282 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885. 



CEYLON UPCOUNTEY PLANTING KEPORT. 



"UBBEK CULTIVATION IN CEYLON — " TIPS " FOB TAPPING 



A NEW PRUNING KNIFE A WONDERFUL CHANGE 



FOR TIIE BETTER IN CACAO EXTENSION OF ROOKWOOD 



" — RAIN WANTED — A CHECK TO PKEDE AND VANITY. 



31st August 1885. 

 We hear very little in these days of rubber, and 

 yet there are amongst us those who firmly be- 

 lieve that it will yet become one of the paying 

 products of Ceylon, and that it has a fine future 

 before it. 



" But we must wait," they say, there being as 

 little reason in trying to draw milk from a calf, 

 as tackling a young rubber tree, and expecting it 

 will " bleed " for your advantage. They add also that 

 it must be grown in large acreages, so as to be 

 economically cultivated, and cheaply gathered. There 

 is no doubt that the plant grows weU: once estab- 

 lished it is very difficult to kill; "ringing" seems 

 to have little effect on it. As to this " sweet by 

 and bye," however, only a few believe in it, and 

 those few strengthen each other's faith by invent- 

 ing tappers, double-bladed knives, sappans, and other 

 requisites. Every now and again there is a gleam 

 from the outer world, which encourages their hearts 

 and brightens their prospects, as for instance the 

 new indiarubber armour plating — and how anx- 

 iously they await the result of this novel experi- 

 ment can well be imagined. I got the other day 

 the latest "tips" in tapping: a sort of summary 

 of the faith of the faithful few, and well worthy 

 of record. " Use Dobrce's double-bladed knife, cut 

 upwards, after having peeled the outer bark, and go 

 on tapping the trees once morning and evening. 

 Take sixteen trees say at a time — or even up 

 to thirty — which after finishing go back again to 

 where you started and gather what has coagulated. 

 Go on with this process for at least a fortnight, 

 adding a few fresh trees every day. The first tap- 

 ping will not be so rich as the following ones, but 

 don't run away with the idea that there is no 

 rubber in the tree because it cannot be seen. 

 Immediately the roller (Eraser's) touches the tree, 

 or the bark be run over obliquely with the thumb, 

 a small fine siring will appear, and a slight press- 

 ure of this against the roller wiU make it adhere 

 and it will come off in strings. A little patience 

 and practice will develop good results. In the 

 case of a tree producing a gummy liquid — leave 

 it as not yet ready for tapping. Eubber, with due 

 patience shown to it, will jiay. There is no faster 

 method for collecting than by Eraser's roller. A 

 cooly can, when practised, collect from half a pound 

 to one pound daily, but he umst have his heart 

 in his work." So far for the method, and as 

 for the future, let me raise the curtain and give 

 you a peep at tlie vista which dazzles the eyes of 

 the believing rubber grower : — " i\Iy trees," he says, 

 " will be allowed to grow, and the day shall come 

 when they shall show hundredweights of this valu- 

 able product"! Although this is a kind of note 

 which has been often heard in Ceylon, and also 

 too often has proved a mocking one, still it usually 

 comes before an enterprise has been at all tried. To 

 hear it of an industry which has been all but univers- 

 ally pronounced n failure, changes its tone somewhat. 

 I had a specimen of a new Pruning Knife 

 sent me the other day. It is imported, I under- 

 stand, from Smyrna, where it is used for 

 vine pruning. It is made of a fine thin steel, 

 with an edge like a fine saw, and is a good tool. 

 It can cut through a thick branch of a tea bush 

 with much greater ease than an ordimary English 

 primer, and is intended I undirstimd to do away 

 with the necessity of a saw in the field. It is 



really astonishing what thick stems it can seven 

 and with ease. It has one fatal objection — the 

 price, costing more then the ordinary English 

 pruner. If cheap enough I have no doubt it would 

 be a favourite knife for heavy pruning, and if 

 the importers really mean to place it regularly 

 in the market, they should see to this. 



It is a pleasure to report a wonderful change 

 for the better in cacao. What a sickening ghastly sight 

 some of it was a few months ago, need not now 

 be dwelt on; rather let us rejoice at the change. 

 Trees which looked before as if they had been 

 blasted are now trying to cover themselves, and 

 on those less severely attacked there is blossom 

 as well as foliage. But it is clear to all of us 

 that cacao is a fancy article, whose ways may 

 lead us a dance at times ; a prize nevertheless to 

 those who have all the necessary requisites for 

 its successful growth, and worthy of a good stout 

 fight to gain them. In Ceylon what will a man 

 not "clout" his enemy with? Think of helopeltis. 

 Will the cacao planters have taken as allies 

 against this foe the red ant : in Dumbara. Sinhalese 

 bringing them in by the sackful, at a tew cents a 

 nest ; they have dusted its back with unslaked lime, 

 ti-ied' even a mixture of sulphur and lime, and 

 some are taking to growing the tomato on their 

 trees, hoping that will rout the dreadful fly. Ahl 

 it's pathetic. V. A.'stell you that thay hate to 

 hear the very name of cacao, and, as that is 

 about the lowest deep the thing can touch, there 

 comes the improvement, and we take heart of 

 hope again, and like all the race of planters for- 

 get the past, and think of the future. 



I hear that Mr. Armstrong is opening outmore land 

 near Bookwood. He will soon have over 800 acres. 

 Here we are sadly in want of rain, and yet it does 

 not come. It is very trying on the tea seed 

 planted at stake, although after all it can 

 stand a good deal. For giving a man something 

 on which to keep his mind employed, commend 

 me to a fair acreage planted at stake. There is 

 food for thought and a check to all pride and 

 vanity. What with not coming up at aU regul- 

 arly, the more promising being laid low, eaten 

 down by some insect or another, the ever-chang- 

 ing appearance of the field, inspiring you with 

 hope today and despair tomorrow ; the msane hunt 

 at times to see if the seed was ever really put 

 in ; the worry with the weeders and your own 

 impatience— all this does not make you feel as 

 if you were in Paradise, nor incline your heart 

 to talk the language thereof. Yet troubles must 

 be good for the Ceylon planter; if it had been 

 otherwise he should have been a fiend long ere 

 tjjjg^ Peppercobn. 



COMMEBCIAL BEPOBTS : JAVA. 



From the report by Consul McNeill on the Trade. 

 Cnmnn.n-01', and General Matters relating to the island 

 of J.iva for the year 1884. marked Couiiuei-cial 19 

 (IS85) [0—4,44(5]," we e.ttrnct tliH following :— 



" Th^- pnst year, though net niarkei! by any serious 

 natural disturbance, such as the volcnnic eruption nt 

 Krakntan in A"!;ust, 188;i, lias in anoaier re.=pect, 

 namelv. from a financial point of view. Icon o calam- 

 iious 'one for the islam! of Java. The h.w prices 

 ruling for sugar brought heavy losses on both planters 

 aid nie:chant.«: thri e lai ^-e iinn^ of nhl st .iiilin); su.'- 

 pinded pavmcnt, and several mercantile and haiiking 

 institutions" were involved m diflicunits, from which 

 they were only extiicated by the issue of debenture 

 sh.aros. The.se" were almost exelusivclv taken up in 

 Ho. land, and whal threatened at one time to berome 

 a nic.rt seiicuis commercial crisis was happily averted. 

 The total amouutsubscrjbcd was over ,ili,000,000 sterling. 



