q Thust } 
Austy, 
State, i 
7 or 80 
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UMfin,, 1900.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 225 
Y, 
mee nd Orange Free State Railway. At Sicilian prices these would be worth 
Aig £51,000, or £21,000 more than the whole reyenue of the Western 
Stalian forests in 1899! Sleepers in Queensland are to-day sold at from 
Os. to £7 per 100 delivered at the railway station; and of these 100, 14: 
© squared for connection sleepers. At the above price the Western 
‘alian sleepers would be worth, delivered, a little over £13,000. 
. the land on the wooded area of the Messrs. Baring’s Sicilian estate is sown 
heat one year and maize the next. The land is then allowed to lie 
V for the next two years, and is let for grazing purposes. The revenue 
emo grazing rents is much more than that obtained from wheat and 
ie ops, the latter returning 12,000 franes (£500), and the former 18,000 
*s (£750) per annum). As timber forms also a source of revenue on the 
fore? pe Beturally annoyed the proprietors when they found the vincolo 
inn tle suddenly applied to their private forest, which contains some 12,000 
hs © trees ; 4,000 of these trees were brought under the wegis of the Forestry 
7 tmen . One reason, and without doubt an excellent one, was that the 
The ®aring this timber was situated on hillsides haying a slope of 30 degrees. 
erentaeeee of the timber would be injurious to the hills themselves and 
by ally to the cultivated lands below. But a protest was naturally entered 
its > © owners. Anyone or any commune can enter such a protest. Upon 
aft, “ceipt, a Commission of departmental officers makes its appearance ; and 
forest ong negotiations, in the course of which liberal dowceurs reach the 
Ster’s hands, it is discovered that there is really no necessity for the embargo, 
justi 18 accordingly removed, and everyone is happy in the knowledge that 
«ice, has been done. One amusing instance occurred on the occasion of the 
Pineoy the Forestry Commission to inquire into a case of the application of the 
given ® All arguments had been exhausted, liberal “baosheesh” had been 
tee but all in vain. The principal man of the Commission was a highly 
ectatic engineer, whom the British agent failed to convince, and who looked 
4a “hportant an official to take a bribe. The agent at last determined to 
ha st make the attempt. He enclosed a hundred-frane note in a book, and, 
mente’ it to the engineer, said: ‘* Look at page so-and-so, and if the argu- 
Sit contains do not convince you that I am right, then nothing will.” 
€ engineer took the book and looked into the page named. In a minute 
€ returned the book (minus the bank-note, of course), and said that 
Pinca plainly saw that he had taken a wrong view of the question, and the 
° would be at once removed. 
THE HEALTHFUL EUCALYPTUS. 
a0) ‘ 
cad (says a Havana [Cuba] message to an American paper) to frequent 
Malaria ecetions to Governor-General Brooke of the eucalyptus tree as an anti- 
his op Agent, some investigations into the subject have been carried on under 
treg j rs. Attention has been called to the success obtained in cultivating the 
1 the vast Campagna di Roma, Italy, where eucalyptus is now recognised 
Citeq , tg the whole territory much less unhealthy. ‘The city of Mexico is 
Malays.) Other instance, where the Vigo Canal, the floating gardens, and other 
the») districts are now well stocked with young trees, with the results that 
fmocnoe Which were once marshy and unhealthful have been rendered dry and 
Nous, 
whige2” recommendation says that the camp of the British troops in Jamaica, 
alread Was formerly malarial, has been planted with eucalyptus, the outcome 
the “ane eing a steady disappearance of marshy spots. The tree, which absorbs 
and here, grows very rapidly, often 10 feet ina year. The wood is valuable, 
Medion wey bees seek the flowers. The honey, it is said, contains important 
\ inal properties. 
ting «© tree Department at Santiago de Cuba. now knowing of the investiga- 
M progress under General Brooke’s direction, recently made a request for 
