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native habitat it is a forest tree, and so is unlikely to suffer from 

 close planting. Disease is no more likely than in an English 

 apple-orchard. The discovery of a substitute for rubber is as 

 improbable as the making of artificial diamonds, which remote 

 contingency does not seem to detrimentally affect the value of the 

 DeBeers Mines. The only substitutes so far discovered have added 

 to the uses of rubber, by requiring a certain percentage of pure 

 rubber as an indispensible ingredient. Rubber mixtures thus 

 produced result in substances which can be used for certain 

 purposes where no elasticity is required. Whether this will 

 always be so it is impossible to say ; but it is a fair commercial 

 risk to take. Overproduction is impossible for at least a genera- 

 tion, as the supply is stationary and the demand for ever increasing. 

 These latter questions, however, every business man is able to 

 argue for himself. Opposite views may be taken ; but, for the 

 moment, at any rate, few industries appear to offer greater and 

 better prospects. 



MIXED PLANTING OF RUBBER. 



Mr. Herbert Wright, of the R. Botanic Gardens, Ceylon, in the 

 Ceylon Observer, says : — 



" Personally I cannot say that I like rubber in any form under 

 coconuts. Rubber cnnnot be grown successfully with coconuts 

 except they are planted at the same time. In the case of Para and 

 coconuts, both plants are superficial feeders and have very strong 

 root systems, and six years after both are planted together a 

 tremendous struggle will take place, and in the long run neither 

 product will give satisfactory results." 



"Then what about interplanting tea with Para ?" 



" From what I've seen in the Ceylon low country I expect that on 

 those tea estates where the rubber has been interplanted lO by 15 

 feet, the tea will not pay for plucking in 5 to 8 years from now." 



" Have you seen any instance of this ?" 



•' Yes. I know of one place where the rubber over six years old 

 is planted 10 by 10 feet through tea nearly 14 years old. The 

 tea has dwindled down considerably, and the bushes which remain 

 appear to be only equal to what we can get from a seedling plant 

 only two or three years old. I was so misled by appearances that 

 I said to the planter — ' Why, you don't mean to say you're plant- 

 ing tea in this old rubber'— and the planter smiled; and then so 

 did I. Tea alone of the same age as that under the rubber, exists 

 alongside and is quite normal." 



" What about Para through cocoa ?" 



" I think these two products can be grown together for many 

 years to come, providing diseases are properly attended to." 



" But won't it also choke out cocoa ?" 



" Not to the same degree, for the simple reason that the cocoa 

 plant is one which in its native home lives under forest shade, 

 and when under cultivation is only planted 10 x 15 feet, or even 

 at greater distances apart. There is much more available soil 

 between the roots of the cocoa plants on the average estate than 



