66 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[Jtoy 2, 1883. 



HOW TO COLLECT EUBBKR : OLD PLANS 

 REVIVED ; WHO WILL TRY AND REPORT ? 



16th June 1883. 

 Deak Sir, — Many an old-fashioned idea hae proved 

 to be the beat after all, when modified or improved 

 to suit our more extended notions, and, perhaps, I have 

 now stumbled across one tliat may be of service in 

 one branch of of our planting industry. Referring to 

 that valutible product of ancient dajs known as balm 

 or balsam of Gilead, Josephus in his Antiquities 

 says ; — " At Jericho, where the pnlm tree grows and 

 that balsam which is an ointment of all the most preci- 

 ous, which, upon any incision made in the wood 

 with a sHlUp stone, distils out thence like a juice." 

 Tacitus, the great Roman bistoriau, contemporaneous 

 with Jostphus, also refers to it thus: — "They [the 

 Jew.«] have also, besides ours, two trees peculiar to 

 themselves, the balsam tree naA the palm tree. Tbeir 

 groves of palms are tali and beautiful. The balsam tree 

 is not very laree. As soon as any branch is swelled, 

 the veins quake as for fear, if you bring an iron knife 

 to cut them. They are to be opened with the broken 

 piece of a stone, or with the ehell of a fish." Now, 

 divesting the latter of its romance, these paragraphs 

 simply point out that by making use of a sharp stone 

 or a she.l to make the incision in the bark, a greater 

 quantity of gum exuded than when a knife was the 

 iustrumeut employed. The only objection (theoretical) 

 that I see why this primitive system should not be 

 equally applicable to extract the milk from rubber 

 trees is that gum is contained in cells or vessels ; its 

 motion is by an edosmotic action, and it is one of the 

 forms through which vegetable matter passes in being 

 applied to we purposes of plant life ; whilst the milk 

 of the rubijer plant is contained in intercellular canals 

 lined by a special membrane, forming hy their union a 

 network like the veins ol animals, and its movement 

 is analogous to the capillary circulatiou in those veins. 

 However, it is a matter ti at can easily be determined by 

 expennient, and it seems at lirst glance reasonable to 

 expect tliat a lacerated wounii, such as would be caused 

 by a sharp stuue, should bleed for a longer time than 

 a clean cut from a knife. — Tours faithfully. 



-CAOUTCHOUC. 



ENEMIES OF COCOA : HOW TO COMBAT 



THEM ? 



18th June 1883. 



Dear Sir, — You would confer a great boon on 

 cocoa planters generally, if, by ventilating the matter 

 in your paper and Tro^'ical Agriculturist you 

 could collect information as to the- most effectual 

 way to set to work for the wholesale Uebtruction of 

 the difi'ereut animals that feed upon the ripeniug pods. 



I refer more particularly to bats, flying-foxes, 

 squirrels and crows. Ihe mischief they cause is veiy 

 serious, and shootiug is not a sufficient remedy, al- 

 thi'Ugh it is the only oue tried us yet. 



Bats and fiying-foxes only work at night, so they 

 musi be poisoned 1 should say, only what would they 

 eat that poison could be mixed with. Do gardeners 

 at Louie or on the continent do anything for them ? 



Squirrels, I am told, will eat vermin paste spread 

 upuu slices of bread. Has anyone tried this? — Yours 

 faithfully. MATALE. 



COFFEE DROPPING FHOM THE TREES. 



t'oh.mbo, 20th June 1883. 

 Deak Sib, — I herewith extract from a letter dated 

 yth) instant just received from Raugala : — "A 

 good deal of the coflee which seemed to be set 

 IS dropping off the trees ; in parts where the cofi'ee 

 is good the crop seems to be liliing out veiy well. 

 1 send you by ibe post a sample of ivhat is drop- 



ping. The sample is from under oue tree "— aceompanied 

 by the enmple referred to, and I think when you 

 examine the various stages of the cherry succumbing 

 you will agree with me we must look much further 

 than these abnormal seasons for the cause of our misfor- 

 tunfs in coffee. — Yours faithfully. J. W. 



[Certainly the green coffee cherries sent to us, of 

 all sizes from peas up to three-fourths full size, are a 

 most melancholy sight : a case of " insidious de- 

 function." — Ed.] 



TEA AND PLANTINC; PROSPECTS IN 

 MASK ELI Y'A. 



Maskeliya, 21st June 1SS3. 



Dear Sir, — I send a few leaves off a tea tree on 

 the Mahanillu estate, Dunediu seed, planted at stake 

 in May 1880, at an elevation of 4,350 feet on a 

 small clearing that was considered too exposed to 

 grow either coffee or cinchona. It is now a 

 very nice even field of tea, and this leaf speaks 

 well for the jat. -How will these compare with the 

 dimensions of large tea leaves from wanner .lud lower 

 districts. I would be glad to hear there being an 

 idea afloat that the China and hardier jats suit the 

 high elevations better than this large-leaf hybrid. 



We are haviug a veiy mild monsoon : not more 

 rain than is required by those planting. All at tea. 

 Cinchona lias a few friends still who are putting 

 out numbers of plants. They are selling cheap. The 

 May and early June coffee blossoms have set fairly, 

 and will make up crops a little. In the upper end 

 of the valley they have been good, Maskeliya will do 

 fairly well. — Yours truly, C. S. A. 



[The leaves sent are from 9 to 9i inches in length 

 by 3 to 3i iu breadth and indicate a splendid jat — 

 good for low or high altitudes. —Ed.] 



DU. TRIMEN'STYPIfAl. LEDGERIANA TREE. 



[We publi.'ih below a letter from Mr. Agar, which 

 places beyond question the fact that the tree figured 

 by Dr. Trimen was an uudnubted Ledgeriana, Mr. 

 Howard himself having given testimony to that eflfect 

 after having analyzed the bark. — En.] 



Lawrence, June 22nd, 1883. 



Dear Sir,— I have little to add to what Mr. Christie 

 has written on the subject of Ledgerianas, but that 

 little is, I think, important. 



The tree, which was sketched for Dr. Trimen's work, 

 is dead. 



It was one of several Mr. Moens saw in flower at 

 Mahanilu estate. Dr. Triincu was with Mr. Moena, 

 and both agreed the trees were true Ledgerianas. 

 The bark of some of these trees w:is .si nt home bj' Mr. 

 Campliell for analysis to Mr. Howard, who pronounced 

 it to be Ledgeriana bark, giving 7 per cent of pure 

 quinine (equal I lielieve to 9 of sulphate) and only a 

 trace of other alkaloids. The trees were only about 

 4| years old I roui the lime the plants were put out, 

 ami were growing; in a bad situation and not robust. 



I have many plants from the seed of the specimen^ 

 tree as well as the oiheis that Mr. Moens declared to 

 be true Ledgerianas, so that it will be easy in the 

 future to determine the question. 



I have also in my possession the bark from the tree 

 itself, but taken when it was dying. — Yours truly, 



WALTER AGAR. 



ABNORMAL SEASONS AND SHORTCOFPEE 

 CROPS IN HIGH DISTRICTS. 

 Del Roy, Bogawautalawa, 23rd June 1883. 

 Sir, — A correspondent iu your issue of the 19th 

 iustaut, under the signature of "JL," impugus the 

 conolu>ious to which I, as well as others, have arrived 



