152 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Sept 1, 1899. 
the natural graphite into articles of commerce to 
become buyers of their material, substituting it for 
that now used. 
The company's plans, now being carried out, provide 
for the erection of a brick and iron building, 100x50 
feet, on a plot of ground in Block No. 8 of the Niagara 
Falls Power Company's lands (adjoining the works 
of the Carborundum Company). Therein they will 
erect machinery for reducing coke to grains of the 
desired size, an electric furnace through which the 
prepared grains will pass in a continuous stream, a 
pulveriser for reducing the gi-ains as received from 
the furnace, and a scalping sieve through which the 
product from tha pulveriser will pass, that particles 
exceeding the l/200th of an inch diameter may be 
removed. The final flour or powder will contain an 
amoant of pure graphite proportionate to the percen- 
,tage of imparities in the original coke. It is quite 
possible that, instead of using high-grade market- 
able coke, the fine refuse from the coke ovens — which 
is at present a waste material — will be utilised in the 
manufacture of thia proluct. 
In this connection I would call attention to the need 
of a specific name for the new product. Artificial, as 
api'lied to a product, chemically and physically inden- 
tical with that made by Nature, is not pleasing; 
it conveys the impression that, failing to produce the 
real thing, a cheap imitation, a sham, is being palmed 
off as the genuine article. Not even the Century 
Dictionary's definition of artificial, as ' made or con- 
trived by art, or by human skill and labour; opposed 
to Nature," is sufficient to banish this feeling; for, 
after all, in the particular case in hand, being ignor- 
ant of the exact methods pursued by Nature, we may 
be simply forcing her to reveal her methods, to tlie final 
results of which we neither add nor subtract one jot 
or title. The same objections may be made to the 
Bn^gtesBion Artificial Manufactttre of Graphite, for we 
may not be sure that the process forced opon her is not 
identical with that of her own selection. Sfanvfacture 
Graphite would be quite apropriate, were it not for the 
fact that it is popularly applied to articles made of 
graphite. 
Jt may not detract from the general interest in this 
subject to call attention, in elosing, to the fact that 
graphite first shown to be an elementary body, an 
allotropic form of carbon, in the first year of the 
nineteath century, is in this, the lasc year, made to 
order in great quantities, and that it will, before 
the close of the century, become an article of ordi- 
nary commerce in its new form. Perhaps it will 
take its place as the primitive form of carbon — the 
.one it assumes under normal conditions. 
THE EUCALYPTUS. 
THE SOIL AND THE GHAFT. 
The information which has been recently published 
In these columns on the subject of the Eucalyptus, 
shows that the tree may be cultivated in this country 
even as far north as the country of Inverness. It 
is indisputable, however, that the risk is always great, 
except perhaps in certain favourable situations, not 
only on account of the climate, but also for other 
reasons, to which reference will presently be made. 
The Eucalyptus at Meadfoot Rook, Torquay, which 
ia reported to be twenty years old, must ,for instance 
be growing under exceptionally favourable conditions, 
since it resisted the winter of 1894-95, when the 
genus was practically exterminated from the Island 
of Jersey. Many of the trees, moreover, had attained to 
a very large size, and seemed to be thoroughly accli- 
matised in the Island, where the average temperature 
is considerably higher, and the extremes of heat and 
cold considerably less, than in England. The question 
of temperature is, indeed, not the only one to be con- 
sidered in the successful cultivation of the Eucalyptus 
and it is probably on this account that the limit of 
cold endurance of the tree is found in Western Europe 
to vary within comparatively wide limits as will be 
meniioned at the end of this article. 
Some species are undoubtedly better adapted than 
ptjiera to certain soils and situations, and it should not 
be foi gotten that in the Australian continent, which 
if the nome of the Eucalyptus, different species thrive 
best under very different conditions. For instance, 
tfce spotted-gum of New South Wales, E. maculata, 
is generally found on stony ridges ; the White-gum E. 
viminalis, attains to a sreat size in rich soil in 
mountain forests, but it thrives only moderately in 
poor soil ; and the bloodwood, E. corymbosa, flourishes 
better in the mountains than on the coast. Some 
varities, again, are best adapted to the northern and 
w.imer parts of Australia, aud whilst some prefer 
swampy ground, others thrive best in sandy or cal- 
careous soils. 
Si important, indeed, is the question of soil, that 
in the commercial cultivation of the Eucalyptus it ia 
well recognised, as Professor Warren states in his 
work entitled Australian Timbers, that the strength 
and duiability of the timber opened to a great extent 
upon the locality in which the trees are grown. Timber 
for example, of the same name, and presenting the 
8^me general characteristics, differs widely in quality 
when it is grown under different conditions of temper- 
ature, geological formation of soil, and amount and 
distiibution of rainfall; or when it is grown on 
mountain ridges, or in swampy, low-lying ground. The 
Blue-gum, for instance, from a particular district of 
Victoria (Corner-Inlet), gives excellent results compared 
with the timber of the same species grown in other 
localities under less favourable conditions. Again the 
timber grown in swampy, low-lying districts is found 
to possess less tenacity of fibre than the product of the 
same tree grown at higher elevations, and in more 
favourable geogical formations ; and the granite soils 
of Australia, it may be added, do not appear to produce 
any kind of good timber. 
The Eucalyptus, moreover, is subject to a defect 
called gum-vein, which is caused by the extravasation 
of gum-resin in particular parts among the woody 
ti?sue, and where an apparent injury has been 
sustained ; or in the concentric circles between success- 
ive layers of wood. If therefore, the Eucalyptus is so 
affected by local conditions in its native habitat, 
how much should they not be considered when the tree 
is grown in regions where frost is an additional, and 
its greatest, danger. It may be mentioned in tbia 
connection, as 8enor Sempere has stated in his Mono- 
graph on the Eucalyptus, that the cultivation of the 
tree has been very successful in Spain, because it finds 
there three climatic conditions which it requires, viz., 
" the proper temperature, the necessary humidity, and 
the suitable quality of the ambient air." 
The opinion of M. Felix Sahut is also of great value 
in this connection, inasmuch as he is one of the best 
authorities as regards the acclimatisation of the tree 
in Europe. He states that while the minimum winter 
temperate must first be considered, the relative at- 
mospheric humidity and other local circumstances 
must not be overlooked as is indeed proved by the fol- 
lowing circumstance. Fiftythree species of Eucalyptus 
were growing near Monttellier in the winter of 1864, 
when the temperature fell to 10.4o F., which com- 
pletely destroyed twenty-eight species nine others 
being more or less injured, whilst sixteen completely 
resisted the cold. Moreover, other experiments made 
under different local conditions, showed that some of 
these species, in certain cases, withstood lower 
temperatures while under other conditions they 
suffered more when the cold was not so severe. It has 
also been found that several of the species which most 
successfully resist the winters in the south of France 
are unable to exist in the soil of Provence. M. Sahut 
gives a very remarkable account of an Eucalyptus 
which, planted at Lattes in 1864, resisted 32o F. of 
frost during the memorable winter of 1870-71 nor did 
the tree suffer in any way, and even its leaves re- 
mained intact. It had been raised from a seedling 
among seed of E, Risdoni, and its identity was never 
traced. It grew to a height of nearly 40 feet during 
its comparatively short life, for at the age of twenty 
years it gradually began to show signs of weakness 
and ultimately it died. This tree which had been 
provisionally named E. lattensis by M. Naudin, in« 
dicated a species possessing cold-resisting qualities 
but aa it never blossomed, Mt Sahnt's foresight 1q 
