582 
Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist." [Feb. 1, 1900 
the highest price. From the figures of the 
Eegistrar-General, QueensUmd at present produces 
14 per cent, of its annual consumption, tlie 
statistics being — Production ( estimated at the rate 
of 162 lb. of paddy to the 100 lb. of clean rice), 
1,318,176 lb. of "clean rice ; and the imports, 
8,235,564 lb., of a value of £49,4-56. The princi- 
pal district for rice is that of Cairns, Which 
produced 82 per cent, of the total yield, 708 
acres being cropped for 33,540 bushels, or an 
average of 47"30 bushels to the acre. 
There are many so-called remedies for warts on 
animals which are more or less non-eflective. 
The latest we have heard of appears to hiive 
I proved successful in the case of dogs. A gentle- 
■ iman in England had a beagle puppy whose 
mouth, tongue, lips, and face were covered with 
white warts closely packed together. Several 
so-called remedies were tried without result, and 
the dog died, choked, A year or two after he hud 
a cob with warts over the shoulder, neck, and 
face, when, either in print or from hearsay, he 
learned that warm bullock's blood would remove 
them. This was tried, on the principle that it it 
did no good it could do no harm ; result, after two 
or three dressings the warts disappeared, and did 
not come any more. Another case. Five years 
ago he had six greyhound saplings, whose mouths, 
tongue, and lips, outside and in, were covered 
with warts. It was two days after discovery 
before he was able get to the butcher when 
killing. By this time a fine crop of warts had 
developed. The method was this : As soon as 
the bullock was knocked down and stuck, the 
dogs' heads were dipped in a bowl of the live blood, 
and all the parts affected were well rubbed with 
it while warm (after it begins to clot or solidify 
it is no use). The day after the first dressing 
the warts turned brown. Two days after they 
were dressed again. The following day they 
(the warts) began to get soft, and looked rotten, 
many of them falling out on being handled. 
After two days, dressed again, when they all 
disappeared, leaving small marks such as small- 
pox leaves. After a time nothing could be de- 
tected at all. He gives this as his e.\:perience. At 
all events, it is harmless and painless, and the 
price of a pint or two to the butcher is not costly. 
This remedy might be tried in the case of fowls. 
Warts on chickens may, however, be absolutely 
cured by dipping the fowls' heads in urine. After 
II few iipplications of this remedy the warts die- 
iippeur. We cured nine valuable Cochin chickens 
in thi.s manner, whose heads were amass of waits. 
The Pacific Mural Press describes as follows 
the system of propagating trees from cuttings 
with the aid of nurse roots. It is of especial 
interest in tlie relation it bears to the important 
discovery claimed by Secretary Lelong, of the 
California State Board of Horticulture, as to pro- 
pagation by aid of " mother roots" : — If you cake 
a cutting of almost any kind and make a side cut 
upwards a little above its base, and insert in this 
cut a piece of the rout of the same kind of a plant 
cut with a wedge shape at the top so as to fit 
closely in the cut in the cutting, this root will 
quickly callus itself to the cutting, send sap into 
it and start its growth. If the cutting were 
planted without this " starter" root, all the 
moisture might evaporate from its tissues (which 
is death to a cutting) before it can establish roots 
of its own to supply it with sap. Thus this root 
piece becomes a nurse to the cutting until it is 
able to take its own nourishment, as it soon will by 
means of root.' emitted from its own tissue. There 
i.= no recent discovery about this. It has been 
kown for generations and has been employed 
in the propagation of all sorts of plants. It is 
simply one of the many forms of root grafting. If 
it is desired that the cutting grow upon its own 
roots alone, it is taken up at the end of the fi^'^^t 
season's growth and the nurse root is cleanly cut 
out and the well-rooted cutting is replanted. If 
it does not matter whether it grows upon its own 
roots and the enlargement of the nurse root (which 
is generally the case) it i.? allowed simply to go 
ahead as it likes. All roots on root grafts are 
nurse roots, more or less, because in almost any 
underground grafting you will Have roots from 
the scion unless you take pains to replant with 
the whole of the scion or cutting above ground. 
Thi; work can be done with cuttings of gre.iter 
or less maturity. If you take last year's wood 
from a bearing tree you will, of course, get fruit 
in a year probably. If you take a cutting from 
a tree not yet in bearing you will have to wait 
longer. The speed of fruiting will be conditioned 
upon the age of the tree, and its habit of bearing 
upon wood of one or two years' maturity. 
