N 10-
Forestry Licences, New Territories.-The total amount collected in fees amounted to $4,822.82 compared with $4,871.45 in the previous year.
NURSERIES, AGRICULTURE, ETC.
Various vegetables were grown in the Fanling garden as object lessons to the Chinese.
Onions were again a great success and there were several demands for seeds last autumn but unfortunately none were obtainable from Tenerife owing to the export of them being prohibited.
The keeping quality of the onions grown at Fanling was very good.
They were taken up from the ground in April and they remained in excellent condition until September.
It is very interesting to be able to report that 350 cases of tea from the Lead Mine Pass plantation were shipped to Australia and that good prices were obtained for it.
At the request of the Director of the Imperial Institute seeds of Aleurites Fordii and Aleurites montana were sent to Ceylon and India.
These are the trees from which the Chinese wood oil is obtained.
The Assistant Director, Royal Gardens, Kew, wrote for information as to the source of seeds of Strychnos Nux-vomica sold in the Colony.
In investigating the matter I found that the seeds were obtained from India, also that seeds of another plant, Momordica cochinchinensis, were sold locally as Strychnos Nux-vomica seeds.
The Momordica, as its specific name implies, is a native of Cochinchina, and the seeds of this plant, sold in Hongkong are obtained from that place.
This plant is also found in the New Territories.
Seeds of the Momordica have been sent to Kew for analysis.
Strychnos angustiflora, a native of Hongkong and the New Territories, produces seeds very similar in outward appearance to those of Strychnos Nux-vomica except that they are smaller, and as these are sometimes sold locally for the same purpose as those of Strychnos Nux-vomica a quantity has also been forwarded to Kew for analysis.
About 35,000 pine tree seedlings were raised in the Ping Kong nursery and about 8,000 in the Beacon Hill nursery for planting out in 1918.
The first rice crop was poor but the second was up to the average.
The Litchi and peanut crops were fair.