July i, 1891.] 
THE TROP50AL AGRICULTURIST, 
29 
whether by wholesale clearance for cultivation, or by 
excessive grazing with cattle, and, worst of all, by the 
destructive herds of goats. Then but only when too 
late, would the discovery be made how important is 
the relation which the forests bear to agriculture, 
and how essential to the latter the forests really are. 
The spread of cultivation to the limits of the 
forests has altered in great measure the scope of 
the Forest Administration, which was at tirst 
non-agricultural and confined itself to the produc- 
tion of large timber. Now, however, the position 
is changed, and the Forest Department is recognising 
that the areas under i-s control must be more 
used in the direct interests of agiiculture, and 
that, as far as possible, not only a timber supply 
for the grsat works of the country is needed, 
but also that the provision of wood for agricultural 
purposes andjfor fual, as also of fodder and pasturage 
for cattle, forms part oi its duties. That thii^ is so is 
only fully understood when it is remembered 
what the raiyat's diffioultifs are in the way of 
providing foddc-r for his beasts, and when it is 
explained^ that, while tbe only renlly available 
Bourca of manure is cattle-dung, this is largely 
burnt as fuel, and is thus lost to the land, simply 
because there is no a sufficiency of wood available 
to take its place. Tiiis agricultural loss might 
to a considerable extent be met by the extension of 
the wood-3upply of the country, and steps in this 
direction are being taken both by the Forest Dapart- 
ment and by the local authorities or towns. The 
importance of provision oi pastarage and shelter for 
cattle in times of drought is very great, whilst etc, 
holding up the soil and preveating its denudation 
by the unbroken flow of water over its surface, the 
coverinj^ of the groaud with trees and herbage has 
an indirect bep.ring upon the climate of the heated 
regions. In the course of a journey one frequently 
passes vast open but perfeftly barren spaoes ovtr 
which large herds roam, these are not the usar 
plains referred to previously, but they are the 
"village wastes," the common property of the 
villagers, and melancholy examples do they afford 
of what the cultivators would, by excessive socking 
and over grazing, do with the rest of the land now 
under forest, were it left to their unchecked control. 
I have briefly touched on the supply of manure to 
the land. Of tnis, as stated, the only really available 
source is the cattle-manure produced ou the hold- 
ings, and of it a great part is lost owing to its being 
used as fuel in the absence of wood. In Indian 
agriculture manure by itself is not sufficient, water 
ig" needed along with it; nov is water by itself 
enough, mamjre must go withit; the two are in 
fact interdependent. Gould the raiijat have both 
of these where there is need of them, he would be 
behind none in the results of his cultivating skill 
and diligence.— ]l/(td?'rt.s Times. 
[We cannot help feeling, with all due respect to 
Dr. Voelcker, that his view in regard to culture 
as conducted by the natives of India is too optimistic. 
There can be no ciuestion that deeper ploughing of 
grain lands and more attention to pasturage for 
cattle are refornjs urgently needed.— Ed. .T A.] 
multiple proportion ratio. One of his concluding 
passag' s is as follovv,s: — " Imagiue the following 
q lesiion stt in a school eX'imiuatiou pap.-:r of 20,90 A. d 
— ' Can you account for the crass ignorance of our 
forefathers in not beiny able to see frora England 
whnt their fi lands were doing in AnstriUia ? Or 
this — 'Messages are being received every minute 
from our friends on the planet Mars, avid are now 
being answered, flow do you account for our ancestors 
bting utterly ignorant that these messages were 
occasionally s at to them?' Or this — ' Wtiat metal 
is as strong compared with steel as steel is compared 
with lead ? and explain why the discovery ot it was 
not made in Shttfi Id.' " 
This is practically an age of metallic alloys; 
Metallurgists are cou-tmtly experimenting upon the 
relative proportions of the admixture of metals. A 
new r.lloy has just been brou^'ht out whose electrical 
re'-istance diminishes with increase of temperature. It is 
composed of cpper, manganese, and nickel. Another 
new alloy, brouglit out by the same expcri-menter. Mr. 
E^i. AVestoD, fl'liose electriosl resiitance is practically 
independent of temperature, consists of 70 parts 
copper combined with 30 parts of ferro-mau-ganese. 
A new hue-throwing gun has been ioveutel, for 
the purpose of accu ately throwing a'liae Iriiin the 
shore to shi'-is in distress. It consists ot a shoulder- 
gun, and the lino is packed away in the stock. 
A rod i.s fastened to the line, and the gun is tired 
at a high elevation. But, instead of casting lines 
from the 'anci to a ihip, -.vhy are not ships provided 
with means of casting lme.s to the land? There would 
cot be so ma.'iy mibses then. 
A remarkable invention Ins been patented in Nor- 
way — nothing le-s than a new material callf-d lactite 
or tbe "milk ivory," which is prepare 1 from skim- 
milk. A factory is being budt for its manut. ctvira 
in Iceland. L:iclito is said to b;ar a close resem- 
blance to real ivory, and can be made of any cclour. 
I'-, is int.'udbd to adapt this new substance for such 
purposes as electrical ^fittings, b'/ittons, door.han'iles, 
embossed panels, dados, cornices, &c. — Auslrcdasian. 
NOTES ON POPULAR SCIEJSfCB. 
Bi Dtt. J. B. Taylob, V.L.B., I', o. s,, &c. 
Editor op "Science Gossip." 
Professor Perry, the well-known electrician, has 
just written a cheap and lucid little book on Spia- 
niny Tops. It is one of the mcst suggestive books 
I have come across for sonne time, intensely optimistic 
and almost prophetic. He holds that scientific 
discovery will increase during the next century in a 
"INGENUITY, SAGACITY, AND MOBALITY 
Of PLANTS." 
Dr. J. B. Taylor resumed his course of lectures upon 
the "Ingenuity, Sagacity, and Morality of Plants," 
at the Lecture Hall, Ipswich. 
Although the immediate subject of the lecture was 
" Plants which catch and devour animals," Dr. Taylor 
commenced first by drawing attention to the consti- 
tuents of plant food and the nature of that protoplasm 
which is the basis of all life, both animal and vege- 
table. He had already pointed out that the most 
important part of all plant food — carbon — was obtained 
solely from the atmosphere by the mouths of leaves. 
All the other kinds of food, including water, were 
obtained from the soil by the agency of the roots and 
the root hairs. During the day the leaves had 
attracted carbon from the carbonic acid gas in the 
atmosphere, and at night this was stored away in 
various ways, either as starch, or to build up the 
woody stems of trees or shrubs, or it would be carried 
still further to where starch was required, as in the 
seeds, or still underground to be stored away in the 
tubers of potatoes and artichokes, the bulbs of onions 
and liliaceous plants generally. Vegetable nature 
was always providing, he said, against a rainy day. 
Then there was a certain amount of ingenuity with 
which this store of food was utilised. For instance, 
they would observe that in herbaceous plants, or 
plants which had soft stems, those which lived more 
than one year had either underground stocks like the 
primrose or cowslip, or the lower part of the stem 
thickened hito what was called a bulb, like the 
hyacinth, crocus, tulip, onion, etc., so that when the 
plants died down on the approach of winter through 
the frost killing the soft stems, there yet remained 
tbe vital parts hidden away underground from the 
keen eyes of animals that in the winter time woul^ 
prowl vx search pf them. I£ they cut an pnign in t>Y9 
