506 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Feb. i, 1895. 
cases where it ia not only wise bat necessary to 
spray or fumigate. 
Ma. Collins.— On or about the middle of Septem- 
ber a large number of the lacv-wingod fir were 
prevalent in our section, and it wis a'so just at 
that time that we were anxious to secure larg'. 
colonies of the Rhizobii, which we finally di 1 by 
telegraph through our board of supervis ;rs, receiving 
a consignment of abou*. 10,003. The-e were plac '1 
upon two trees by Mr. Craw of the 8'ate Board 
of Horticulture; now none are to be found. Re- 
garding trie decrease of the scale men' ioned by Pr f. 
Cook, I noticed a similar decrease in the black scale 
some three years ago. It has been my experience 
that whenever the thermometer goes over 100 '1 !g 
the young sca'e succum' s to the heat. Th is a'o at 
r>0 per cent perished during the hot days of August 
I have known a few intense hot days in July to 
destroy fully 75 p-r cent. 
Thk President. — It was suppose 1 several yearf 
ago that in ths dry hot air of lnidsum 11 »t in the 
interior valleys the black scale could not exist. I 
can remember in the early days when we used to 
plant citrus trees in the interior subject to black 
scale; in a year these same trees would be free of 
this pest. But ai the tr -.es came into bearing and 
afforded protection from the sun. this pbn ixi in 
became gradually established. Generally speaking, 
however, the dry heat of the interior is not so 
favorable to this scale as the coast regions where the 
atmosphere is not so dessicating. 
Mr. P.J. DrtEHEit, P unona. — 1 should 'ike to isk 
of those who have investigated the m.rtti, is Mr. 
Cooper's orchard now free from scile? If so is it 
a fact that its cleanliness is due principally to the 
Rhizobii ? 
Phof. Cook. — In answer to the questions I w uld 
state that Mr. Cooper's orchards were p incipally 
infected with black scale, 'bough there w s 1 .... 
soft brown scale. At the tim of my visit in Sept- 
ember I looked some time in the orchard whe _ e the 
original colony had been placed; but found no.se 1 . 
worthy of mention; the trees were practically clean 
In another orchard to which the ladybirds had spre id 
the trees were clean at one end, lesi so at or about 
the centre, while the far end was Still quite dirty. 
The condition of the tree ; indicated the onward 
march of the Rhizobii. I think Col. Howl an. 1. who 
was present, will authe itidate whit 1 have said 
Col. J. L. Howland, Pomona. — When I first visi.el 
Mr. Cooper's orcha ds two or 'lire. years ago they 
wo-e bad'y infected with black scale, but when I 
re-visited them last September they were prac ica'ly 
clean. To be sure there is still scale p esent, b it 
so is there of the cottony cushion. The statement 
made by Prof. Cook coincides with my observations, 
Adjourned to 1-30 o'clock p.m — Rural CaUfurnian, 
Dec. 1894. 
« 
FORESTRY IN AMERICA. 
It appears that Great Britain ia not the only 
country which leaves the systematic management of 
her forests to private, enterprise. In the Alleghany 
Mountains of North Carolina, Mr. G. W. Vanderbilt 
has been devoting some of his spare capital to the 
purchase of large tracts of forest land which have 
Been partially denuded by the lumbermen, and in 
many places cleared and cultivated for short periods. 
These tracts Mr. Vanderbilt has placed under the 
care of an expert, with a view to restocking and 
working them on principles similar to those on 
which the state forests of Continental Europe are 
managed. The purchaser, we are told, is animated 
with the praiseworthy ambition of thus inaugurating 
a system of economic forestry in the United States, 
and, we may also assume, of making a sound 
investment for the benefit of his heirs. Mr. Pinchot, 
who has been entrusted with the carrying out of 
fiis work, has published a pamphlet descriptive of 
a portion of the property known as "±>iltruore 
Forest," consisting of nearly 4,000 acres lying on 
the banks of a tributary of the Tennessee River. 
An account of this forest contributed to a recent 
number of the ZeiUchrifl fir Font uni' JagdtMtt*, 
by Sir Dietrich Branlis. furnishes some interesting 
parti mlara regarding the present condition mi l 
stocking of the tract. No fewer than seventy-two 
spejies of tree.-, are to be foun 1. among which may 
be enumerated seven spedes of Oak, five of Maple, 
five of Pine, four of Hickory, A'c, Spanish Chestnut 
being the only European Uee. Bioad-leaved species 
predominate, especially the Oak (Q. alba), which, 
together with black Walnut and Liriodeudron, nio\e 
the most valuable as lumber, but the two last have, 
unfortunately, almost disappeared from this forewt.— 
< i a id? nc 1 a' Chronicle. 
I THE SUCCESSFUL TKEATMENT OF 1 1 1 1 1 1 V 
i FIBBE FKUM Tlib: FIELD TO T H B LOOM. 
NE.V AND 1MPOHTAST DISCOVEUY. 
Tho memory of even centenarians of this present 
time cannot rec 1 1 the early days 1 f the manufacture 
of coconut fibre into oir ropes, but f jr the tw 1, or 
possibly three, past generations' m iny unsuccessf il 
attempts have been recorded in the eat.avour to 
deal practically and economically in a similar direc- 
tion with the well k town grass called Hhe». The 
urgent necessity for finding fre.-di materia! to meet 
the enormously increased demand f r r pes an 1 
cables, hose and machine bands, whether f r use in 
navigation or in ivj king tue innumerable machines 
which the skill of the inventor in each >ear of the 
latter halt of the nineteenth century has brought 
into existence, has stimulated the efforts of hundreds 
of ingenious men. Munificent rcwa ds have from 
time to time been offered, notably by the Govi r> ■.- 
ment of Iudia, f>r an invention which could suc- 
cessful meet thii great and constantly increasing 
want, but up to the present year the varied ingenui y 
of the cleverest inveuto s of our age has failed again 
an 1 again. 
It has, however, been lately our privilege to foil w, 
through aji its differont stages, a process which, 
under the severest tests appears, beyond all reason- 
able d ubt, to bave solvei this most important 
question. Mr. D. Edwards-Radclyffe, n member of 
a well-known old English family, has. in conjunction 
wi th Mr. Burrows, whose name has been long known 
in the spinning trade, perfected a series of machines 
which by processes of which the secret is natura ly 
st ictly preserved, produce what is known as the 
" Filasse in a perfection that has never b fore been 
reached, first, by the use of a machine which may 
be ca! ed the nngummer, or the separator of the 
bark from 'he stick, and next by a process of chemi- 
cal dressing of the ribbons. 
At this stage the filasse which is intended to be 
converted into the finer numbers is farther carefully 
ble ched, the preparation of th > r uglier numbers 
not requiring that course. In all former processes 
known, there has been, at this point, a universal 
failure to economically bring the fiiasse when ungum- 
med into a form suitable for spinning. Tearing up 
and breaking the long tufts of fi'.re always broke and 
knot ed the materia', causing much waste and extra 
labour, so that m all-round fibre has been handicapped 
for years by th • want of it. special and appropriate 
methods of treatment. But by the processes now 
under notice the filasse is nest passed through an 
extremely ingenious drawing frame, a patent machine 
which separates nil the fibres a ad draws them into 
p ra'lel lengths corresponding to the knots in the 
stick*. This may be said to he t « tru requirement, 
I a. fibre, ungnmmel or t leached, on whatever princi- 
ple, thus secures the chance of re ching the yaro 
, or manuf actured state at a price 25 per cent, cheaper 
I than today. For the rougher counts, the who e of 
the fibre thus obtained is ready for spiunin.., a d 
when treated by the patent spinner, produces even 
yarn of excellent quality, which, for the manufacture 
of such articles as fishing nets, cannot be surpassed. 
For finer c unts the filasse, thus separa ed and 
drawn, is then transferred to a gin or comber, in 
which it is sof'ened and combed by an en.U'ely novel 
