The Maive Shrab.

Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 9, 3 September 1874, Page 3

The Maive Shrab.

& At the monthly meeting of the National Agricultural Society of Melbourne, the Secretary read the following documents : — The National Agricultural Society of Victoria having, at their request to the British Consul in California, received a package of the seed of this plant in firstclass order, and condition, have . much pleasure in offering to their subscribers a portion of the seed for planting and report, and they can obtain the same from the Secretary on application at their offices, Kirk's Bazaar, ac Melbourne.

The Malva shrub is a beautiful evergreen, and is invaluable in an industrial sense. It grows equally well in a wet or dry season, on lowlands or hillsides, regardless of climate or special cultivation. It can be produced from seed carelessly strewn, and in five years attains an average height of 30 feet, usually surviving eight years, but the falling seed maintains a perpetual growth, and the tree gives better effects than any other known.

Besides enduring the effects -of climate the foliage can suslain cntble and sheep, which will leave clove? to feed on the large juicy leaves; and 'from experiments it has been found that cows trive more and richer milk from this nutriment. Cattle enly brov-se on the leaves, w.:.::.\ r.re rapidly replaced. The plant blooms for nine months in the year, and bees work upon the lowers all the time, preferring them to those of others. The stem of the shrub, which attains about 18 inches in diameter, after lying on the ground in the rainy season, becomes partially decayed, and exhibit. 1 , a mass of line, delicate, and strong fibre capable of being used in the same manner as "flax. One acre of the.-c trees, after the first growth, will yield ten times the fibrous material that an acre of flax would, with the advantage that little or no labor is required Thus the trees will aid in. attracting moisture to parched countries, feed cattle, sheep, and bees, and also produce, at an early date, an article of commercial value in its fibre. After the second y-*ai* animals may be allowed to feed on them with impunity. They grow with such exuberance and rapidity chat leaves e;tten off are reproduced in a week, and no animals have been known to gnaw the branches.

Where tliis plant is abundant, it is a fact th.it fevers and sickness are rare, as ir, acts in the same manner as the sunflower, which is known to remove malaria.

It is of immense value in countries destitute of forests, and which are subjected periodically to destructive drought like Australia in many parts.

The season for sowing is immediately before the winter rains commence, and the plants, when from lOin to lJ3in high, ought- to be. transplanted.