Vol. XI. No. 263. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS, 



165 



tn some extent and still retain a satisfactory yield. It is notice- 

 able that as the percentage of pods within 12 inches of the 

 body of the plant decreases, the yield increases. While the per- 

 centage of pods within 12 inches of the central stem shows 

 a direct relation to the percentage of dry pods on the plant, 

 the former shows a slight opposite relation to the weight of 

 shelled beans per plant (yield). 



THE VITALITY OF PARA RUBBER SEEDS. 



This subject has received attention on several 

 occasions in the Agricultural News (Vols. X, pp. Ill, 

 363; XI, pp. 53, 91), and formed the matter of an 

 interesting discussion at the recent Agricultural Con- 

 ference. An account of investigatictns undertaken in the 

 Federated Malay States, in regard to it, is contained in 

 the Agricultural Bulletin of flie Straits and Fede- 

 rateiJ Malay States for February 1912, the purpose of 

 the work being, firstly, to compare the vitality of seeds 

 from tapped and untapped trees, and, secondly, to try 

 the effectiveness of various methods of preserving seeds 

 from tapped trees. The details given with respect to 

 the first of these are reproduced here; those relating to 

 the second will be published later in this journal. 



Seeds of Hevea hrasiliensis do not retain their vitality 

 for a long period, and the consequent difficulty of forwarding 

 them successfully to distant countries is well known. This 

 year several hundred thousand I'ara seeds from tapped trees 

 were packed in Venesta chests with charcoal and forwarded to 

 Trinidad. The results obtained were far from satisfactory, 

 although the seeds were most carefully selected and packed. 



There is no doubt that seeds picked immediately on 

 falling, and carefully packed, give the best results. If they 

 are allowed to be on the ground, or if badly packed, a smaller 

 percentage of germination will be obtained. It must be 

 borne in mind however, that no matter how the packing has 

 been done, the vitality of Para seeds cannot be retained for 

 any length of time if they are not gathered immediately. 

 The seeds must not be packed too many in a bo.v, otherwise 

 fermentation starts and the whole mass heats and loses its 

 vitality; the packing material must be just sufficiently moist 

 to prevent the seeds from drying out and not moist enough 

 to encourage the growth of moulds and bacteria. For the 

 same reason the packing must be fairly tight and yet not 

 quite air-tight. Small boxes seem better than larger cases. 



Experiments have been carried out as mentioned in 

 a previous article, at the suggestion of the Director of Agri- 

 culture, to compare the germinating power of seeds from 

 tapped and untapped trees and to see if by coating the 

 surfaces of the seeds with various substances the germinating 

 power could be retained for a longer period. The tapped and 

 untapped trees selected for the experiments are twelve years 

 old; the first-mentioned have been tapped for the past two 

 years; the seeds are collected fresh each morning and treated 

 as mentioned. 



THE VITALITY OF SEEDS KEOM TAPPED AND UNTAPPED 



TREES. All seeds were packed with burnt padi husk, in 

 biscuit tins, each containing 200 seeds. The tins were 

 wrapped in brown paper, and sealed. 



Boxes Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, h and 6 were kept 3, .5, 7, S, 9 

 and 10 weeks, respectively, then opened, and the seeds planted 

 in well-prepared nursery beds. It will be seen from the 

 tables that seeds from untapped trees gave on an average 50 

 per cent, higher germination than those from tapped trees 

 reckoned on the absolute percentage. In each test the 



former showed from two to three times as many germinations 

 as the latter. 



A record of similar experiments is published in the 

 Circulars and Agricultural Journal of the Royal Botanic 

 Gardens, Ceylon, Vol. IV, No. 11, May 1908. This circular 

 states: 'seeds from tapped trees kept for live weeks did not 

 germinate but those kept for four weeks showed 28 per cent, 

 germination while seeds from untapped trees kept for four 

 weeks did not germinate and those kept for three weeks 

 showed only 3 per cent, germination. Both in percentage 

 germination, and time of germination the seeds from tapped 

 trees are better throughout.' No information is given 

 regarding the manner in which the seeds were kept previous 

 to planting. 



It will be seen that the Ceylon figures are at variance 

 with those obtained here, but it is difficult to say why this 

 should be. The Ceylon Circular states also that seeds from 

 tapped trees are smaller and weigh less per 1,000 seeds than 

 those from untapped trees. This agrees with the figures 

 obtained here, namely, seeds from untapped trees were found 

 to be on an average 107 per cent, heavier than those from 

 tapped trees of similar ages [see Agricultural News, Vol. XI, 

 p. 31]. The figures in Experiment 1 are of interest not only 

 as regards the suitability of exporting seeds from untapped 

 trees, hut they also tend to show the effect tapping has on 

 the vitality of the seed. Tapping lessens the weight and 

 size of the seeds, and according to the present experiments 

 reduces the germinating power. 



It is evident that seeds which are to be exported are 

 best selected from untapped trees. 



Experiments are to be conducted to compare the growth 

 of plants resulting from seeds of tapped and untapped trees. 



PERCENTAGE OF SEED GERMINATION OBTAINED FROM 

 TAPPED AND UNTAPPED TREES. 



No. of box. 12 3 4 5 6 



No. of seeds in box 200 200 200 200 200 200 



No. of weeks the seeds were) 3 5 7 8 9 10 

 in box / 



No. of plants obtained; seed\ gy ^g ^g ^q ^q 49 

 from tapped trees J 



No. of plants obtained; seed) jgg ^33 jqo 167 164 165 

 from untapped trees j 



Percentage of seed germina-) 33 23 24 20 20 24 

 tion; seed from tapped trees J 



Percentage of seed germina-1 ^g gg 5Q §3 g.2 §2 

 tion; seed from untapped trees) 



It may be added that consideration of the figures 

 given in the table shows that the average percentage 

 germination, for all the periods, of seed from untapped 

 trees was 74, as compared with 24 for seed from tapped 

 trees. 



Information is given in the Quinzaine Coloniale of Feb- 

 ruary 25, 1912, to show that the general production of wild 

 rubber on the Ivory Coast is satisfactory, except that a cer- 

 tain amount of fraud and adulteration exists. The exploi- 

 tation of rubber has taken place chiefly in the eastern part of 

 the colony, where replanting is suggested; at the same time 

 the western part contains large areas of trees of Funtumia 

 elastica, and little has been done in obtaining rubber from 

 these. Experiments have shown that Hevea and Funtumia 

 grow successfully, and this fact, together with the improve- 

 ment that is taking place in labour conditions, causes a satis- 

 factory future for the colony to be predicted. 



