Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1900-11-09

for game worth a few dollars to in
dividual hunters forest trees worth
thousands of dollars are burned up.
The second cause for incendiarism Is
the desire of native farmers to get
early and good pasture for their farm
stock. In one province last year 3d.
600 acres were burned over. To show
the difficulty Of stopping this incen-
darism by punishment it Is narrated
that one man that had set fire to
forest and burned up 1900 acres OF
valuable trees was fined ten rupees
-$2.07, according to the present value
of the rupee. Some of the natives set
fire to large bodies Of trees for the
sake of smoking out the rats. which
they use for food. India today Is I'M
poverished in her forests and the year.
ly famines are widespread and de-
structive. There are few forests OF
large trees in India. There. as here,
1t is fire that destroys the timber. In
the United States the annual growth
of forest trees creates more lumber
than is needed for commercial use.
One government official said, in the
presence OF the writer: II have seen
single fire In Colorado that burned Up
more timber than was used in tile
United States in that year, and there
have been several such fires in Col
orado in my day." Governments
everywhere should make laws to pre-
tect the forests and then they SHOULD
make sufficient appropriations to en-
force them.
Australia Is taking preliminary steps
to establish fruit trade with England
and other European countries, and
| promises to be an enterprising rival
of the United States. The Australian
fruit growers propose to import into
England in large quantities not only
apples, pears and the harder fruits, but
| such soft fruits as peaches and grapes.
They have gone about it in a system
| attic manner. They first laid plan
for shipping good-sized consignments
in the refrigerators of the steamers
sailing to England. The outbreak OF
| the Boer war necessitated giving up
the plan for last season, as the refrig-
orators of the steamers were taxed to
their full capacity for other things.
| The Australians had planned to send
| to England over 5000 cases of fruit Of
different kinds. AS they were shut
off at the last moment from actually
making the consignments, they deter
mined to make trial on land, put
ting the fruit in chambers where the
temperature would be kept as low as 1t
would be in the refrigerators of the
steamers. The time required in max
ing the trip from Melbourne to Liver
pool is about eight weeks, but the fruit
men made the limit ten weeks to pro-
vide for delays in shipping and dis
charging. The trial proved a COM
plete success, with the exception of
peaches. about one-half Of which
spoiled. Hence, we may expect that
another season will see some large
shipments of Australian fruit to Eng
land. American producers Of fruit
will have to be on the alert If they
wish to prevent large part of their
very profitable foreign fruit trade
slipping away from them and going
into the hands of the Australians. The
fact that the Australian summer be-
gins in December and that their fruit
Is ready for gathering in March and
April gives them q peculiar advantage
over us. Their shipments will arrive
in Liverpool in May, June. July and
August, and their winter apples may
be depended on to keep as late as
Christmas. If the Australian apples
are equal in flavor to the American
apples the English buyers will not be
very hungry for fruit when our ship
ments arrive. OF course the thing
works both ways, but as we have the
bulk OF the trade now any change must
work to our disadvantage. The moral
of the situation is that we must grow
the quality of fruit that suits the Eng
fish market, at least enough of it to
fill the demand for export goods. We
also believe that the United States
government should take some such
steps to foster our foreign fruit trade
as Denmark has taken to build up
her butter trade. An agent should be
permanently located in England to
look after the trade and see that Am
erican goods are up to demand in
quality. We; know from reports from
England that some of the fruit sent to
England has disguised buyers there.
The yellow insipid peaches from Cali
fornia that were last year dumped on
the London market did much damage
to the American trade in export
peaches, and 1t is against our interests
that such incidents should frequently
occur.
Cannonading Hail Storms.