9 6 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[August i, 1884. 



besides the rubber so as to obtain a yield of timber iu addition 

 to that of caoutchouc, have up to the present met with 

 but partial success in the Charduar plantation, but there 

 is no reason to doubt that this will soon improve as the 

 officer in charge gains more experience; in the rubber plant- 

 ation at the Kulsi, in the Kamrup district, this work has 

 been most successful. 



12. The total area of the Charduar caoutchouc plant- 

 ation is uow 892 acres, and has cost R64,351, or R72per 

 acre. This is abnormally high, since much of the work 

 during the first five years had to be done twice over, and 

 sometimes of tener, because the planting of caoutchouc trees 

 was new, and everything had to be learned aud found out 

 by experiments, which naturally took some time. But 

 matters have changed in this respect. "\Ye know now what 

 we are about, and the officer in charge of this work, 

 Mr. T. J. Campbell, has estimated the cost of the extension 

 which is at present being carried out at R9 per acre, to 

 which another RGfor subsequent cultivation and clearing 

 should be added, bringing the cost, including everything, 

 up to R35 per acre. 



13. Besides the experimental nature of the work, to 

 which the cost of R72 per acre of this plantation must 

 to a great extent be attributed, we have also prepared ex- 

 tensive nurseries, covering an area of about 23 acres, and 

 containing some 184,000 plants of different sizes, which is 

 sufficient to extend the plantation by 200 acres per annum 

 for the next 15 years, or a square mile per annum for the 

 next 5 years, if desired, aud these nurseries have 

 been so planted that, if for special reasons it is considered 

 advisable not to extend the plantation at any particular 

 time, the trees can be kept almost stationary for 15 to 20 

 years, without becoming less suited for transplanting — a 

 particular advantage enjoyed by Ficus elastica in common 

 with otber semi-epiphytes as compared with ordinary trees. 



14. These extensive nurseries were got up in accordance 

 with the orders of the Chief Commissioner, communicated 

 to me iu Mr. Bidsdale's letter No. 63 T., dated the 10th 

 January 1879, to which I replied in my letter No. 133A., 

 dated the 25th January 1879, that I hoped to be in a positiou 

 to extend the Charduar plantation by one square mile an- 

 nually in 1881-82 and thereafter. At the same time Mr. 

 Ridsdale's letter quoted above was written, the Iuspector- 

 General of Forests visited Assam, and after close inspection 

 of the Charduar plantation declared it a great success. His 

 views on the subject have been recorded in paragraphs 91 

 to 104 of his report regarding forest administration in 

 Assam. He suggested an annual extension of the Charduar 

 rubber plantation by 200 acres, at an estimated cost of R36 

 per acre, or about the same as I estimate now the cost of 

 future extensions. 



15. Thus far I have given an account of the Charduar 

 rubber plantation as an experimental undertaking only, and 

 shown that it has been a perfect success as far as the 

 growing of the trees is concerned; but it remains to be 

 considered what the financial results of the undertaking are 

 likely to be, siuce, as I have always held, and do uow, 

 the financial success of forest management is the only sound 

 basis on which it can be permanently established and main- 

 tained. To make an even approximately correct estimate 

 of the probable revenue that may be expected from these 

 plantations, it is first and foremost necessary to know what 

 a rubber tree will yield, and on this point our information 

 is most imperfect. ^The statement made by rubber col- 

 lectors are quite unreliable, and the exhausted state of the 

 naturally grown rubber trees has prevented us until last 

 year from making experiments ; the result of last year's 

 experimental tapping, as recorded in Appendix IX of last 

 Annual Forest Report (1882-83), interesting as it is, and 

 much as it has increased our knowledge of the yield of 

 caoutchouc from Ficus elastica, still leaves us in consider- 

 able doubt on the subject, as has been stated in paragraph 

 118 of that report. However, so much is certain, that a 

 full-grown rubber tree of about 50 years old will yield at the 

 very lowest 5 seers of rubber, if very carefully tapped, and 

 this quantity maybe expected about sixteen times, which will 

 be an equally safe estimate for calculating the yield of 

 a rubber tree. To be quite on the safe side, I will only 

 calculate 10 trees per acre, which would give us about 20 

 maunds of rubber from every acre. This, at the price at 

 which rubber was collected last year iu the Darrang district 



aud sold, and deducting the expenditure incurred ou col- 



lecting it, would give us a net profit of R54 per maund 

 or R1,0S0 per acre in 50 years, and if the rubber trees have 

 a louger life, the yield may be reckoned for their remain- 

 ing years of life at the same, if not at a higher rate. 



16. An acre of first-class timber trees would cost about 

 double as much to plant and maintain, at the rate of 60 trees 

 per acre ; and taking the value of the trees at R10 each 

 (the present royalty charged), this would give us R600 

 ouly, as compared with Rl,080 from rubber, and most of 

 the first-class timber trees will require 100 years to reach 

 maturity, or double the time of a rubber tree. This meaus, 

 in other words, especially if the compound interest on the 

 capital used is taken into consideration, that an acre planted 

 with rubber-trees will give about four times as much reve- 

 nue as an acre planted with first-class timber trees. 



17. It may be, and in fact has been, argued that rubber 

 might be produced artificially, aud that thus a fall in the 

 price might be brought about. I think there is little to be 

 feared in this respect, not more so than timber has to fear 

 from the extended use of iron ; and rubber, being a raw 

 product, has a great advantage, inasmuch as the artificially 

 produced article would have all the cost of manufacture 

 added to the cost of the raw materials, aud I myself have 

 not the slightest fear iu this respect. The price of rubber 

 has been very high for many years now, aud during this 

 time it is known that efforts have been made to produce 

 artificial rubber, but that they have failed. 



18. It now only remains for me to consider the value of 

 Ficus elastica as compared with other trees yielding rubber, 

 both as regards quality and quantity, and although it must 

 be admitted that the, rubber yielded by our indigenous tree 

 is slightly inferior to that from some other rubber trees, 

 the difference is so little that in my opinion it has nothing 

 to fear in this respect, and as to the quantity yielded by 

 other species we have positively no authentic information 

 to make comparison; but I am very doubtful whether any 

 of them will yield more than Ficus elastica, and certainly 

 the difference, if any, could not be so much as to make the 

 cultivation of the latter unadvisable. 



19. Of the two exotic rubber trees which have been 

 tried in Assam, viz. Heved hraziliensis, the Tara rubber, 

 and Mamihot fflaziovii, the Ceara rubber, the former has 

 failed completely, as the climate of Assam is altogether too 

 cold for it, and although the latter tree grow9 remarkably 

 fast during the first year or two, and seems to thrive very 

 well, its appearance is not at all such as to make me hope 

 that it will do as well as our indigenous trees, much less 

 that it will \]n better. Nothing positive can be said on 

 this score until experiments with both have been made under 

 careful supervision by a competent and responsible officer. 



a ■« * * # 



— Indian Agriculturist. 



The Red and Blue Gums and Leaf Disea.sk. 

 — A correspondent in New Zealand communicates to 

 us a curious fact. It is, that, while the blue gum 

 in that colony is as much liable to disease in the 

 leaves as it is in Ceylon, the red gum shows 

 no appearance of disease. Our correspondent speaks 

 of the red gum as growing with equal rapidity, but 

 this is not the case. The popularity of the blue gum 

 has been due to its free growth and its habit of 

 having only one straight stem. The red gum is a 

 slower grower, and it has an unfortunate habit of 

 fending up forked stems. Damp sometimes lodges 

 in the fork, and in hi^b-winds the tree is apt to. 

 split. The tree i'self is far handsomer in bark and 

 foliage than the blue gum and the timber is much 

 superior. The leaf- disease, which was so bad two 

 years ago affecting the cinchonas, attacked also the 

 red gum j , but not with the same malignity as it at- 

 tacked E. glbbvJvs But of all the Australian trees 

 it wouhl t-e--m that Gremllea robnsfa is the best to 

 grow on Ceylon estates. Its timber is superior, be- 

 iia lc j rizrd in Australia for tallow casks. 

 ^ 



"ROUGH ON RATS." 

 Clears out rats, mice, roaches, flies, ants, bed-bugs 

 be etles, insects 1 , skunks, chipmunks, gophers. Druggists 

 B. S. Ma don & Co., Bbiribay, General Agents. 



