1 SEpr., 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 239 
HOW TO PLANT THE NUTS OF THE COCO-PALM. 
A question has been raised in far Fiji as to the best mode of planting 
coconuts. Hitherto the recognised mode has been by laying the nuts on their 
side or with the eye upwards; but an ex-Ceylon planter, Mr. Griffiths (?), has 
turned up in Fiji who declares that the proper way is with the eye down, and 
that the tree comes into bearing in half the time if the nuts are putin that 
way! We never heard of this practice, and should like to know what Messrs. 
W. H. Wright and W. Jardine have to say to it? We suspect they will agree 
with the experienced and shrewd coconut planter who writes :—‘‘I always 
prefer laying the coconut on its side in the nursery, horizontally ; and should 
say it is tle best method for any district. The water in the nut keeps the eye 
moist, and facilitates the development of the germ; while if it is placed 
vertically, eye up, the eye dries and the germ may be sooner scorched in 
droughty weather. Besides, the nut may have to be planted out, too, erect, 
and then the base to resist wind, &c., is less. Hye down is a system | 
never heard of, aud to which there are obvious objections. The shoot has an 
unnatural twist, is more liable to submersion (and rot) in wet weather, and to 
attacks of rats, white ants, and poreupines from immediate contact with the 
soil. I don’t believe in it. I am quite content with the proportions of plants 
obtained by the horizontal system, which further follows nature. The dropped 
nut lies on its side.’—Zropical Agriculturist, Colombo. 
THE PADDY WEEVIL PEST. 
We are indebted to Mr. Vanderpoorten for a practical suggestion as to 
fighting the very serious attack of weevils on the paddy of the North-Western 
and Western provinces. In the case of Indian corn and wheat in America 
naphthaline is used, the smell of which 1s sufficient to keep away weevils without . 
doing any harm to the corn. Mr. Vanderpoorten would recommend the use 
of a series of pieces of bamboo, say each 5 feet long, to correspond with 
the usual depth of heaps of paddy. Along the sides of these bamboos gimlet- 
holes should be bored—up even fo an inch in diameter. Pinches of naphthaline 
should then be put inside the bamboos, which should be wrapped in a piece of 
clean cloth to prevent the rice getting into the bamboos. The naphthaline is so 
yolatile that when the bamboos were stuck into the heaps of paddy, say at 5 
feet apart, the smell would very speedily permeate the heap and drive away 
the weevils, or prevent paddy, as yet free, trom being attacked. Mr. Vander- 
poorten has already sent some naphthaline to the Kurunegala district to be 
experimented with, and it would be well if the Government agents and head- 
men and all intelligent natives, in the districts affected, at once gave a trial to 
this very simple and yet effective remedy. The cost is very little; a rupee’s 
worth of naphthaline going a very long way indeed towards saving a large store 
of paddy.—Tvopical Agriculturist, Colombo. 
NECESSITY FOR FOREST CULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. 
(From Engineering News, 9th June, 1898.) 
Forest statistics for the United States, as presented by Mr. B. HE. Fernow, 
chief of the Division of Forestry in the United States Department of Agricul- 
ture, show that our annual consumption of timber for industrial purposes is 
about 40 billion feet B.M. ‘To meet this consumption there is (says Mr. 
Fernow) not more than 2,300 billion feet B.M. of standing timber, or 
less than sixty years’ supply. This does not account for firewood or the timber 
burned in annual forest fires. Of the coniferous growth, the standing supply 
in the Eastern States will not last more than about sixteen years at the present 
rate of cut and waste (says the same authority) ; andthe supply on the Pacific 
coast would not lengthen this period beyond thirty years. The demand is in 
excess of the supply, and the conditions call for a cessation of waste and the 
development of forest culture and general supervision. 
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