April 2, 1894.] Supplement to the " Tropical Agriculturist.'^ 
717 
of comfort, healthful occupation, industrious 
habits and civilization, in the place of wars, 
famine aud slave trade of the interior. 
Simmonds places Penicillaria spicata (kambuj 
at the head of the list of millets, being considera- 
bly more nutritious as compared with rice. Next 
in order of importance comes sorr/Jmrn vulgave 
(Jowarij, and at the bottom of the list comes 
eleusine coracana (kurakkan or ragee). 
The following figures show liow variable is the 
butter ratio in cows' milk : — 
Cow. 
No. Milk. 
Butter. 
Butter 
lbs. 07.. 
lbs. 07.. 
in oz. jjer lb. 
1 
4913 
1-11 
.54 
2 
40-00 
2-00 
•80 
3 
32-80 
2-40 
1-10 
4 
32-30 
2-80 
1-17 
5 
28-40 
3-20 
1-17 
6 
36-14 
1-10 
■70' 
Water-soaked Wood. — The problem has puz- 
zled many why two pieces of wood sawn 
from the same section of tree should possess 
very varied characteristics when used in 
different positions. For e.x;ample, a gate post 
will be found to decay much faster if the 
butt end of the tree is uppermost than would 
be the case if the top were placed in this 
position. The reason is that the moisture of 
the atmosphere wall permeate tlie pores of the 
wood much more rapidly the way the tree 
grows than it would if in the opposite direction. 
Microscopical e.xamination proves that the 
pores invite the ascent of moisture, while they 
repel its desceit. Take the familar case of a 
wooden bucket. Many may have noticed that 
some of the staves appear to be entirely 
saturated, while others are apparently quite 
dry. This arises from the. same cause ; the 
dry staves are in the same position in which they 
grew, while the saturated ones are reversed. 
Tlie more a cultivator produces from a given 
area, the more prosperous will he be. The 
expenses will not (need not) increase in pro- 
portion to the yield. The added e.\;pense comes 
when you increase the area for a given yield. 
This is entirely true, but not realized by many. 
As the productiveness of their laud has diminish- 
ed, some have sought a remedy by buying 
more acres. An increased profit will not come 
that way. You may add acre to acre as long 
as you please, and get crops which fetcli the 
current price, but you will never join the 
moneyed class. Instead, concentrate labour aud 
manure and get larger yields and grow other 
crops, aud you should be on the road to success. 
There must bo profit with good management 
if the latter system is adopted. Income and 
profit are two very different things, and you 
must make a good profit to join the moneyed 
class. 
The discovery of a new fodder plant is evid- 
ently becoming quite the fashion. We have al- 
ready had the Lathyrus sylvestris, tagasaste or 
tree lucerne, and quite lately the polygonum 
sachalinense. Here is another : — " Mr. J. P. 
Duthie, 1\L.S., the Director of the Botanical 
Department, Noithern India, is of opinion 
that during periods of drought in India 
when there is difficuly of providing fodder for 
cattle, the sea-side wormwood (Artemisia 
maritima, L. ) which he says is to be found plenti- 
fully in the Western Himalayas, might be 
turned to account if introduced in various parts 
of the Indian Peninsula. Mr. Duthie finds that 
ponies feed upon this plant in the Himalayas 
" with relish," and he adds that " other species of 
Artemisia are mentioned as affording good fodder 
for sheep on the Punjab Himalayas." In localities 
where hardly any oiher vegetation exists, the 
wormwood will thrive and will thus prove 
invaluable as a fodder plant during periods of 
great drought and famine. The Artemisia 
maritima is described as a much-branched 
decumbent, or nearly-erect undershrub belonging 
to the C'Dmpositoi, more or less covered with 
close white cotton. It is found in sandy and 
muddy wa.stes, generally near the sea, and 
occupies large tracts of country bordering on 
the Caspian and Black Seas. It extends round 
the Mediterranean to Western Europe. It is also 
found in Western Tibet in salt plains at ele- 
vations of about 9.000 to 14,000 feet. Professor 
A. H. Cliurcli, F.R.S., undertook an analysis of a 
bundle of dry leafy branches of the Artemisia 
maritima that was sent to the Ivew Gardens 
by Mr. Duthie, and he says that although 
the herbage of wormwood is not so valuable a 
food for cattle as the ordinary mixed grasses, 
yet it is thrice as rich in albuminoids as the 
straw of European cereals, and to any animals 
not deterred from eating the plant by its some- 
what sickly odour, it might prove, under special 
circumstances, such as those which obtain in 
barren tracts, of considerable value." [We have 
Artotii^ia vulgaris, the Sinhalese Wal-kolondu-] 
