32 
THE TROPICAL 
AGEICULTUEIST. [July 1, 1902. 
The annual destruction of young teak trees by 
forest flies another mattei' vvorbli attending to. 
Even the trees tliat live tlirough it are injured 
so that tiieir future value is decreased consider- 
ably. In fact a lot of the stan:ling teak is 
worthless as timber, being crooked, hollow, short 
and stuQte l. There are la ge tracts of country 
going to waste that are exactly suited to teak 
growing, for this is the natural home of teak. 
All the valuable teak has been cut in the tracts 
above-mentioned. Nothin? is left now but scrub 
stuff and other wa^te, with the lires every year 
destroying the seeJliugs that spring up of their 
own accord. No doubt the Forest Department is 
doing good : bat it is poor policy to neglect all 
that territory draining into the Mekawiig. Let 
nie'say here that in Mnang Pan district, I am 
told,' there are no restrictions p ace i upon the 
cutting of teak for use in housebuilding. This is 
very different from the unjust regulations in some 
places that hinder a man from using teak sticks 
that he cut in the olden tinu, squared a'ld 
dragged. These can be left to burn or be stolen 
but the riffhtful owners can:iot use them. —Bang 
kok Times, April 26. 
PLANTING NOTES, 
The Burma Ruby Mines.— The ruby mines of 
Burma are now worked by electricity, obtained 
from a mountain stream some three tniles off". 
Finds of copper fish-hooks and other implements in 
the ground point to the present site of the mines 
and civil station having been a large lake in 
pre-historic times. — Statesman. 
Artocarpus Hirsuta.— This fine forest tree 
has been introduced into the Agri- Horticultural 
Society's Gardens at Madras, from seeds supplied 
by Mr Ferguson, Director of the State Garden^, 
Travancore. It is a native of the Western Ghats, 
where it grows up to an elevation of fonr 
thousand feet. It yields a valuable timber, -the 
trunk of a well grown tree sometimes reaching 
a height of 150 feet, straight and clear. It 
yields the " augili " wood of commerce; while 
the concentrated juice forms a tough, light-brown 
W-ix, used in cementing broken eai thenvvare and 
stoneware. It bears a f i nit the size of an orangp, 
containing a pulpy snb-tauce much in favour 
with native?. — Indian Gardening and Planting, 
April 17. 
PLANTERS---are being repeatedly advised not to 
place all their eggs in one basket. The following 
is what Andrew Carnegie nas to say on the sub- 
ject of concentration : — " Don't put all your eggs 
in one basket" is a41 wrong. I tell you " Put all 
your eggs in the one basket and then watch that 
basket." It is easy to watch and carry the one 
basket. It is trying to carry too many baskets 
that breaks most eggs in this country. He who 
carries three baskets must put one on his head, 
which is apt to tumble and trip him up. It took 
me some time to learn, but I did learn that the 
supremely great managers, such as you have these 
days, never do any work themselves worth speak- 
ing .about. Their point is to make others work 
while they think. I applied this lesson in after 
life, so that business with me has never been a 
care. My young partners did the work and I did 
the laughing, and I commend to all the 
thought that there is very little success where 
there is little laughter."— ZnciiaJi Planters' Qasette, 
May 81. 
Agricultural Education,— The Agricnltur.il 
Education now in practic3 (though still very 
limited to wh it it ought to be), we hope will 
prevent visiio.s of the future bsing " instructed" 
in tlip pr iducts of t he island as is being done at 
pies'tr, and of which the following is a sample : 
— A la ly, who has been in .Jamaica all her tl ays, 
explained to a visitor, that " this is a Nutmeg, 
its c )ve,riiig is I he M ice, its stem is Cloves and 
the bark nf the trea is Cinnamon." Truly a 
wonilerfiil combination of spices. — Jamaica 
Journal. 
Ants and Orange Trkes.— Acording to the 
"Implement Age" of Philadelphia the orange 
tree haf^ an enemy in Cuba in a large ant more 
than half-an iisah long, having an enormons head 
provide 1 befove the mouth with poweiful pincer-, 
with which they despoil of leaves in one niLrht the 
largest orange tree. The ants live in the sub-soil. 
They make large holes anil very long galleries — 
sometimes lOf) yards long. The method employed to 
kill them is to introilucb an iron pipe, to which a 
large bellows is connected, into a hole male in 
the place where the ants enter the ground. Sul- 
phurous smoke and gase-i are then blown through 
the pipe by means of the bellows, and the ants 
are destroyed,— ffZoie, May 10. 
Cocoa and Cacao.— The latest illustration 
of the confusion arising from the use of 
similar spelling for the name of the palm 
and the fruit of the Chocolate plant, is 
afforded by the German Export Review. A re- 
cent number contains an excellent paper 
on " The Manufacture of Chocolate " with 
a series of very interesting -Ilustrations, so 
far as the machinery, &c. go ; but there is 
also the inevitable "Cocoa Plantation."; 
and instead of this being a grove of Theobroiti.a 
Cwao, it is simply "a Coconut Palm 
Garden " ! Now if all and sundry vt^ould 
only drop the "a" out of " ('ocoanut " 
giving thu ^Cocos nucifera palm the proper 
short name of "Coconut" for its fruit, we 
should soon find people understanding that 
" Cocoa ' (as well as " Cacao " and '* Choco- 
late ") referred to the fruit of a. different 
tree ; and the confusion would erelong 
cease to exist. 
This Drought in Australia.— Says the 
Melbourne Leader ;— 
As will be Seen from our district correspondents 
letters, the present prospects are by no means as 
favorable as could be desired, owing to the con- 
tinued spell of dry weather. The acceptable fall 
of rain with which tbe autumn opened gave hopes 
of a good season, but that rain wanted following 
up with more within a moderate interval. In the 
northern, as well as other districts, tbe grain 
sown has only had moisture enough to sprout it, 
and now the dry weather is so shrivelling the 
young plants that in many cases it is feared 
that resowing will be necessary. The drought 
is also much against the work of getting in the 
fodder crops, and those that have been sown are 
awaiting the rain, while the grass is also suffer- 
ing. Even should rain now come the grass can- 
not do so well as at an earlier period, owing to 
the soil having parted with its hummer warmth, 
and the time of the frosts approaching. A 
thorough soaking of the soil would, however, now 
be of the utmost value throughout Victoria, and 
to a greater degree all over Kiverina, where thg 
aitusiitiou ia becomiug particularly serioae. 
