July i, 1891.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
29 
whether by wholesale olearanoo for ouUivation, or by 
exeepsive grazing with cattle, and, worst of all, by the 
destructive herds of goals. Then but only when too 
late, would the discovery be made how important is 
the relation which the forests bear to agriculture, 
and how osseDlial to the latter the forests really are. 
The spread of cultivation to the limits of the 
forests has altered in great measure the scops of 
the Forest Administration, which was at first 
non-agricultural and ooufined itself to the produc- 
tion of large timber. Now, however, the poeition 
is ohanged. and the Forest Department is reocgnising 
that tho areas under its control must be more 
used in the direct interests of agriculture, and 
that, as far as possible, not only a timber supply 
for the great works of the ocuelry is needed, 
but also that the provision of wood for agricultural 
purposes and|for fuel, as also of fodder and pasturage 
for cattle, forms part of its duties. That this is so is 
only fully understood when it is remembered 
what tho raiyat'a difliouUirs are in the way of 
providing fodder for his boasts, and when it is 
explained that, while the only really available 
source of manure is utiltle-dnug, this is largely 
burnt as fuel, and is thus lost to the land, simply 
because there is no a sulliciency of wood available 
to take its place. This agricultural loss might 
to a considerable extent be met by the extension of 
the Wood-supply of the country, and steps in this 
direotion are being t ikon both by the Forest Depart- 
ment and by the local authorities or towns. Tho 
importance of provision of pasturage and ,heUer for 
cattle in times of drought is very great, whilst etc. 
holding up the soil and preventing ite denudation 
by the unbroken How of water over its stirlao •, the 
covering of tho ground with trees and herbage has 
an indirect bearing upon the climate of the heat d 
regions. In tho oourea of a journoy one fn queiilly 
passes vast open but pi rfsclly barren spaces ovi r 
which largo herds roam, those are not the nsar 
plains referred to pravionsly. but they are tho 
“ village wastep." the oomuion property of the 
villagers, and molanoholy tximplts do they afford 
of what tho oullivalors would, by excessive socking 
and overgrazing, 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 this, as stated, the ouly really available 
source is the cattle-manure produced on the hold- 
ings, and of it a great part is lost owing to its beiug 
used as fuel in the absence of wood. In Indian 
agriculture manure by itself is not sulfioient, water 
is needed along with it ; nor is water by itself 
enough, mat ure must go with it ; the two are in 
fact interdependent. Oould the raiyat have both 
of these where there is need of tluni, he would be 
behind none in tho results of his cultivating skill 
and diligtnce — Madras Tivws. 
I We cannot help feeling, with all due respoot to 
Dr. Voelckor, that his view iu regard to culture 
as oouduoted by the natives of India is too optimistic. 
There can be no quesliou that deeper ploughing of 
grain lauds and more attention to pasturage for 
cattle are reforms urgently needed.— bln. ,T .A.] 
NOTES ON POPULAR SCIENCE. 
Ft Dlt. J. E. TAVLOrt, p. o- s., P. o. s., &c. 
Editob op “Science Gossip." 
Professor Perry, the well-known electrician, has 
just written a cheap and lucid hlilo l.ook ou .S'/iLi- 
niny Tops. It is one of tho mess suggestive books 
I have come across for some time, iutense'y optimistic 
and almo.st prophetic. He bolds that acitntific 
discovery will increase during the next century in a 
multiple proportion rstio. One of his conoluiling 
passag 8 is as follows; — “ Imagine the following 
H IPS ion 81 1 ill a scboi 1 ixeraiuatiou pap r of 2090 a. d 
— ‘ Can you aoconnt for the crass ignorance of our 
forofathprs in not being able to see from England 
whsl their £i lauds were doing in Australia? Or 
this — ‘ .Me.s.sage8 are being received every minute 
from our friends on tho planet Mais, and are now 
beiug answered, floa’ do you aocouut for our ancestors 
b’iiig utterly ignorant that these racssagos ware 
oeoisionally s ut to them?’ Or this — ' Wnat metal 
is as strong compared with steel as steel is compared 
with loud ? and explain why the dhoovery ot it was 
nut made in Shtffi 11.’” 
Tins is prsctitally sn age of metallic alloys. 
Motallurgis's are con'tmtly experimeiiting uih.u tho 
relative proportions of tho admixture of metals. A 
new alloy hiis just been brousbt ont whoso olBctricsl 
resistance dimiuisHes With iucreasti of temperature. Ills 
com|ioscd of c ipper, manganoso, and nioktl. Another 
new alloy, bru.ight out by the same experi-meuter, .Hr. 
E l. Weston, whose electriosl rcsi-taoce is practically 
iudepeudent of temperature, oonsials of TO parts 
copper combined with 30 parbs of ferro-msii-gauese. 
A new liuo-lhrowing gun baa been invoute I, for 
the purpose of accu ntely throwing a line trout the 
shi-re to ships in di. tress. It consists of a shoiililer- 
RUii, and the lino bs packed awsy iu the .stook. 
A rod is fastened to the Hue, and the gun is lirad 
at a high elivatiou. Dut, instead of casting lines 
front the Iniin to a ship, why are not ships provided 
with means of casting lines to the land? There would 
not be so many misses theu. 
A romaikablo invention h.sboeu prtented iu Nor- 
way— nothing ie<s than a now material culled lactite 
or tho “ milk ivory, ’ wbirli is prepare I from skim- 
milk. A laolory is being bull for its niaimf cture 
in Iceland, i, ictit i ie .said to b-ar a close resi-m- 
blsiico to real ivoiy, and can he made of any ccloiir. 
J' i.a int.'iided to adapt this new s ubatsnoa for snob 
purposes ns electrical fittings, buttons, door-haniflcs, 
embossed panels, dados, cornices, &c. — Australasian. 
^‘LNGENUITY, SAGACITY, AA’D MORALITY 
OF RLAN'J'S.” 
Dr. .1. E. Taylor reamnod his conrso of lectures upon 
tho “Ingoimity, ttaj^acity, 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 IB tho 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 tho 
atmosphere, and at night this w’as atorea away in 
various ways, either as starch, or to build up the 
wooclv stenii of trees or shrubs, or it would be carried 
still uirtlier to where starch was required, as in tho 
seeds, or still underground to bo stored away iu the 
tubers of potatoes andaniohokos, the bulbs of onions 
and liliaceous plants generally. Vegetable nature 
was always providing, ho said, against a rainy day. 
Then there wae a certain amount of ingenuity with 
which this store of food was utilised. For instance, 
tlioy would obsono that in herbacoous plants, or 
plants which had soft stems, those whicli lived more 
than one year had either underground stocks like tho 
primrose or cowslip, or tlie lower part of the stem 
thickened into what was called a bulb, like tho 
hyacinth, crocus, tulip, onion, etc-, so that when tlio 
plants died down on the approach of winter through 
tho frost killing tho soft stems, there yet remained 
the vital parts hidden away underground from tho 
keen eyes of animals that in tho winter time would 
prowl in search of them. If they cut a» onion in twq 
