564 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Fkb. 1, 1899. 
all sorts of material, principally iron. The Club 
and tlie Ccolgaulie Cliaiiiljer of Miiicn, the Coiirt- 
liouse, Post and Tele;;riip Oflices are all good 
stone huildings. Also the Beaconslield Chamber, 
seveial hotels, baidts, and Btvres are built 
of stone and brick ; the rest of the 8hoi»8 
principally of iion and lit up with the electric ligiit. 
So I think it a good town to be built iu 
three or four years. The great Kalgoolie Mines 
are about 20 miles from here. I hope to bee ihem 
in a day or two. There are a good many very 
fine mines giving very large yields of gold. On 
Christtnas morning about 4,000 miners came over 
to spend Christmas at Coolgarlie to take part 
in .sports, and a stronger, liner-built, \ve]|-dreh>sed 
body of miners I never .saw, and I can ;iI,so tes- 
tify to their good behaviour — a very jolly lot — 
and 1 .scarcely saw any of them much the worse 
for liquor : tliaL speaks volumes for the improve- 
ment on the gold hehls. 
PLANTING KOTES. 
Prickly Pears in Nkw South Walk.s.— A 
recent issue of the Ai/ticiiliuial Gazette of X<w 
South Wales contains an important paper, with 
numerous illnstralions, by .). H. Maiden, on the 
" Prickly Pears Naturalised in the Colony." The 
subject is brielly sumnieil up thus by the author: 
— " The principal indii tiiienis against the prickly 
pear are: 1. It frequently occupies good soil. 2. 
The profusion of spine of some specie, which [ire- 
vent cattle browsing on it, or man dealing with 
it, the plants thus become a harbour for vermin. 
3. The abundance oi seeds it produces, which, be- 
ing eaten by birds and animals, are disseminated 
through their agency. I have heard it stated that 
impei'lectly-iipefruits. are afar more certain source 
of reprodi'ction than perfectly ripe ones. 4. The vita- 
lity of the plantj. When joints are broken oft', they 
readily take root in most jiarts of the colon3' dur- 
ing the greater part of the year. Having said all 
the harsh things we can against the Prickly Pear, 
let us see what we can say in its favour : 1. 
Some species can be utilised as food for stock. 2. 
Some species yield fruit, of which many jteople 
are fond. They sliould be gatheied with gloves, 
and the bristles lubbed oft with a napkin. 3. 
Some species form lire proof and cattle proof hedges. 
In some parts of the United States, tliey are used 
to fence in railways. 4. They are very desira- 
able for horticultural purposes, both for rookeries 
and for scenic effects in ganlens generally." The 
various species alluded to above are Opuntiaficus 
indica, vulgaris, tuna, monacantha, stricta (inermis) 
and brasiliensis. None of them is indigenous, but 
having been introduced at different times, they 
have flourished and increased to an enormous ex- 
tent, so that the mischief caused by them far 
out weighs their value. The importance of the ques- 
tion may be gathered from the rigour of the Prickly 
Pear Act, under the provisions of which, " a 
citizen failing to comply with the regulations is 
liable to a fine of £20." Total eradication of the 
pest by burning or deeply burying it is required, 
and has been tested ; while, as an alternative, 
puncturing and spraying the plants with " scrub 
exterminator " powder has been tried. For 
details of these experiments reference must 
be made to the Gazette where, in the paper 
under discussion many interesting facts are 
given of the liistory of the Opuntias in the colony 
and elsewhere, together with several good illus- 
trations, 
Thk EuCALVi'Ti OF AusTB.\LiA liave Uecom* 
veiy familiar in Ceylon : and iheie is no end to 
the new species. We have juit received & pamphlet 
(with two platen) made op from ihe I'roceed- 
ings of the Linnean .Society of New SjuUi Wale, 
l89i, Part 3rd, September 2«ih, on two new 
species of Kucalvptux, by K. T. Uaker, F.I. S , 
Curator, Technological Museum, .Sydney. (Plate* 
x.-xi.)— The new «peci<-s are : — 
Eucalyptus laevopiuta. Bp. nov. "Silver-Top Stringy- 
bark." A very tall tru« la favouiable sltu^tioa*. 
liark fibrous but biiltle. a feature that distiiiguigbM 
it from that of " Red Slriucy baik," tnacrorht/n- 
cha, V. v. M., and -'Wliite Stringybark " E. eu^tmiouiei, 
Sieb. ; ultimate branches emo'jtb. Timber. — K very 
hard, close Brained, i uteri ocke'l, pale brown coloured 
timber, difficult to diktinguiisb froin K. yilulurU 
(Blackbnltj, and no doubt oi equal excellenci.'^. It is 
durable iu the ground, and free from f^uin-vtins aa 
a rale. Suitable for bridge decking', wood blocking, 
uostH, rail*, and general building purposes r. q liiing a 
bard durable timber, Iu tbv CHse of *' lied " and 
"White" Stringybaik, the bark soon becomes delachad 
after the timber is felled, biit in this species the 
baik remains attached t]ll the timber drcuyx. 
Eucalyptus dextropiuea, «p. nov. " Messmate or 
Stringyb.irk." A tree attaiuing a lioij^ht •>( f.om 
sixty to hundred feet or higher, and a diameter up o( 
five feet. Hark dark or black on the oulsi<ie, libroo* 
and longer in ihc libre than ihit of the other epeciea. 
DraucbeH smooth for a considerable distance down, but 
this feature varies. Tmiber. — A dark brown-coloured 
timber. Seasons very badly, and i-i evidently worthless. 
Another pamphlet is on the Pineiie* of the OiU, 
of the Genus liucalyptus. — Part I. By Henry G. 
Smith, F. C. S., Technological Museum, Sylney. 
Read before the Koyal Society of New South 
Wales, October 5ih, "l898. 
Kick fro.m Sia.m.— We had a crll yesterday from 
the proprietor of the principal p;iper in Bangkok 
anil the conversation turned on the Hire export 
trade which, he said, is increasing by " leaps 
and bounds" — new mills continuing to go up. 
This is borne out by the following, from the 
" British Trade .Journal "since received: — 
BANGKOK RICE EXPORTS AND MILLS. 
British Vice Consul Hack slates that in i897 the 
exports of rico from Rangoon (clearly Bangkok— Ed. 
CO.) amounted to 557,736 tons, valued at v! 312,619/. 
This is 75 per cent, of the whole exports. The rice 
business — that is the buying from the cnl'ivators, the 
milling and the export — is now almost entirely mono- 
polised by Chinese merchants, many of whom have 
the command of very large capital. They export 
the rice principally to Hong-Koug and Singapore, 
and it would seem from the fact thit so small a share 
of this business falls to European merchants, thit it 
is impossible under the conditions of trade pre- 
vailing in the East for the European to com- 
pete with the astute Chinaman in this 
particular business. Of the twenty-six steam 
rice mills in Baugkok only four are European, two 
British, belongmg to one firm, one German, and 
the fourth nominally registered us French. All the 
others are either owned or managed by Chinese. 
Six of these Chinese firms, ranking amongst them 
the largest and most prosperous, are Briiish, that 
is, they are owned by Chinese who were born either 
in Hongkong or the Straits Settlements, one is French 
and two are Siamese. The proprietors of tUo re- 
maining thirteen are Chinese under Siamese juris- 
diction. It will thus be seen that the share of Eng- 
lish fi.rm9, strictly speaking, in this imporiant branch 
of trade in Siam is of itself comparatively small, but 
by including the Chinese British sujechisit may be said 
that quite one third of the trade is in British hands. 
We are calling for some special information ; 
because the grand advantage of dealing with 
Siam (over India or Burmah) is its silver currency 
against our inflated rupee. 
