202 
THE TROPICAL 
AGEICULTUKIST. 
[Sept. 2, 190i. 
THE BOMBAY BOTANICAL SURVEY- 
THE EXPERIMENT WITH SISAL HEMP. 
COLLECTING FOR MB. WILLIS. 
The report of Mr. G A Gammie, f.l.s., 
officer in charge of the Botanical Survey, 
Bombay Presidency, for 1900-1901, includes the 
following : — 
Mr. Bhide, the Herbarium keeper, com- 
pleted a tour from Poona to Nagothna. He 
found many interesting plants, but his pur- 
pose was more especially to collect good 
material of Podostemon hookerianus and other 
species on behalf of Mr. J C Willis, the 
Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Pera- 
deniya, Cevlon, who is making a special study 
of the order Podostemonacea;. Mr. Willis, 
during his visit to the Bombay Presidency 
in search of these plants, was good enough 
to give us valuable information and identi- 
fications of the materials in this herbarium. 
During the tours special attention was de- 
voted to obscure plants, and many— especially 
Orchids— were brought back alive to Poona 
so that Mr. Bhide could figure them at leisure 
as they came into flower. 
Experimental cvltttre of Sisal Hemp.— The 
station at Nandgaon was fully planted out 
during the early part of the rains, and the 
plants under observation there now number 
3,000. The plants were in a flourishing con- 
dition at the time of my visit, and there is 
a certainty of the plantation ultimately pro- 
ving a success. Twenty-one thousand young 
plants and bulbils were distributed to various 
applicants and a large number have been 
promised for this season to the Divisional 
Forest Officer at Nasik. As the area at my 
disposal is so circumscribed .and as sisal culture 
has become established in several paHs of 
India, this department may now restrict itself 
to the growth of plants solely for distribution. 
During the year ten plants flowered and pro- 
duced bulbils which were gathered and planted. 
— Madras Mail. 
THE NEW MANURE. 
Mr. John Hughes writes by last mail : — 
Basic superphosphate is taking very well. At the 
Highland Show at Inverness I was tokl by the 
head pai tner of Messrs. Ciinningliani & Co. ot Leith 
that they, as the Scotch representative.s of the 
Syndicate, were doing very well and had sold over 
400 tons already in Scotland. It will be adver- 
sed next year when we have collected the results 
of numerous field experiments. 
COCONUT DISTRICT. N.W.P., 
Marawila, Aug. 17th. 
While the western and central parts of the 
island are suffering from too much raiu, we are 
passing through rather a 
SEVERE DROUGHT, 
For over a month we have had no rain, and 
whaucver moisture there happens to be on the 
surface soil is licked up by a dry, scorching wind 
that prevails. Rain is very much wanted in these 
parte. The two biggest 
CROPS 
of the year are generally harvested between May 
and August, This year the curreot crops are said 
to be very short everywhere. This ought still 
further to raise the price of copra, for which the 
demand is as keen a.s ever it was during this year. 
A native estate owner is reported to have erected 
A FIBRE MILL 
on his estate at Kiritnetiyana, and to be erecting 
a desiccating mill. With one mill at Lunuville, 
one at Horrekelle, and one in prospect between 
the two, we cannot be said to be badly served 
as regarils the sources of demand for our nuts. 
The more mills the merrier, say estate owners. 
In lime there will be no such articles of commerce 
as Madampe, Marawila and estate copra. It is 
with extreme regret that the whole district of 
Chilaw has heard of 
THE REMOVAL OF MR FRASER 
while it cannot withhold from hiin congratulations 
on his well-deseived promotion. If he had been 
permitted to remain two years longer here, those 
who had been acquainted with i he town and the 
district would hardly have heer. able to recognise 
it. The Civil Service has not another more gentle- 
manly, courteous, hard-working and whole hearted 
member than Mr Fraser. His subordinates, from 
the highest io the lowest, affirm that they 
seldom worked haider and more cheerfully 
than with Mr Fraser, It was a pleasure to 
work with a snpeii(.r who worlced hard himself 
and who wjis iIip soul of coui te.sy. I have just 
seen in the pai'.-i ilmi Chilaw is intending to give 
Mr Fraser sei .i ff." It is an honour that 
was not acc' ided 1ns five predecessors since I 
have been in the district. That reminds me how 
badly Chil w is being treated. It has had six 
Assistant Go vernment Agents during the .5 years 
I have tjeen in the district ! 
PLANTING NOTES. 
'J'he Okapi.— "Mature " records the fact tha* 
Sir Harry Johnston's okapi has now been mounted 
for the Natural History Museiun, and will be 
exhibited at first in the North Hall. It is said 
it presents a considerable resemblance in form to 
a small, short-limbed and short-necked girafile, 
although furnished with the large ears characteristic 
of all forest-dwelling animals, and with an 
absolutely peculiar type of coloration. No such 
important discovery has occurred since the giant 
pa.nda ' (^Eluropus) was made known to the 
scientific world in the sixties of the last centurv. 
— G^ofie, July 26. 
Agricultural Prizes in Italy.— The Federa- 
tion of the Agricultural Unions of Italy, together 
with the Agricultural Unions of Padua and 
Florence, has opened an International Prize Com- 
petition for the sum of 1,000 francs in gold, to be 
awarded to the person who discovers and makes 
pubHc the best method for obtaining exact and 
constant results in the determination of the fine- 
ness of the flowers of sulphur and of mixtures 
of sulphur and copper sulphate, to be used for 
combating diseases of plants. Competitors must 
send in their papers in a sealed envelope to the 
Head-office of tlie Federation (Uflicio direttivo 
del la Federazione italiana dei Consorzi agrari, 
Piacenza, Italy), before March 1st, 1902. The 
papers will be examined by a special Commission 
to be named by the "Reale Academia de, 
Lincei, Rome," whose decision will be withonfe 
appeal. - / o^^rnal pf the S$fiei^ of Arts, July 5, 
