January i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



53i 



THE APPLICATION OF LIME. 



TO THE EDITOR OF THE MADRAS MAIL. 



Sib, — Referring to "W. H. C."s." letter regarding the 

 application of lime to coffee, I would advise him to have 

 renovating pits dug (say 3 feet long, 2 wide, and 2 deep) 

 between every four coffee plants, into which may he de- 

 posited a quarter of a bushel of lime, together with all 

 the weeds, rubbish, &c, about the place. This should he 

 done immediately after pruning, as the cuttings and leaves 

 would come in handy to fill up the pit. This system was 

 adopted on the "Hallacary" estate with great success. — 

 An Old Planter. 



FRUIT TREES. 



As a fair illustration of the advantages of planting nice, 

 hardy dwarf orange trees over the planting of large trees, 

 we have seen that the large plants have died away during 

 the previous dry weather, and the hardy dwarf young trees 

 have maintained their own, and are now growing apace. 

 The question of the apple moth has lately again come before 

 the public, in the way of its introduction from America 

 in the apples now being extensively imported from that 

 country. The Colonial Treasurer, instead of allowing the 

 entire cargo to be landed and dispersed, should have had 

 them warehoused and the fruit repacked into fresh cases, 

 thereby preventing perhaps the escape of miltitudes of the 

 moths. It is all very well to say we have the trouble here, 

 but as it is not very prevalent, it would be just as well 

 to try moderate means to prevent it coming amongst us 

 by the thousand, and that can be easily effected by resorting 

 the fruit, under the supervision of a prominent officer. "With 

 respect to the fruit itself, our previous opinion still holds 

 good, that while it is pretty to look at, it is, as regards 

 quality, worthless for dessert purposes. So that when our 

 apple crops are ready, growers need fear little for the 

 American fruit, which evidently, if the varieties possess 

 any, loses its goodness by the long sea voyage. In previous 

 articles we took occasion to allude to the common damson 

 as producing generally immense quantities of fruit, thereby 

 rendering its cultivation valuable for preserving purposes. 

 It was thought it was an American variety; but from an 

 article, with illustration, in the Gardeners' Chronicle, it 

 appears to be the true English damson, rendered possibly 

 less austere by the influences of our climate. — Sydney Mail. 



REVIEW. 



Indiarubber and GUTTAPERCHA : being a compilation of all 

 the available information respecting the trees yielding these 



>i,ti<-Us of commerce, and their cultivation, vith votes on 

 the preparation and manufacture of Rubber and Gutta- 

 percha. Compiled. and published by A. M. & J. Ferguson, 

 of the Ceylon Observer, Colombo, Ceylon. 

 The publication of this little volume presents a further 

 evience (if any such be needed) of the growing import- 

 ance of the Indiarubber industry. The efforts recently 

 made and still iu progress in Ceylen and other parts, to 

 develop new sources of supplj', and realize a profitable in- 

 dustry in the cultivation and preparation of the raw mate- 

 rial, have led to considerable enquiry on the subject. Many 

 of the planters of Southern Asia have naturally appealed 

 to Messrs. Ferguson, whose Ceylon Observer, Tropical Agri- 

 culturist, and other publications are well known as mines 

 of (information on all topics connected with colonial enter- 

 prize in those regions. In response to these appeals, the 

 little work before us has been compiled, by collecting from 

 a large number of sources a resume of all that is known 

 at present about Indiarubber and Guttapercha. At the pre- 

 sent stage of the Indiarubber growing enterprise in Cey- 

 lon, the compilers have not found it practicable to com- 

 pare the statements of the different writers with local 

 experience. They modestly say, " As a preliminary to the 

 Ceylon Rubber Planter's Manual of the future, we have 

 simply republished what is said about Indiarubber by every 

 authority or compiler within our reach ; and although a | 

 great deal of the matter may be found reprinted more than 

 once, we have thought it best in the first instance to giva 

 the extracts verb f in>. bo that the amount of authority at- 

 taching to each statement and opinion may be fully a. 

 readily seen." By compiling and placing side by side 1 h ■: 



information collected by these eminent observers and ex- 

 perimenters, Messrs. Ferguson have done gaod service. It 

 must not be supposed that the work is confined to the 

 raw material and its production. The geographical distri- 

 bution and botanical characteristics of the various plants 

 yielding Indiarubber are, indeed, copiously treated of, but 

 we have also a considerable amount of valuable inform- 

 ation on the chemistry, manufacture, and industrial uses 

 of the material under notice, as well as some description 

 of the machinery used in its manipulation. For the benefit 

 of those wishing to investigate these matters more tho- 

 roughly, there are lists of works (both English and foreign) 

 specially treating of the above-mentioned topics. 



Our remarks will serve to point out the character of 

 this new contribution to rubber literature, and we shall, no 

 doubt, from time to time recur to its pages in connection 

 with various subjects that may come under our notice.— 

 Iniiarubbi r and Guttapercha Journal. 



FOREST ADMINISTRATION IN BRITISH BURMA. 



In the Supplement to the British Burma Gazette of last 

 Saturday is published the Resolution on the Forest 

 Administration of British Burma for the year 18S3-84 

 From this we learn that the work of the Forest Depart- 

 ment is progressing favourably, and that notwithstanding 

 the recent fall in the price of Teak, there is a small 

 increase in the gross revenue of about five thousand rupees 

 As the expenditure was reduced by about R11,000 at the 

 same time, there is an increase in net revenue of about 

 Rlo,000. The net revenue is now close on thirteen lakhs 

 of rupees, and as fresh areas are still being brought under 

 reserve, and larger areas being successfully protected against 

 fire, we may look to the income from the forest increasing 

 year by year. We see that there is an increase of fully 

 ten per cent in the proceeds of minor forest produce; and 

 that if bamboos, firewood and charcoal be included iu this, 

 the total revenue from this source is close on a lakh of 

 rupees. * « * * 



There are now 3 346h square miles of area reserved for 

 forests in British Burma. This seems a great deal, but 

 when we remember that the area of British Burma is 

 87,220 square miles, the greater portion of which is merely 

 wasted; that there is not nearly sufficient population to 

 till it, nor likely to be formally years to come; and that 

 the country is eminently suited to the growth of many 

 valuable woods; then, remembering these things 3,000 square 

 miles seems a great deal too little, and we trust that the 

 Department may go on steadily adding to its reserves. It 

 can do a great deal iu that way for mauy years to come 

 without any fear of encroaching on ground really needed 

 by the population; and that is the only check we see which 

 need be put on the extension of forest reserves,— unless, 

 of course, their increase is to increase our raiufall pari passu. 

 We do not quite know how far the connection between 

 forests and rainfall holds good. If the doubling of our 

 forest reserves meant, for instance, a doubling of our rain- 

 fall also, we should object to it very strongly. We get 

 quite enough rain as it is and have 'no desire for much 

 more of that. 



The experiments in the introduction of exotic and other 

 trees do not seem to have been very successful. The 

 rubber trees of different kinds have not generally thriven. 

 The number of vanilla plants has increased at Mflgyi, but 

 the few pods which have appeared have been eaten by 

 squirrels and ants. Vanilla, we imagine, requires more 

 individual attention than it can receive at the hands of 

 a Forest department. Its cultivation is eminently one of 

 those minor industries by which the women of a family 

 can eke out a scanty income; but that is apparently exactly 

 what the wives and daughters of struggling men here do 

 not try to do. 



The Mahogany trees at Amherst have very largely suffered 

 from the attacks of insects, and the experiment is not 

 considered promising. This is disappointing, and as some 

 at least of the mahogany trees in the Cantoument Gardens 

 seem to be doing well, the comparative failure at Amherst 

 is all the more surprising. 



Coffee plants in the Pyunchaung reserve, Tonnpoo division, 

 have not thriven, but some 3.550 plants at Thandoung are 

 flourishing. At the same place there are also 756 tea plants 



