932 
The tropical AORlOULTUmSt. [June i, 1892. 
down gravel, boulders, and rocks, nnd overwhelms 
the neighbouring fields; whilst the muddy water 
passes rapidly on, arrested by no vegetation, confer- 
ring no benefit on the country it traveises, — to leave 
behind, on the cessation of rain, nothing but dry and 
rocky raviues. 
There is, however, no need to expatiate on the 
disastrous action of rain in mountains and unwooded 
countries, it bring too well-known. 
At the same time, well-informed people have fre- 
quently an exaggerated idea of the value of mountain 
forests, attributing to them other virtues than those 
which they possess. The virtues they do possess are 
the power of storing up the rainfall, and thereby 
regulating the flow of water-cours'is and springs, and 
they are entitled to reepeot. 
Our rainfall observations are extremely interesting 
in reference to forests which have been destroyed bv 
fire : in such forests the annual rainfall remainicg 
unchanged the springs dry up and the water-courses 
becpuie dry ravines. 
We need not be content with contemporaneous 
evidence ; we can also bring valuable witness from 
the pist to the truth of our assertions. About 
10 miles to the west of the road from Constantine 
to Batna there is a bors^-shoe shaped mom tain 
range, with its convex towards the en«t. This range 
is nanieii Djehel ABomla by the natives of the 
country. The inner slopes of thi-* horseshoe were f -.r- 
merly thickly wooded, a fact proved by the preeenco 
of stumps of oaktreec. These stumps, d >pp(y ch«rr( d 
and rooted in soil thoroaghly baked by the fire which 
destroyed the tr'es themselves I'Rve hiihi rto resisted 
the decomposing effects of time. An enumeration of 
the stumps shows a former growth of about 60 large 
tre?8 per acre, and iu the centre of this magnificent 
forest there are the remains, in hewn stone, of » gitan- 
tic tank, and issuing therefrom a broad nqneluct, 
traceable in its ruins for several mih s. Today the soil 
of Djebel Anouda is cni' of tie mos^ arid in Algeria; 
in former days a strong sprii g existed, its water- 
supply stored and projected by a sturdy forest 
growth. 
In concluding this short paper, we would like to 
add that, though the extent of the areas under our 
notice cannot co'upare with those observed by Mr. 
Gannett, on the other hand our rainfall stations are 
much cl oser to each o her than those un^ler Mr. Gan- 
netl's registration. Of 44 iuoh stations erected by the 
Government of Algeria, Hie lour which eQcloees the 
tract of Oned-Guebli have been raosf. useful to us. It 
is this tract of conntry that the obsei vatio'.s above 
recorded refer to, and these observations lead us to thi 
conclusion that " the salutary irjfluenoe of forests in 
storing atmospheric humidity is irrefutab'e ; but to 
enable them to store this humidity, the atmosphere 
must first contain it. — L. Pabquet in Heme des Eaux 
Forets. 
■^p,' 
DUNG V. ARTIFICIAL MANURE. 
High-fed manure is more nutriii us 'o the soil than 
the pn duce of plain-feeding, but it is qut s'ioi able 
whether its extra richne->a could not be supplied mora 
economically in (he form of commercial fertilisers. 
This is where and how the merits of home-made and 
artificial manures have come so clo'iely into competition, 
and what has in many instances lod to an extensive 
Bubstilulion of the one tor the other. It has .o some 
extent betn found that t'^e three main elements — 
nitrogen, potash, and ph 'snhoric acid — extracted by 
crops, icon d. at recent mHrket value, be returned to 
the BO 1 more pn fitably in tli« slifipe of special than 
general m^tnures. That may ho, from such a cause 
as we have yi>-t referred to, hut is not the advantage 
of applying artifinial fcr'iliHers, instead of woU-rotteil 
dung more apparent than real? 
We repeat that rather more than three times as much 
nitrogen as uhonphoric acid is roraovod from the foil 
by cropi. h'armyard dung roturnn these elements 
in Hiinilar proportions, but, of oonrse, it would be 
n mistako to aupp^He that dung supp'iea nitro- 
gen t') any crop at the rate of 12 lb. per ton, or 
anything approaching that quantity. Its duration, aa a 
manure extends over four or five crops, but the close 
resemblance which its chemical composition bears to 
that of ordinary crops as regards mauurial ingredients 
points it out as a peculiarly suitable manure for the 
pupose of maintaining the fertility of regularly crop- 
ped toil, while it furnishes much of the material ne- 
cessary for the promotion of nitrification. 
In duration, farmyard manure is excelled only by 
lime and borax, and this we regard is a very decided 
point in our favour. We accept the theory that ferti- 
lity is due to organic residue of previous generations 
of plants mixed with certain mineral substances of which 
phosphoric aoid and potash are the principal. Organic 
rsMdue of previous generations of plants is simply 
another name for farmyard dung. The excrement of 
cattle, horses, and sheep is nothing more nor less than 
the indirect residue of plants grown on the farm ; 
and if it is properly managed during the period of 
fermentation, (armyird manure germinates what for 
want of a better term, may be oilled the very es- 
sence of fertility. — Farmer and Stock- Breeder. 
Mb. L. Weat reports on " gutta rambong " that 
it iB the rubber from the Ficus Masticus. It is a 
large, many stemmed-tree, like the banian tree. 
It is extensively cultivated in Assam. It may be 
grown from seeds or cuttings. The plants are 
planted on maunds 3 or 4 feet high, in 40 feet 
wide cleared lines, through the jungle : the lines 
being 100 feet apart (the jungle being left stand- 
ing between them), and the trees placed 25 feet 
apart along the lines. Beyond once or twice a year 
clearing the undergrowth round the young trees 
nothing more requires to he done till the trees 
are old enough to tap. I do not know how long 
it is before thoy begin to yield rubber. There are a 
few trees near Ipoh, which I think ought to be 
preserved, as from them seed could be obtained. 
There are also a few trees in Upper Perak and the 
Plus. The rubber fetches about |iOO per pikul. 
From information which has been communicated to 
the Superintendent of Lower Perak, it appears that 
both iu Langkat and Deli, Sumatra, the natives 
are suooessfully opening rambong plantations. The 
price of young plants is said to be $1 for a seed- 
ling one foot high, and $2 if two feet or more in 
hei ht. — Singapore Free Press. 
Maltese Blood Oranoe. — H. E. Vnn Deman, 
pomologist of the department of agriculture at 
Washington, expresses the following opinion of 
this orange in the Horticultural Art Journal : " This 
is one of this choicest and most highly flavored of 
all the varieties of the orange. It is true that 
the flavor is not so mild and sweet as some, hut 
in delicate aroma and sprightliness it is scarcely 
excelled or equalled by any. In size, it is about 
medium, and in shape it is slightly oval. The peel 
is not thin as that of some varieties, but the core 
is unusually small and seeds are quite rare. 
The name ' Blood ' is attached beoausa of the 
unusual characteristic red co'or of the pulp. This, 
however, varies greatly in difierent climates ; as for 
instance, in California it is much more inclined 
to show the red than Florida and the Gulf coast 
where, in fact, it sometimes occurs that well deve- 
loped specimens have no red color at all, or but 
the slightest trace. The skin is also thicker in 
California, and the flivor is more aoid than the 
same varit-ty grown east of the Mississippi river. 
In the Mediterranean regions, the flesh is almost 
as red as that of the beet, the skin is quite thick 
and the flavor tart. As its name indicates, this 
orange is a native, so far hack as history goes, 
of the Island of Malta, iu the Mediterranean sea. 
It has been known there for many centuries, but 
not before the t /hristian era, as the Boman writers 
make no mention of this or any other variety of 
the orange at that iirae,"— Rural Calif ornian. 
