266 



there is between the roots of the tea plant or those of the coconut 

 palm ; and for the same reason castilloa and ceara could be 

 interplanted with cocoa." 



THE QUESTION OF HOLING FOR RUBBER 

 was another point brought up. 



" I know from experience that rubber will respond to generous 

 treatment and I would recommend that holes be made as large as 

 possible in area in young clearings ; they need not necessarily 

 be more than two feet deep. The difference in growth of stumps 

 put in holes two feet wide against those planted in ordinary 

 alavanga-made tea holes is surprising ; and when rubber is planted 

 in tea, I question whether it would not really pay to uproot a tea 

 bush where the rubber stump is being planted. On a large area, 

 that, of course, means a great deal in loss of tea plants, and it's 

 really a point more for the practical planter to settle." 



RUBBER IN S. INDIA. 



The Madras Mail says, — 



To sum up the advantages which S. India has as a rubber- 

 producing country, we may claim that it has an abundance of good 

 suitable soil and a climate which enables rubber to grow well at 

 what would elsewhere be considered extraordinary altitudes ; this 

 being greatly to the advantage of the European planter in health 

 and convenience. Our labour, averaging four annas (four pence) 

 a day for men, defies competition, our competitors and neighbours 

 who drew upon our inexhaustible supply having to pay practically 

 double rates or more, taking into consideration the cost of exporta- 

 tion and the extra rate of pay it is necessary to agree upon before 

 the Indian labourer will leave his country. Land can be obtained 

 at a moderate cost, under safe titles, and the cost of transport 

 is very moderate. Then — a very important point — it seems 

 probable that the coffee industry can be directly utilised in 

 extending rubber cultivation, and indirectly on account of the 

 comparative ease and cheapness of opening clearings from an 

 existing estate. Of course, the question arises in connection with 

 the planting of rubber amongst coffee — is the former a useful and 

 safe shade for the latter ? 



In the case of Ceara we have generally decided in the negative, 

 but with Para and Castilloa the verdict seems likely to be the 

 other way. Certainly we have not a long experience to guide 

 us as yet, and personally, I can only speak (as far as any real 

 acreage is concerned and not judging by a tree here and there) of 

 coffee under six years old rubber, and under that age the result of 

 which I mentioned in my first article as being thoroughly favour- 

 able to Para, and, in a slightly modified degree, to Castilloa. It 

 is only fair to say, however, that Mr. Nicholson, the owner of the 

 property I alluded to, considers that the Castilloa has had no bad 

 effect on the coffee, and I have certainly not noticed any such 

 thing elsewhere, even where both were interplanted simultaneously, 

 though I have carefully looked for it. Moreover, as far as my 



