wero due to tho 
disforostink' of that once woll-wooded peninsula, 
which also is exceptionally visitod by avalanches. 
Nothing mo brnaks the forao of an avalanche as 
mountain woods; but tho slopes on the Italian 
sido of tho Alps havo boon almost completely 
doaudod of timber. SpaiuaUo suffers groatly from 
inundations caused by the lack of forests ; and in 
Austria-Hungary, and different parts of Germany 
— well-wooded as upon the whole thoso countries 
are — similar local visitations are attributed to the 
same cause. 
Tho natural chemical processes which ultimately 
result in " climate " operate more or less obscurely : 
often through long epochs, and always on a majestic 
scale. But the mechanical action of forests in 
arresting floods and preventing drought is simple 
enough. It is found that when streams are 
denuded of the trees that grow about their sources 
the springs that renew them are rapidly diminished. 
Forests may be Baid to nurse the rainfall. The 
canopies of foliage check evaporation, and the roots 
retain the moisture for a long time in the soil. 
Finally they yield the unabsorbed redundancy to the 
springs, thus completing the circle of causation on 
which natural irrigation depends. On the other 
hand, large portions of the denuded tracts lose their 
porosity and become more or less " hide-bound : 
a state of things frequently ensuing upon forest 
fires. Like fire, water is an excellent servant but 
a bad master ; and when heavy rains are not 
detained by trees they are too swiftly carried off the 
surface of the soil, simultaneously filling the minor 
creeks and streams, which speedily give dangerous 
volume to the larger rivers. 
The operation of these causes may be made 
clearer by glancing at the course of events in the 
great watershed of the Mississippi. One of tho 
most majestic rivers in the world, it stands alone 
in the number and volume of its tributaries and 
their affluents. It rises nearly 1,700 ft. ab >ve the 
sea-level, and drains more than half of the whole 
area of the United States. Less than fifty years 
ago vast stretches of the eastern watershed were 
covered with dense forests, not a sixth part of 
which now remains. By the simplest of natural 
laws, these forests formed their own system of 
drainage in a perfect network of streams and 
rivers all irresistibly impelled towards the Mis- 
sissippi. But they were regulated currents, b ing 
only the surplus water which remained after the 
normal replenishment of the springs. Then came 
the pioneers of the " Far West " — with this re- 
sult : that the whole of the eastern watershed of 
the Mississippi is now oflicially spoken of as one 
immense farm, with only a little clump of woods 
in its north east corner. Tho entire cereal pro- 
duct of the United States was, in fact, doubled 
in the course of tho ten years 1870-80 ; and in 
the last year of this decade the three States of 
Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri alono produced over 800 
million bushels of corn, or more than the entire yiold 
of the United States in 1870. 
Destruction for the purposes of the timber trade 
followed the destruction of tho farmer in making 
his "clearing;" and it is now feared that even 
tho great pine forests of the north-west will be 
exhausted beforo the close of the present century. 
Commercial instinct naturally leads the lumberman 
to follow the course of the rivers. The transport 
of his " saw-logs " is made so much the easier, 
and from the banks of tho stream ho penetrates 
and prostrates tho forests on either hand. But, 
whether the destruction be wrought by farmer or 
timber-merchant, reprisals will certainly bo ex- 
actod. The cultivated farm or desolated waste 
may usurp the placo of tho forest ; but neither 
can of itself counteract the disturbance of equili- 
brium which has been brought about. Tho re- 
serve of wator becomes less, and so we have 
droughts ; tho influx of water is subject to a too 
sudden superficial distribution, and honco follow 
floods,— St. James's Budget, 
