268 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[October r, 1890. 
As regards exports, that of ebony has fallen from 
12,352 cwt. in 1888 to 3,880 cwt. in 1889, the reason 
for which has already been explained in paragraph 
87. The exports of satin wood have also been reduced 
probably also owing to an increase in the market price 
and partly owing to a better watch being kept on 
Grown forests. The export of halmilla has increased 
but the figures evidently do not include the logs ex- 
ported in the rice dhoneys from the Eastern Province. 
These latter probably come under the heading “Wood 
of Sorts,” which shows an export of 26,779 logs as 
against G,909 in 1888. The exports from the Island 
deserve every encouragement, as they bring money into 
the Island, and because we have at present more than 
sufficient for our local works : while imports require 
to be diminished as much as possible. 
We cannot wonder that teak is such a favourite 
timber. The logs can be obtained of so large a size 
and free from faults, the timber is so easily worked 
and from the oil it contains is impermeable to insect 
attacks and weather influences. But, at the present 
rate of consumption, the supplies are likely to be- 
come scarce. Hence the necessity as well as the 
propriety of trying experiments with others of the 
many timbers included in the Ceylon Forest Flora. 
A portable saw-mill with connected machinery has 
been applied for, and the formation of an 
establishment of elephants for dragging timber. 
The report is altogether so interesting that con- 
siderations of space alone prevent our giving it 
entire. But we must again quote: — 
Destruction op Game and Fish. — There seems to 
be no doubt that game, once so abundant, is now di- 
minishing greatly, owing to its wholesale destruction 
by the natives for purposes not of legitimate food, but 
of trade. The trade is in the hands of Moormen who 
supply the villagers with gunpowder and shot. The 
villagers shoot every head of game that comes in their 
way, usually at night, over waterholes in the dry season. 
Any one whose duty it is to travel much, especially in 
remote parts of the Island, will bear me out in saying 
that seldom a day passes without meeting one or more 
men with guns in their hands going out shooting, while 
men carrying pingo loads of hides and horns constitute 
a regular service. There are also a great many so- 
called savants, usually foreigners, who come here to 
prosecute their studies and look to pay the expenses of 
their tours by carrying off quantities of skins of all 
sorts which they mostly purchase from natives. Last 
year the village of Mahakekirawa was literally carpeted 
with drying skins, which one of these persons had by 
timely notice beforehand induced the natives to shoot 
and bring in to be purchased by him at market price 1 
When the supply was large, and the buyer a single 
individual, the market-rate may be easily conjectured 
— just what he chose to give them. 
A great many lives of elephants are recklessly des- 
troyed by elephant catchers, who shoot the mothers 
in order to get at the calves, or who drive a herd for 
weeks before they kraal them. The poor beasts are 
then so exhausted, that in many cases not 10 per cent 
survive. The killing of elephants in herds should be 
strictly forbidden and restricted to solitary rogues. 
Like the game, fish is disappearing, or has quite 
disappeared from many rivers owing to the destruc- 
tive and pernicious habit of driving fish into kraals. 
As this goes on at all seasons, and as fish of all 
sizes are taken, the rivers are being drained of their 
resrmrces. 
IIkhharium of Forest Trees. — A herbarium has 
been starled at headiiuarters. It is hoped that before 
1' iig !• will contain all the commoner kinds of trees of 
tl]<; Is'and, so as to bo of use to forest officers all over 
the Island wishing to identify trees in their fore.st.s. 
A ‘■mail colk'Cfion of sample Ceylon timber bas also 
liecn shirle l. 'fliis will jirobably be useful in order to 
make Hoads of Departments and the outside nublic 
acquainted witli ilio numerous and excellent Island tim- 
bers as yet practically unknown. 
OinnuVfi oi'TRKE.s i'ukvious to FRLUNfi. — The great 
drawback to u.siug palu for sleepers is .said to bo that 
in seasoning it cracks badly. The same timber, or one 
very closely allied to it that is found in the AndamanSj. 
when girdled and al owed to stand for year or so afte 
the tree dies before it is felled, seasons well. Eighty- 
five palu trees have been girdled in the Central Pro- 
vince, and good results are looked for. White ants will 
not touch palu. 
Tents. — Two light field tents (double ply, 10 ft. by 8 
ft., and weighing only 80 lb.) were ordered from theCawn- 
pore mills, and handed over to the Assistant Conserva- 
tors of the Northern and Eastern Provinces for trial. 
Their cost landed in Ceylon was R212'.39. Should they 
prove suitable others might be ordered from the same 
source, if they cannot be copiel in this country. 
Details of revenue and expenditure of the department 
are then given, and in the following paragraph it 
is shown that it was high time to intervene so 
as to prevent the annihilation of the celebrated 
ebony trees of Ceylon: — 
That the benefit to the Department amounts to 
R80,495, or E63,977 more than the preceding year is 
matter for Rongratulation, considering that the expen- 
diture has risen from E247,510 in 1888 to E398,962 in 
1889 i.e., by EI46.452 of which E38,271is on establish- 
ments alone. It has been said in some quarters that in 
spite of the appointment of a staff of fore.‘t officers 
the revenue as compared with former years has been 
small, and has been mostly swallowed up by the 
expenditure on that establishment. The answer to this 
is evidently that the forests were recklessly worked, 
as can be seen from the returns of ebony exported, 
which alone point to an export of over 1,000 tons 
annually during the years 1880-87, at which rate of 
cutting there would scarcely remain a tree left by the 
end of the century. 
Col. Clarke states that 
There i.s a great deal of money annually lost to the 
Crown by not collecting the drift wood in our more 
important rivers, the Kalu, Kelani, and Mahawel 
gangas, but I hope that this important duty will 
receive early attention. 
Finally, we quote the conclusion of this very in- 
teresting report •■ — 
There is every prospect that at the close of 1890 
the Department will show itself self. maintaining, and 
in 1891 and onward there will be a growing revenue 
paid into the Treasury. In fairness to TJva, which 
does not come out well in the table showing benefit 
or loss to the Department in the respective Provinces, 
I should mention that it is really entitled to a large 
share of the outstandings which are put down to the 
Central Province, these outstandings being mainly due 
for timber supplied to the Haputale Eailway Exten- 
sion, which runs quite as much through Uva as 
through the Central Province. Uva has greater diffi- 
culties as regards transport than any other Province, 
and it is rather hard that it should not be able to 
show one of the few transactions over which it would 
make a profit at comparatively small outlay. 
Ceylon appears to possess many timber trees which 
have been hitherto considered of secondary value 
or have been entirely neglected because their quali- 
ties had not been properly tested. Col. Clarke 
seemed determined that this shall no longer be the 
case; and the zeal with which he has thrown his 
energies into the task of developing our forest 
resources is worthy of all praise and justifies the 
choice of this officer as organizer of a department 
which promises to be very important and useful. 
^ 
Charcoal or no Charcoal for Orchids. — An in- 
teresting discussion is going on in the Journal cles 
Oi-chidces as to the value of wood charcoal in potting 
Orchids. Count de Moran is an advocate for frequent 
repotting, and does not lay much stress on the employ- 
ment of charcoal in the compost. He says very truly 
that the charcoal of itself contributes no food to the 
plant, but it certainly aerates the soil, and it is of 
advantage from its property of retaining gaseous 
ammonia to the profit of the pl.aut. — Gardeners’ 
Chronicle 
