5^4 



THE TEOPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[February i, 1884. 



RUBBER CULTIVATION IN BANTAM. 



Tjiekautlie Oediek, 7th January 1884. 



Dear Sir, — To commence at the commencement 

 I beg to wish you all a happy new year and the 

 "Old Rag" and T. A. many years of prosperity to 

 come. 



The saying is "Nothing succeeds like success." Suc- 

 cess hisn.it been our fate in Bantam during the 

 last years with regard to indigenous crops. But rub- 

 hers make an exception in our case, and their suc- 

 cess is so certain that we are going the " whole 

 hog" in that line. I have now about 30,000 Ficus 

 elaslica and 5,000 Ceani a part of which we are 

 going to tap during the next dry season. We have 

 just received two bushels of Ceard seed from Ceylon, 

 which will be planted out this year. We then ex- 

 pect to have a respectable plantation which will be 

 yearly increased up to a tnillion or more trees. I 

 like the Ceard, the best for various reasons. They 

 are easily propagated from seed grown rapidly 

 in any soil and at any height. They can be closely 

 planted, and seem to harmonize with all 

 other trees. I have Ceari and Liberia growing 

 shoulder to shoulder and both doing well. The Ceavd, 

 makes a capital shade tree for coffee, and 1 am now 

 plauiiiig peppiT to run up the trees. My letter will 

 prove to be like a Dutchman's or lady's — the sub- 

 stance or point nt the tail-end or in the posiscript- 

 um. The fact is-I have an "axe to grind," and, as you 

 are known to be blessed with the necessary su.ip 

 aud go-aheadativenes3, I knock, at your door. Please 

 favour me with ynur candid opinion regarding the 

 best method of lupping aud preparing rubber. My 

 par.'iier is a sanffu'me Aberdoninn, b.iu\ lama Yankee: 

 tluH for your countryman's sake 1 hope you will do 

 the thing. It may not be uninteresting to your go- 

 alie. id Ceylouese t > know how I plant ray rubbers. 

 The principtl work is done with au 8 h. p. steam 

 plough (Fowler) which turna over about four acres a 

 d.iy 14 inches deep, taking out the alanij-alang 

 gr-iss by the roots : you call it lUeck [iluk. — Ed. C. 0.] 

 1 think ; it is the horror of all planters here. We 

 t'leu proceed to plant Ficus elastica 20 feet. Be- 

 I ween the F. e. (in the row) we plant Liberia cof- 

 fee at stake ^with seed) aud down the middles Cearil 

 rubber 10 feet apart. I plant all my coffee at stake 

 now ! My plan is little and good. A tree raised where 

 it is planted is worth a dozen sickly plants out of 

 the nursery transplanted by natives who have no 

 interest lu anything as long as they get their pay 

 at the end of the month. 



More anon from yours very faithfully, 



H. E. KIMBALL. 



[Our correspondent will see from oonespondence 

 in the T. A. that imfiroved methods of tapping 

 have been adopted, but that the whole question of 

 the profitable extraction of the gum is still under 

 debate. — Ed.] 



VARIETIES OF FKUIT ON THE SAME TREE. 



10th January 1S84. 

 Dear Sir, -In your issue of the 8th instant, Mr. 

 Holloway asks for information as to the cause of 

 one of his cacao trees bearing three varieties of fruit. 

 This peculi.ir plienomenou, though unusual, is by no 

 means so rare as might be supposed, being an effect 

 of fertilization by p.illen from a difl'erent variety, 

 and i-i a remarkable instance of the prepotency of 

 strange pollen on the germ, even to the modification 

 of the embryonic attributes. The most frequent in- 

 stances of its occurrence are witnessed in the apple, 

 where two varieties planted close together bear fruit 

 resembling each other, principally upon their adjoin- 

 ing branches. Several cases have been noted where 



portions only of the fruits have presented the appear- 

 ance of those borne by the variety whence the male 

 element was derived, and a very remarkable instance 

 of this w.as produced by fertilizing the flower of an 

 orange with the pollen taken from a lemon, and 

 the fruit resulting from their union in this case had 

 one segment of the peel in which all the character- 

 istics of the lemon were produced, colour, flavour, &c. 

 On Mr. Holloway's cacao tree No. 1 is the natural 

 fruit ; in No. 2 the direct actioif of the pollen from 

 the Trinidad tree has so far predominated over the 

 female element as to also .iltect the ovarium, and 

 the characteristics of the two fruits, or rather capsules, 

 have become fused equ.il ly ; whilst in No. 3 it has 

 gained so complete an ascendency that the attrib- 

 utes of the male element alone are exhibited. These 

 two variations should produce very superior plants, 

 and Mr. Holloway should preserve their identity very 

 carefully so that he can subsequently ascertain their 

 respective inherited qualities with no chance of error. 

 What is popularly termed throwing back amongst 

 animals is analogous to this phenomenon, but of 

 course flowers caunot ' throw back ' since they can 

 only bo fertilized once.— Yours faithfully, SWADDY. 



ANOTHER TRI.4L OF SUGAR CULTIVATION 



IN CE-^LON? 



Rock Hill Est.ate, Badulla, January 11th, 1884. 



Dear Sir, — Having recently met with some sugar 

 planters from Queensland and Fiji, and from what 

 I saw of the sugar industry during my residence in 

 India, I ain inclined to believe that it would grow 

 and pay well, it cultivated in the lowcountry. 

 The ryots of India pay five rupees per acre for irrig- 

 ation, and J on may rely on it, that they would not, 

 or rather could not afford to do this ; unless they 

 realised haudsome returns for their time and hibour. 



I know sugar was tried here some years ago, and 

 it proved a failure, except in the case of Baddegama. 

 I consider the want of experience coupled with the 

 possibility of their having planted an inferior j:it 

 in lad soil cans d this. 'The fact of two or three men 

 ing failed is no reason that the cultivation should 

 be looked upon as a foregone conclusion. Take even 

 certain coffee di.stricts which have long since been 

 abandoned, did the fact of their having proved fail- 

 ures defer others from planting the fragrant bean in 

 other parts of the island? 



Sir Arthur Gordon has been Governor of two 

 countries where the sugar industry was paramount, we 

 might look to him for assistance in the way of 

 giving giants of land should any planters take up 

 the cultivation of this valuable product. GUNNER. 



TEAK SEEDS. 



Kew Gardens, Slave Island, Colombo, 12th Jan. 1S84. 



Dear Sir, — Can any of your correspondents say 



how teak seeds can be made to germiniite ''. I have 



tried to do so by adopting various methods and 



faUed.— Yours faitlifully, M. S. J. AKBAR. 



MODIFIED LEAF DISEASE AND HOPE 

 FOUNDED THEREON. 



Kandy, lath January 1SS4. 



Dear Sir,— I enclose a couple of coffee leaves picked 

 at rindom. You will observe that the fungus has 

 turned brown and dried up without advancing beyond 

 the pin-spnt stage. May we not hope that there is 

 something in the atmosphere inimical to th» proper 

 fructification of H mileia .' Who knows ! perhaps 

 Sir.\rihur Gordon's advent is to inaugurate au era of 

 prosperity for poor Ceylon ! HOPEFUL. 



