June 1, 1903.] Supplement to the *' Tro^ncal Agrieulturist.' 
873 
chemical changes, some of them in the intestines, 
some in the liver, muscles, and other organs. 
In these changes chemical compounds may be 
formed which are in one way or another un- 
pleasant and injurious, especially if they are 
not broken down (as normally they are) before 
they have opportunity thus to act. Some of 
the compounds produced from the food in the 
body may be actually poisonous. 
Different persons are differently constitued 
with respect to the chemical changes which 
their food undergoes and the effect produced, 
80 that it may be literally true that " one man's 
meat is another man's poison." Milk is for most 
people a very wholesome, digestible, and nutri- 
tious food, but there are persons who are made ill 
by drinking it, and they should avoid milk. 
The writer knows a boy who is made seriously 
ill by eating eggs. A small piece of sweet cake 
in which eggs have been used will cause him 
serious trouble. The sickness is nature's evi- 
dence that eggs are for him an unfit article 
of food. Some persons have to avoid straw- 
berries. Indeed, cases in which the most whole- 
some kinds of foods are hurtful to individual 
persons are, unfortunately, numerous. Every 
man must learn from his own experience whit 
food agrees with him and what does not. 
How much harm is done by the injurious com- 
pounds sometimes formed from ordinary whole- 
some food is seldom realized. Physiological 
chemistry is revealing the fact that these com- 
pounds may affect even the brain and nervef , and 
that some forms of insanity are caused by products 
formed by the abnormal trasformations of food 
and body material. 
(To be continued.) 
GENEEAL ITEMS. 
A practical gardener of considerable experience 
attributes much of his success in fruit cultivation 
to what he terms his "own methods." In the 
case of Oranges, Mangoes and other hard-stemmed 
trees he periodically slits the bark from top to 
bottom, on two sides, and removes "weedy " and 
"uncalled for" branches. In the case of the 
plantain he digs out the entire underground 
stock of the tree that has borne its fruit, for the 
reason that the young plants are hampered by a 
sodden rotting mass that keeps their roots from 
developing on the side of the old plant. 
Balsamodendrum caudatum is the botanical 
name of a tiee known in Tamil as " Kilivai," and 
largely used as a lipe fence stick in the North. 
It belongs to the order Burseraceae to which 
"Kekuna," Canarium zeylanicum and "Pehimbiya" 
Filicium decipiens (two well-known Ceylon trees 
of large size) also belong. 
Au old subscriber writing to us from a station 
in Queensland under date 13th April, says: "Since 
lost writing prospects have slightly improved, but 
under the most favourable circumstances we 
cannot hope for more than a half crop, and that 
will not pay ex^euses, irrespective of wear and 
tear, interest and such items. I append a memo 
of our rainfall here for the last ten years, which 
may be of interest to you. This is a com- 
paratively new district, and our records do not go 
further back. You will observe they are taken for 
our season September to August, and not as the 
official returns (which are entirely misleading) 
from January to December. I have no records 
for temperature, but they were very high, with 
unusually high hot winds for the past three or 
four years.'" We only give the return for the 
last season which is as follows ;— September to 
December, 1901 =4"27, January to April = 5'46, 
May to August — '91, or a to'.al of 10*63 for the 
season. This is a poor record indeed, and our 
correspondent's note as to crop " nil" is not to be 
wondered at. 
For nearly a century past Germany has been 
alive to the supreme importance of training the 
children of agricultural districts in the intelligent 
cultivation of the land, and has been advancing 
year by year towards the attainment of this end. 
Opportunities are offered at well-equipped horti- 
cultural centres to landowners who can attend 
within easy distance of their homes courses of 
instruction in forestry, vine culture and fruit- 
growing, landscape gardening and horticulture, 
no less than to elementary teachers, farmers, and 
professional gardeners, the latter classes being 
assisted by Government grants for expenses and 
fees when they are unable themselves to defray 
the cost of such practical education. A large 
proportion of elementary village schools are pro* 
vided with garden ground, where the elder 
children are trained in the grafting and manage- 
ment of fruit trees, of vegetables, and of flowers 
as are best suited to the conditions of the parti- 
cular district. Even town schools, it would seem, 
are not left out of the general scheme, and have 
their allotted garden plots. — 
For the information of a correspondent who is 
apparently studying, or at least much interested 
in Ceylon ferns, we supply the following botanical 
names corresponding to the common names sent 
to us :— 
Kekillo, Gleichenid linearis. 
Maidenhair, Adianthum capillus-venaris. 
Bracken, Pteris aquilina. 
Silver fern, Oymnogramme leptophylla. 
Wel-henduru, (Epiphyte), Stenochtaena palustre. 
Pamba, Lygodium sp. 
N.B. — " Badalwanassa " is not n fern but a 
lycopod, and is botanically known Lycopodium 
cernuum. 
We are informed by a reliable authority that 
though Patipola appears in oflScial rainfall return? 
as the wettest station in Ceylon, with a fall •f 
over 200 inches per annum, nearly 400 inches of 
rain falls per annum not far from the Peak. 
Query : Whj is no record kept of the rainfall of 
this extraordinarily wet region ? 
