579 
the insects in their rice fields and they also say it is good 
fertilizer. The trees vary in size but a well grown tree will 
yield about two bushels of the nuts after the hulls are taken 
off. I don't know really what the average yield is but it is 
considerably less I imagine than the above figures. I have in- 
quired the age of the tree and old men have told me that they 
live and bear for several tens of years, as they put it. I 
have Inquired concerning the leaves being poisonous and all say 
that they are not." 
ITALY. Rome. Dr. Gustav Eisen writes July 2d: "There are 
two vegetables here which we do not grow in California but 
which are of special merit. One is the well-known 'Pinochio' 
with somewhat horizontally projecting stems, and entirely un- 
like the more common variety with upright stems, certainly in- 
finitely superior. The other kind is 'Zucchino', a kind of 
squash, eaten while the flower is yet fresh. It resembles a 
cucumber very much in shape and seems in taste nearly as good 
as the variety found in Egypt. Why these two kinds should 
never have reached California, I am at a loss to know." 
NICARAGUA. TUNKY. Minnesota Mine. Mr. Paul J. Pox writes 
June 23, in reply to requests for information in regard to teo- 
sinte: "The amount of cultivation of land in this part of Nica- 
ragua is exceedingly small, practically all of the provisions 
for mines, except meat, being imported from the United States. 
I have travelled a good deal over this part of Nicaragua and 
all the corn I have seen put together would not amount to even 
a small farm in the United States. However, I laid the matter 
before Mr. M. T. Snyder, about one day's journey or say twenty 
miles from me, and a man of very extensive experience in Central 
America, who tells me the plant you describe is grown on the 
Pacific water-shed of Nicaragua. It is known under the name of 
'maisia' and is grown to provide against a drought that would 
kill the maize crop. If the season turns out wet, it does not 
do well but in that case, they have of course, the maize. The 
rainfall here is heavy. At the Bonanza mine where records are 
kept, it is shown to be some 135 inches per annum, so that it 
is easily seen that maisia would scarcely be a crop for the 
Atlantic coast. Communications between here and the Pacific 
side are very difficult, involving a dangerous journey by mule- 
back of from 12-18 days, and a journey rarely made by a white 
foreigner. In fact it is much longer and harder than a journey 
to the United States. Communications with the "interior" 
(Pacific slope) are generally had by going to the sea, coasting 
down to San Juan del Norte and over the route of the Nicaragua 
canal with many changes of steamers, or else by Panama, or even 
by New Orleans and San Francisco." 
(ISSUED: Aug. 14, 1912.) 
