932 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 
[June i, 1892. 
down gravel, boulders, and rooks, and overwhelms 
the neigbhouimg fields: whilst Ibe muddy water 
parses rapidly on, arrested by no yrgotation, oonter- 
ring no benefit on the country it traverses, — to leave 
behind, on (he cessation of rain, nothing but dry and 
rocky ravines. 
There is, however, no need to expatiate on the 
disastrous action of raiu in roouutsins and unwooded 
countries, it b, ing too well-known. 
At the same time, well-informed people have fre- 
quently an exaggerated idea of 'he va'ue of menntain 
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-courses and springs, aud 
they are entitled to respect. 
Our rsinfall observations are extremely interesting 
in reference to forests which have been destroyed bv 
fire: in sneh forests the annual rai'ifall remaining 
nnobai ged the rpiings dry up and the water-courses 
beoome dry ravines- 
Wo nerd not be content with oontemporaneous 
evidence; We can also bring valuable witners from 
the past to the tru'h of our aasertions. About 
10 miles to the west of the road from Constantine 
to Bstna there is a horse-shoe shaped mom tain 
range, with its convex towards the east This range 
is named Iljohol Anonda by the nativts of the 
country. The inner slopes of thi* horseshoe were f.'r- 
raerly thickly wooded, a fact proved b> the presenno 
of stumps of oak trues. These aiumos, d epiy chsrrt d 
and rooted in soil thoroughly baked by the fire whioh 
destroyed the trees themselves ''sve hii hi rto resisted 
the decomposing effrets of tinio- An eniimeratio" of 
the stumps shows a foimer giowlli of about 60 large 
tress per acre, and in tlm centre of this magniScent 
forest tbero are the remains, in hewn stone, of a gigan- 
tic tank, aud isauing tbi refrom a broad sgne 'not, 
traceable in its rnins for several raih s. Today the aoil 
of Djebel Aiiouda is one of tie most arid in Algeria; 
in former days a strong sprii g existed, its water- 
supply stored and protected by a sturdy forest 
growth. 
In conolnding this short paper, we wonld like to 
add that, ihongh the extent of the areas under our 
notice cannot compare with those obsereod liy Mr. 
Gannett, on the other hand onr rainfall stations are 
much oluaer to each o'her than those under Mr. Uan- 
nett’s regiatrstion. Of 44 such stationa erected by the 
Government of Algeria, the lonr whioh enciosus the 
tract of Oned-Guebli have been most useful to ns. It 
is this traot of oonutry that the ob'eivatim s above 
recorded refer to, and the.se observations lead us to the 
oonolnsion that " the salutary influence of forests in 
storing atmospheric humidity is irrefutable ; but to 
enable them to store this humidity, the atmosphere 
must first contain it. — L. Pa.Bqt>KT in Jievue des Eaux 
Foreli. 
-sa 
DUNG V. ARTIFICIAL MANURE. 
Bigh-'ed mannre is more nutritious to the soil than 
the pri dace of pisin-leeding, but it is qm s'iuiiable 
whether its extra richness could not be supplied more 
eoonomioslly in llie form of commercial fertilisers. 
This is where and how the merits of home-made and 
artificial manures have come so closely into competition, 
and what has in many instances led to an extensive 
snbstitution of the one tor the other. It has <o some 
extent hern found that the three main elements — 
nitrogen, potaab, and phosphoric acid — extracted by 
crops, icou'd, at recent market value, be returned to 
the BO I more profitably in the shape of special than 
general manures. That may he, from such a canse 
as we have jnst referred to, but is not the advantage 
of applying artificial fertilisers, instead of well-rotted 
dnng. more apparent than real ? 
We repeat that rather more than three times as much 
nitrogen as phosphoric acid is removed from the soil 
by crops. Farmyard dnng returns these elements 
in similar proportions, but, of course, it would be 
a mistake to sappnse that dung supplies nitro- 
gen to any crop at the rate of 12 lb, per ton, or 
anything approaching that quantity. Its duration ae a 
manure extends over four or five crops, but the close 
resemblanoe whioh its chemical composition beara to 
that of ordinary crops as regards maiiurial ingredients 
points it out as a peouliarly suitable manure for the 
pnpose of maintaining the fertility of regularly crop- 
ped soil, while it furnishes much of the material ne- 
cessary for the promotion ol nitrification. 
In duration, farmyard manure ia excelled only by 
lime and borax, and this we regard is a very decided 
point in our favour. Wo accept the theory that ferti- 
lity is due to organic residue of previous generations 
of plants mixed with certain mineral substances of which 
pho photic acid and potash are the prinoipal. Orgsoic 
residue of previous generations of plants is simply 
anu'Iier 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 ia properly managed during the period of 
fermentation, farmy'rd maimto germinates what for 
want of a better term, may he oslletl the very es- 
senoe of fertility.— Farmer and Stock-Breeder. 
Mb. L. Wbay reports on “ gntta rambong " that 
it i« the rubber from the Ficus Elasticue. It is a 
largo, many stemmed-tree, like the banian tree. 
It is extensively cultivated in Assam. It may be 
grown from seeds or outtings. 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 
olearing the undergrowth round the yonng trees 
nothing more requires to be done till the trees 
are old enough to tap. I do not know how long 
it is before they begin to yield rubber. There are a 
few trees near Ipob, which I think ought to be 
preserved, as from them seed oould be obtained. 
There are also a few trees in Upper Perak and the 
Plus. The rubber (etobee about 9100 per pikul. 
From information whioh has been communicated to 
the Superintendent of Lower Perak, it appears that 
both in Langkat and Deli, Sumatra, the natives 
are enoeesefully opening rambong plantations. The 
price of young plants is said to be $1 tor a seed- 
ling one foot high, and $2 if two feet or more in 
bei, ht . — Singapore Free Presi. 
MaLTKSK Blood Oiunok. — H. E. Van Demau, 
pomologist of the department of agriculture at 
Washington, expresses the following opinion ol 
this orange in the Horticultural Art Journal : “ This 
is one of this ohoicest and most highly ilavorod ol 
all the varieties of the orange. It ia true that 
the flavor is not so mild and sweet as some, but 
in delioate aroma and sprightlinesa it is eoaroely 
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 email and seeds are quite rare. 
The name * Blood ' ia attaobed beoause ol the 
unusual obaraoteristio rod color of the pulp. This, 
however, varies greatly in different climates ; as for 
instance, in Gslifornia it is much more inclined 
to show the red than Florida and the Gulf coast 
where, in fact, it sometimes ooours that well deve- 
loped specimens have no red oolor at all, or but 
the slightest trace. The skin ia also thioker in 
California, and the flavor is more acid than the 
earns variety grown east of the Mississippi river. 
In the Mediterranean regions, the flesh is almost 
as red as that of, the .beet, the skin ia quite thick 
and the flavor tart. As its name indicates, this 
orange ia a native, so far back aa history goes, 
of the Island of Malta, in the Mediterranean sea. 
It has been known there for many oenturies, but 
not before the Christian era, aa the Roman writers 
make no mention of this or any other variety of 
the orange at that time .” — Jlural Oalifomian- 
