766 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[May 1, 1902. 
ami at the same time be a help to the country : 
— 1. Iron briffge-buildiiiR.— There is an immense 
field over nearly the vvhole of the country for 
bridges, stron<;, well-built, safely set, and 
cheap, A good firm in this line, turning out 
quickly well-made and clierip work, having its 
central oflice in Kio, and houses in the capitals 
«f the dirt'erent States, woulc! be able lo make a 
good trade. Tropical floods are very disastrous 
for the wooden bridges commonly in use, and 
numerous accidents happen thiough the planks 
getting rotten. The financial consideration in 
wooden bridges is that they are cheap. 2. Mineral 
mining. — At present English mining companies in 
Brazil confine themselves almost exclusively to 
that of gold. The country, especially the States 
of Minas Geraes and Bahia, is, however, so rich in 
nearly all kinds of minerals, untouched, that there 
is here a vast field for capital, which, well managed, 
would bring in good returns. 3. Timber forest 
exploring. — The three Slates of Para, Amazonas, 
and MattoGrosso have thousands of miles of virgin 
forest timber, for which a market is urgently 
needed, . . . Since agriculture, sooner or later, 
will make inroads, and therefore these forests have 
to come to an end, the best thing to be done is 
to start companies that could put these timbers 
on the English market. . . , The three timber- 
covered States just mentioned have particular 
advantages for the timber trade, since deep rivers 
form a complete network all over thetn, thus ob- 
viating heavy road expenses. The lower reaches 
of the river sides could only be worked six months 
of the year, owing to floods; but the higher reaches 
could be worked the whole year." — London Times, 
March 24. 
MINERALS AND OIL IN PERSIA, 
On Persian soil there are many undeveloped 
treasures. There are numerous large petroleum 
fields in the country, not one of which is worked 
to any extent, much less in a systematic way. The 
petroleum fields in the provinces of Nazanderan, 
Gilon, Chamsee, Kerman Lauriston, and Arabi- 
,stan are hardly touched, and render no profits 
worth mentioning. In those mountainous regions 
naphtha is also said to exist in considerable 
quantities. According to Consul-General Hughes 
experts on this subject believe that the two cities, 
Sohab and Schuster, would serve best as central 
stations from which to work the fields. Sohab 
can easily be connected with theDijalah River by 
means of a navigable canal, by a narrow gauge 
railway or by pipe lines, so that the oil could be 
conveyed via the Dijalah and Tigris rivers to 
Mohammere without heavy freights. From there 
it would have to be transported by special vessels 
to India, Egypt, China, and Europe. The natural 
transportation route from Schuschter is along the 
course of the River Karun. The environs of 
Schuschter aie particularly rich in petroleum and 
naphtha. At present nearly all the petroleum 
consumed in Asia and Africa (particularly in Japan 
China, India, and Egypt), is furnished by the 
wells of Baku and Pennsylvania. Persian Petro- 
leum with less cost for freigiit could, it is said, 
doubtless compete successfully in neighbouring 
countries. The rich Persian coal veins are not 
properly appieciated. Tliey cover wide regions, 
and are worked in a very primitive way. There can 
be no doubt that, if veriiciil and horizontal shafts 
were driven into tlie veins, and the water pumped 
out, (quantities of good coal could be brought to 
the surface, The Persians dig unsupported shafts 
nottiiwe thin 20 or 30 feet deep, and ab;vndon 
them fls scon as water make< ihe work <liirK-ult, 
re opening the vein at another spot. Only the 
surface coal is utilised. Copi)er, argentiferous 
lead, iron ore, arsenic, sulphur, cnbalt, antimony, 
borax, tin and other minerals arc also found in 
lari'e quantities in the pL-r.iian mountain districts. 
All thcve resources must remain undeveh^piid so 
long as Persia possesses no transportation facilities, 
tveu the well-known turquoise pits of Persin, the 
niost important of which are those of Nishapur, 
in the Province of Kliorassan, yield so far very 
little good material, owing to the fact that they are 
owned by natives who carmot work them by the 
modern system.— Journal of ike Societu of Arts, 
rebruary 7. 
THE PAPER MULBERRY IN JAPAN, 
The Government of India have made sporadic efforts 
to cultivate the Paper Mulberry (Dromsomtia namin- 
/era) tree m this country without much success, as 
far as we were aware, from an economic po^nt of 
view, though the tree has been found to grow well 
enough in several parts of this country. It may 
interest car Government officials to know to what 
varied uses the Japanese put the baikof this plant 
We «iuote below an extract from au informing lecture 
dehvered by Dr. H. Kempte before the Society of 
Uyers and Colorists, Bridford, last November and 
which appears m the Journal of that Society for 
Jnnuary, 1902. Dr. Kempte said:— 
" Permit me to say a few words about Japanese 
paper m general aud about the making of these 
p&per stencils m particular, Iliig wonderful paper 
with Its admirable strength is made of the bast of 
the Paper Mulberry tree (Moms papijrifero), originally 
a Obinese plant, which is now cultivated all over 
China and Japan, A mulberry plantation resembles 
very much a grove of oar willow trees, the mulberry 
having a very short thick stem with manv branches. 
In ^'ovember, when all the important products such 
as tea, rice, beans, etc., have been harvested, the 
Japanese farmer finds time to cut the branches of 
the mulberry tree. The first operation is to boil 
these branches in a weak wood-ash bath in order 
to loosen the outer layer of bark. After the latter 
is removed, the bast is peeled off and thorouffhly 
wished by suspending it in the river. The bast is 
then dried ana sold to the papermaker In our paper 
mills the pulp is prepared by grinding almost any 
fibrous material in the beating machine until sufficiently 
fine, whereby it cannot be avoided that the fibres 
are cut short. The Japanese, on the contrary 
are very particular about treating the mulberry 
bast m such a way that the fibres retain aa much 
as possible their original length, aud this, of course 
18 ohe reason for the excellent strength of their paper 
The bast is placed on a flat and level granite stone 
moistened with water and beaten with wooden hammers 
until thoroughly fine. The paper is, of course, made 
by hand, and by shaking the sieve only in one direction 
which IS almost the rule in Japan, the fibres place 
themselves nearly parallel. This accounts for the 
fact that the Japanese paper can only be torn straicbt 
m one direction, at the same time possessing a re- 
markable strength in this direction. 
"In China and Japan paper is a far more important 
and far more generally used article than y/iih as 
owing to Its superior quality and streDsfth The 
Japanese always has a supply of paper sheets in his 
fileeve pocket. If he has to wipe his nose he doe^ 
BO with a sheet of paper. If be wants a bit of strine 
he twists a atrip of paper together. I have had an 
opportunity in the railway carriageof seeing a Japanese 
do almost the impossible with a bit of paper striDt 
such as tying up his trunk with the r^mama of a 
ietter. In Japan, paper not only takea the place o{ 
