Search

THE use of 'Gammexane' has been recommended for controlling insect pests in libraries and record offices, where insect infestation is a serious problem especially in a tropical climate. 'Gammexane' smoke generators appeared to be particularly suitable for this purpose owing to the ease and safety with which they can be handled. But no information about its effect on paper1 was available, and the use of a new insecticide for the disinfestation of documents of a unique and irreplaceable nature had therefore to be scrutinized from the preservation point of view.

Despite the dominant role the timber industry now plays in the economy of Sabah, little is known of the development of the industry prior to the Pacific War. The small amount that has been published on the pre-war situation appears in the Malayan Forester, but the destruction of records in Sabah during the Japanese Occupation has greatly impeded detailed research. For the present study the papers of the British North Borneo (Chartered) Company now held in London have served as a source of far more comprehensive information than occurs in the oft-quoted secondary sources.1 The aim of this paper is to provide the first detailed account of forest policy and administration, and a systematic analysis of the development of the timber industry in pre-war North Borneo. The nature of the forest vegetation Location, soil type and altitude have produced marked vegetational zones. These have been classified by Nicholson as lowland dipterocarp, mangrove, peat swamp and montane forests.2 The former is the main source of commercial timber. This tropical evergreen rain-forest occupies a lowland habitat where topographic and soil conditions are suitable. It is the most important vegetational type in North Borneo and is reported to have made up 78 to 80 per cent of the existing forest area.3 During the period under consideration these forests were mainly confined to the East Coast. Exports were predominantly of the Dipterocarp species, during the 1930s they represented about 95 % of all timber exported in log or converted foim.4 Potentially productive commercial (i.e. timbers suitable for export) forests were for all practical purposes confined to the East Coast. The West Coast provided a radical contrast in cultural landscape. The denser agricultural population which had for generations practised shifting cultivation resulted in large areas of forest being repeatedly cleared. In consequence, the original forest that had evidently existed in a form similar to that on the East Coast, was replaced by secondary forest with entirely different vegetational components. The ecological transformation that was initiated converted the timber elements into species that on the East Coast were classed as 'non-commercial'. These forests did, however, provide for a large proportion of local demands for constructional timber and fuel, and also were the source of large quantities of jungle produce. But the progressive destruction of

Significant changes are taking place in the banana production of Middle America. Disease has caused a disastrous decline in yields and increasing production costs. Disease is also encouraging a change in the relative importance of producing areas on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Central America. During the past decade, the Pacific Coast has been gaining rapidly. Other causes gave the Pacific increase momentum for some years before a new plant malady became a serious factor, but now Sigatoka, (pronounced Singatoka) or Cercospora muitsae, a leaf blight, has accelerated the Pacific trend. Increasing irrigation is taking place on both Central American coasts. A study of these and other changes in the Middle American banana industry will form the theme of this paper.

n/a

Population pressure induces Dyaks and Malay subsistence cultivators on the island of Kalimantan (Borneo) in Indonesia to make the transition from shifting to continuous wet cultivation of rice (sawah). The techniques used for continuous cultivation of rice are adapted from those used in wet shifting cultivation.

This discussion of minor oil-bearing crops by no means includes all that were considered and might conceivably have deserved treatment or at least passing mention. Omitted were seeds contained in agricultural products from which, in all likelihood, oil could never be obtained economically. Justification for such reasoning can in most cases be found in the scattered status of an industry processing the commodity from which the oil bearing part is derived, or the low magnitude of processing operationsvs. that of retail sales. For example, the seeds of watermelon, cantaloupe, and a wide assortment of berries were not included. A vast number of seeds of wild plants could have been discussed, but unless concentration of growth occurs either naturally or as a result of domestication or unless the derived oil seems to have outstanding characteristics, such as that of gopher plant seeds or jojoba beans, it is useless to consider them seriously as oil sources. Certain grain screenings such as water grass, which occurs plentifully in rice, were omitted because their oil content is too low for profitable recovery.

That India is not the cradle of the Brahmanical faith, may be a proposition startling to many who are not acquainted with its ancient literature. To the orientalíst of the humblest pretension, however, it needs no proof. The predecessors of the Brahmans, it is admitted by all who hare considered their records and traditions, were first associated together as a religious fraternity in a country beyond the Indus, or exterior to the Himálaya mountains. Our greatest men are divided in their opinions as to the country from which they came. Sir William Jones brings them from Iran, or Central Asia; Adelung from a similar locality; Klaproth, from the Caucasian mountains; Kennedy, from the plains of the Euphrates; and Schlegel, from the borders of the Caspian Sea. The theories of these scholars are all plausibly supported; and they generally agree in this respect, that they take it for granted, that the Brahmans in ancient times were found in the territories immediately north of India. The occurrence of about three hundred Sanskrit words in the Persian language, the Hindú notion of the northern position of the residences of the gods, the situation of the Manusarovar, or Lake of Intelligence, still a celebrated place of religious pilgrimage, and the source of the river Brahmaputra, whose etymological meaning, the “son of Brahma,” is similar to that of the usual designation of the priestly class to whom I refer, are in favour of this agreement. After the Brahmans entered India, they continued for a considerable time to inhabit its northern territories. The “Holy Land” of Manu, which is of no great extent, lies between the Drishadwatí and Saraswatí. On the banks of the latter river, according to some authorities, lived Vyása, the reputed compiler of the Vedas and Puránas. In the north are to be found the shrines, junctions of rivers, and lakes, esteemed most sacred by the Hindús in all ages.

n/a