Vol. I. X. 



THE AOllICULTritAL NEWS. 



37 



the .set'cls ri|ii'ii at tlif beginning of tlie dry season, in -luly 

 and Angnst. 



I/eveu fini.ti/iciisix grows in the moist, hot forests of the 

 provinee of Para, and eapeeially in the district near the 

 numerous mouths of tlie Amazon, known as the ishmds. [t 

 (iroliahly extends far inland into the |irovince of Amazonas, 

 hut its exact distrilmtion is not clearly known. Other sjiecies 

 of Heveas, eight or ten in all, are found not oidy in I'razil, 

 liut also in A'enezuela, (Jiiianas, Peru, and Bolivia. 



The district where f/ei'ca hntxifieimix flourishes, is in 

 South latitude I : the climate is remarkahle for its unifor- 

 mity of teiniicrature. usually not cNcecding f>7 Fahr. at 

 mid-day, or liclow 7+ at night. The greatest heat locorded 

 is 9."» , and the mean for- the year is ST. The rainfall occurs 

 |irinci|ially during the months of .Fanuary to .Tune, the 

 maxiniuni being in .V|>ril, when it reaches 1.") inches. For the 

 remaining six months, little rain falls, but the air is always 

 loaded with moisture. The whole country is covered with den.se, 

 aim >st im;)jn^tral)le, fortjsts, and th'3 soil near the num?rous 

 and gigantic ri\ers is deep, heavy, and very fertile. Some of 

 the low lying country, where the rubber trees grow, is 

 annually flooded, and is very damp and unhealthy. IikIci' 

 <-ultivation in t'eylon it has been found that the trees will 

 idso flourish on well-drained soils beyond the reach of floods. 



Mr. Kerbey, the American Consul at Para, states : - 



'The rubber tree thrives well both on high and low land ; 

 liut in order to yield a large sui)[ily of milk it must have 

 (ilenty of moisture in the soil part of the year at least. For 

 example, on the river Purus. where the flood plains are 

 covered with water from one to three or four months in the 

 year, the trees on these levels yield milk in abundance, while 

 large trees of the same sort, not reached liy the floods, do 

 not pay for the trouble of ta))ping them. ( )n the Lower 

 Amazon not only the trees on the tide flats, an<l annual flood 

 ]ilains yield milk in I'aying (juantities, lint also those on 

 the high land (term fvniiii) becau.se the rains of six months 

 or more in the year supply abundance of watei- to the .soil.' 

 He continues: 'The territory from which Para rubber is 

 gathered is nearly or (|uite as extensive as all the I'nited 

 States lying east of the llocky Mountains. Some of the 

 I'ara rubber has to come as far to reach Para as it has to 

 travel from Para to reach New ^'ork.' 



The great value of Para ruliber trees has naturally 

 .suggested the desirability of introducing the cultivation into 

 other counti-ies. Seeds of Ifcvea brani/iensiK were introduced 

 to Kew in lS7l'. through Sir Clements Markham, K.C.P.. 

 (then Mr. Markham), and a first case of living jilants was 

 .safely taken out to India by Dr. King, the Suiierintendent 

 of the Botanic (Jardens at Calcutta, in the following year. 

 Since that time the Government of India has taken uip the 

 introduction of this valuable tree on a large scale. In 187") 

 Mr. H. A. \\ ickham was commissioned to collect .seeds in 

 I'.razil, and he arrived at Kew with 70,000 seeds of which 

 1,900 i)lants in 3S Wardian cases were, however, despatched 

 from Kew to Ceylon (as the climate of Calcutta was found 

 unsuitable to them), where they arrived in excellent condi- 

 tion. Small lots of plants were also distributed at the .same 

 time to the West Indies, the West coast of Africa, Singapore, 

 and Java. In 1S7(; Mr. Robert Cro.s.s, who had been .sent 

 to South America to bring home living plants in case the 

 seeds brought by Mr. Wickham failed to germinate, arrived 

 at Kew with i,000 jilants. The greater numlier of the 

 .survivors of these was also foiwarded to Ceylon to be grown 

 for distriliution to India, and the rest to ^lauritius, Singa- 

 pore and Queensland. J'ara rubber trees are now well 

 establishfd in various parts of India and in most of oui- 

 ilastern possessions. 



THE CARE OF PASTURES. 



In several of the West Indian islands there are exten- 

 sive pastures on which stock are annually raised but not in 

 sutticient numbers to supply the local demands for fresh meat. 

 To meet this deliciency cattle are imported from Venezuela, 

 Porto Rico, and el.sewhere. If some means could l)e found 

 to render the British West Indies self-supporting in this 

 respect, not only would a considerable sum of money, now 

 spent elsewhere, remain in the islands, l)ut renninerative 

 emiiloyment would be available for a section of the [lojuda- 

 tion. There I'an be little doubt that the existing pastures, if 

 carefully handled, are ca[)ab!e of supporting more stock than 

 at present. The suliject of the car.- of pastures has already 

 received some attention from the l);'partment of Agriculture, 

 and a paper on the subject by the Hon. Francis Watts 

 a|>iieared in the IIV.s/ Iinlian Bullttin (Vol. 1 p. 410). Tn 

 this paper, the systematic grazing of pastures after dividing 

 them by suitable fencing, the jirevention of pasture fires, the 

 use of shade trees for the stock and the cutting of grass for 

 hay, were advocateil as suitable moans for the improvement 

 of the Antigua pastures. Mr. C. W. Meaden, manager of 

 the G ivernnient Farm in Trinidad, makes ( H'cs^ IiiJlan 

 liiilletin. Vol. 11, p. KiL') somewhat similar proposals for 

 dealing with the pastuies in Trinidad, where £40,000 is 

 annually spent on the sup|ily of meat. In this connexion, a 

 recent ex|ierinient carriecl out by the I'nited States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture on the improvement of cattle ranges in 

 Central Texas is of interest. ( Kullctin No. to., Biirean nf 

 Vliiat l,hh(^tiiu by H. L. P.entleyj. 



.\ range, below the average ((Uality, 040 acres in 

 exlint. with a carrying capacity of 40 head of mi.xed cattle, 

 or 1 to 1(3 acres, was selected by the Department. The experi- 

 ment lasted three years and was concluded in April last, 

 when the carrying capacity of the range was estimated 

 to be lUO head of mixerl cattle for the 640 acres, an increase 

 of more than 100 per cent. The actual cost of the improve- 

 ments did not exceed 7.J cents jier acre, for the three year.s, 

 l>ut the rental value had increased from $■") [ler acre in 1S98, 

 to .-^lOin 1901, a net increase of ^\:lh per acre or $L',7-'0 

 from the si'i-tion of t')4n acres. 



4'he .section was divided into a nund>er of fields by suit- 

 able fencing. The result of the experiment demonstrated that 

 uniler the conditions olitaining in Texas (1 ) it Jpays to cultivate 

 pastures with disk or iron-tooth harrows ; ("2) it l>ays to 

 rest pastures periodii'ally during the period when the grass 

 seeds are maturing and falling to the ground : (.3) that various 

 leguminous plants sm-li as alfalfa, sainfoin, e^)W peas, velvet 

 beans are suitable for annual or temiiorary jjastures and 

 for hay purposes: (4) that the .sowing of the seeds of perma- 

 nent pasture grasses can be utilized to good advantage. The 

 bulletin concludes witli a description of the hay and pasture 

 plants recommi'iided for Central Texas. 



A Cockroach Trap. .Many devices have been sug- 

 gested from time to time to destroy these common hou.sehold 

 pests. The following is simple and has al.so jiroved very 

 successful. An em[ity guava-jelly pot is placed upright on 

 the floor in jilaces infested with cockroaches. The in.sects 

 are attracted by the sweet jelly and reiidily enter the Jiot. 

 Oiicc inside they are unable to climb up the .slippery sides, 

 and remain [irisonurs. As many as a dozen large cockroaches 

 iniy be trapped in a single night in one of these jelly pots. 



