NOTES AND QUERIES
191
These three trees have been regarded as the sole source of propagation material of C. cassia outside its natural habitat during the last two decades, and they have been much prized, and are the subject of considerable interest by an overseas company dealing in essential oils.
The species can be propagated either by air-layers or by seed. If propagated by seed, satisfactory results can be obtained only when seed is collected in a well-matured condition and immediately air-dried for 2/3 days after collection before sowing. Soaking and removal of the pericarp prior to sowing will improve germination,
Young seedlings have been raised in the forest nursery from the seed collected from these specimens in successive years. Trees of sapling stage have been established in Castle Peak Demonstration Plantation and Tai Po Kau Forest Reserve. In view of its rarity, it is advisable that more of this species should be planted in suitable localities in the New Territories and Hong Kong Island.
D. C. SHEN
Like the foregoing note, this also appeared in Wildlife Conservation Newsletter, No. 14 (October 1971), and is reproduced here with due acknowledgements.
TRADITIONAL FARMING TECHNIQUES AND
THEIR SURVIVAL IN HONG KONG
Farmers in Hong Kong have very old traditional skills and techniques in farming passed from father to son for many generations.
Since the end of the Northern Sung Dynasty in 1127 A.D., due to invasion of the Tartars-Mongolians and Manchurians who broke through the Great Wall one after the other, numerous people have moved from the north into South China. Some of them developed the sparsely populated land with their technique of subsistence farming.
Later, in 1898, the land population of the present New Territories of Hong Kong reached about 90,000. In 1905 the British Crown confirmed that there were 354,277 separate plots of agricultural land comprising 40,738 acres. The average size of the lot