THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[Oct.  I,  1896. 
234 
tail  into  each  other  with  perfect  ease.  We  wonder 
what  the  Bombay  Collector  of  Customs  thinks 
of  it.  Mr.  Thomson,  it  is  interesting  to  learn, 
finds  that  prices  are  now  good  again,  and 
thinks  it  possible  that  Indian  planters  ii!.i,y  come  to 
renew  their  interest  in  the  green  leaf.  Tiie.e  i.^,  he 
says,  a British  Consul  at  Batuni,  and  there  are  sl  veral 
respectable  merchants  of  various  nationahti.s  there 
who  would  be  delighted  to  act  as  agents.  The 
country,  too,  is  being  opened  up  by  the  new  railways 
which  are  iu  course  of  construction.  There  would 
be  some  consolation  in  the  engineering  activity  of  the 
Bussian  Government,  if  its  policy  of  piling  Pelion 
upon  Ossa  in  the  matter  of  railways  should  result 
in  facilitating  the  development  of  a British  Indian 
industry. — Knrjliiihi)mn,  Aug.  11. 
FOBEST  WEALTH  OF  BKAZiJ  . 
An  interesting  report  on  the  forests  of  Bra/,d  has 
recently  been  presented  to  his  Governm  mt  l y the 
French  Consul  at  San  Paulo,  who  calls  a' triiLion  to 
the  wealth  of  timber  in  them,  more  particulariy  iu  the 
forests  situated  in  his  own  consular  district.  M. 
Georges  liitt  says  that  among  the  sources  f ^'atnral 
wealtli  in  the  province  . f San  Paulo,  one  or  ihe  most 
interesting,  but  unfortunately,  somewhat  neglected, 
is  the  timber  of  which  the  immense  virgin  forests  are 
composed.  The  recent  industrial  exhibition  at  llio 
de  Janeiro,  where  a considerable  number  of  samples 
of  Brazilian  wood  were  on  view,  was  the  means  of 
calling  attention  to  the  value  of  these  produc  s and 
to  the  advantages  to  be  derived  from  a regular  and 
systematic  working  of  the  forests.  Tne  most  im* 
portant,  as  well  as  the  most  common,  tree  is  the 
which  is  found  in  great  abundance  in  the 
State  of  Parana  also,  and  where  it  is  known  as  the 
araucaria.  In  San  Paulo  the  pinho  has  been 
sacrificed  to  coffee  cultivation,  and  a large  number 
of  these  trees  have  been  destroyed,  and  the  forests 
themselves  burnt  in  order  that  the  laud  might  be 
prepared  for  the  coffee  plants.  The  puiho  is,  never- 
theless still  found  in  great  profusion  in  the  western 
and  southern  parts  of  the  province.  The  tree  grows 
easily  and  rapidly,  and  attains  a height  of  45  metres. 
In  twenty  years  it  can  supply  large  planks,  which 
are  used  for  sleepers,  doors,  and  windows,  axle- 
trees  etc.  After  the  2>inho  or  araucaria,  the  acacia 
which  is  known  by  the  Indians  as  curupai/,  is  one  of 
the  most  useful  woods  of  San  Paulo.  This  wood  is 
particularly  hard  and  able  to  withstand  the  effects  of 
the  weather.  It  is  used  for  carriage  building,  and 
for  making  drays  and  the  rough  carts  of  the  country. 
The  acacia  is  also  employed  in  ship  building  and  in 
making  railway  sleepers.  This  tree  attains  a heiglit 
o/from  12  to  15  metres,  but  it  is  of  slow  growth. 
Much  interest  is  devoted  to  this  tree,  not  only  on 
account  of  the  usefulness  of  its  timber,  but  also 
because  its  leaves  are  said  to  have  some  medicinal 
property  similar  to  that  of  the  eucalyptus.  Another 
interesting  variety  is  the  guajuvira  ( Patagonula 
Americana),  a tree  which  is  found  growing  through- 
out the  whole  of  Southern  Brazil.  The  wood  is  very 
hard  and  durable.  It  is  eminently  adapted  to  car- 
riaee  making,  and  also  furniture  and  other  articles  ; 
it  is  also  used  for  rail  a ay  sleepers  ; it  grows  to  a 
height  of  about  12  metres.  The  soita  cavallo,  or 
aconta  cavallo,  is  a wood  of  very  good  quality,  it  is 
hard  and  not  easily  split.  It  is  used  for  yokes,  saftots, 
and  broom  handles.  It  also  serves  for  piano  making, 
and  is  used  for  furniture,  and  one  establishment  on 
Santa  Maria  the  aconta-cavallo  is  specially  used  for 
makin<'  chairs.  In  addition  to  the  above-mentioned 
trees  which  are  the  most  common,  and  the  most  ge- 
nerally used,  there  is  a large  number  of  other  varieties 
which  altho.igh  not  worked,  might  be  so  with  advant- 
age and  profit.  There  are  the  following:— Ga/nraya 
iiic  hum  ’,  ca.-ijerana,  tajuha,  jacariiwhi,  Jujurira  hranca 
Ivvhite  i\atrcr)-,urocira,!>ucuiiira,pcreira,  batulha,  canellu, 
ya^saruioa,  cedra,  carroba,  caniia  hi.'tla,  nuiliam,  and 
others  The  cachoracn  and  the  do  Ilraxd,  which 
„,e  found  in  great  profusion  in  the  forests,  are  much 
appreciated  by  dyers  for  the  beautiful  red  colour 
yielded  by  the  bark.  An  idea  may  be  formed,  by  the 
above  enumeration,  of  the  abundance  nnd  variety  of 
useful  trees  in  the  province  of  San  Paulo.  Unfortu- 
nately, as  M.  Georges  Ritt  observes,  everything  iu 
Brazil  is  sacrificed  to  the  coffee  industry,  all  other 
pi  oductions  only  appe.u  ing  to  be  of  secou  lary  interest. 
Sylviculture  has  always  been  neglected,  and  this  to 
such  an  e.xtent  that  in  the  neighbourhood  of  cultivated 
districts  a large  number  of  forests  have  been  rutlilessly 
destroyed,  to  make  way  for  coffee  plantations.  The 
consequence  of  this  is  the  increasing  rareness  of  indi- 
genous woods  on  the  market,  and  tin  ir  high  price. 
Moreover,  it  necessitate-!,  iu  spite  of  the  natural 
resources  of  the  country,  a considerable  importation 
of  foreign  timber,  particularly  from  Sweden  and  Nor- 
way and  California,  these  importations  being  required 
for  building  purposes.  These  foreign  timbers,  not- 
withstanding the  distance  from  which  tliey  are  brought 
are  placed  on  the  market  in  Brazil  at  a cheaper  rate 
than  the  Brazilian  woods  themselves.  One  explana- 
tion of  this  is  that  the  high  price  of  Brazilian  wood 
is  caused  by  the  difficulty  and  cost  of  transport  in  the 
inteiior  of  the  province.  The  majority  of  the  railway 
companies  only  serve  the  eoffee  districts;  in  fact,  it 
was  iu  view  of  this  industry  that  they  were  originally 
established,  and  it  is,  therefore,  perhaps  only  natural 
that  at  certain  periods,  more  particularly  during  che 
coffee  harvest,  the  companies  devote  all  their  energies 
to  its  transport,  which  is  a lucrative  one  for  them, 
and  that  the  carriage  of  timber  is  neglected,  stocks 
of  which  are  allowed  to  accumulate  and  to  remain  for 
long  periods  exposed  to  the  inclemency  of  the  weather 
and  to  the  risk  of  robbery,  which  is  by  no  means 
infrequent.  It  is  owing  to  these  disadvantages,  and 
the  insufficiency  of  the  means  of  transport,  that  the 
owners  of  the  forests  have  been  induced  to  destroy 
their  property  rather  than  to  saddle  themselves  with 
heavy  expenses  which  they  could  not  recoup  them- 
selves for,  by  a rapid  sale  of  their  products.  More- 
over in  San  Paulo,  although  there  are  many  streams 
and  waterways,  the  advantages  enjoyed  in  other 
countries  in  the  way  of  floating  the  timber  to  its 
destination  are  not  available,  the  streams  in  question 
flow  towards  the  western  part  of  the  province  (the 
basin  of  the  Parana),  which  is  the  sparsely-populated 
district,  all  the  towns  and  the  centres  of  industry 
and  activity  being  situated  in  the  elevated  regions  of 
the  interior,  and  at  the  source  of  the  rivers.  The 
virgin  forests  being  found  in  the  lower  plains  of  the 
West,  it  is  impossible  to  utilise  the  stream  for 
floating  the  timber  to  the  places  where  it  could  be 
delivered  for  consumption.  In  conclusion,  M.  Ritt 
says  that  unless  the  Government  takes  steps  to  put 
an  end  to  the  difficulties  which  hedge  round  the 
timber  industry  in  Brazil,  the  time  must  soon  come 
when  an  industry  which  could  easily  be  made  an 
inexhaustible  source  of  wealth  to  the  country  will 
entirely  cease  to  exist. — Journal  of  the  Society  of  Arts, 
July  31. 
FACTS  ABOUT  TE.A.  MAKING  AND 
WATER. 
(By  a Professional  Analyst.} 
It  used  to  be  a common  thing  with  our  grand- 
mothers to  put  a little  soda  in  the  teapot  when 
making  the  daily  “ brew,”  and  the  custom  is  still 
pretty  widely  existent.  This  practice  of  water- 
softening was  not  without  its  justification  in  the 
days  when  China  teas  alone  were  imported;  but  at 
the  present  time,  with  Indian  and  Ceylon  teas  iu 
such  preponderance,  some  discrimination  is  desir- 
able iu  suiting  the  water  to  tea,  or  the  tea  to  the 
water,  as  the  case  may  be.  Ordinary  potable  water 
contains  small  quantities  of  organic  matter,  and 
much  larger  but  very  variable  amounts  of  inorganic 
bodies ; the  latter  it  is  which  determine  whether  a 
water  is  “hard”  or  “soft.”  Practically  the  “hard- 
ness” of  a water  is  the  only  thing  to  be  considered 
in  regard  to  its  tea-making  properties;  the  organic 
matter,  though  of  the  first  importance  in  judging  of 
the  fitness  of  the  water  for  drinking,  is  usually  alto- 
gether too  minute  to  effect  the  quality  of  the  tea 
infusion.  With  the  hardness,  however,  the  case  is 
different.  A tea  suitable  for  soft-water  infusions  will 
give  a different  result  when  made  with  hard  water, 
