July i, 1904.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



339 



HEVEA" TREES AT SUNNYCROFT. 



destination and I found Mr. W. Forsythe, of the Sunnycroft 

 estate, awaiting me with a very swell rig consisting of a fine 

 horse and high cart. Into the trap I got, and Miguel hiring 

 a bullock hackery, we drove merrily off. The Forsythe con- 

 veyance soon left the other far behind, and as evening fell 

 and it began to grow chilly, I was moved to ask how much 

 further Sunnycroft might be. I then learned that it was eight 

 miles from the station, whereas I had been told that it was 

 two. As the road was constantly ascending, it grew colder 

 and colder, and as Miguel had my coat, I suggested to Mr. 

 Forsythe that I was in for a chill. He therefore stopped at 

 the bungalow of a planter friend and secured a coat for me and 

 our journey was then continued. Had it not been for the chill 

 in the air, I should have enjoyed the ride mightily, as the road 

 was most picturesque, winding through native villages, cross- 

 ing rivers and often crowded with strange conveyances. Mr. 

 Forsythe entertained me very pleasantly that night, and the 

 next morning we walked some eight miles over his plantation. 

 His land was exceedingly hilly, but under a high state of culti- 

 vation, showing many hundreds of acres of fine tea. He also 

 had about three hundred Hevea trees planted in 1S97, which 

 would average 40 inches in circumference. In addition to this 

 he had planted rubber everywhere through his tea, but very 

 little ol it was over 2 years old. In his section he found that 

 when the Htvea trees were young it was a constant fight to 

 keep the porcupines and wild pigs from eating them. He was, 

 therefore, protecting the young trees in certain sections with 

 wire fences, the lower side of which were buried in the ground. 

 It was during this walk that I discovered what it meant to 

 get chilled in a tropical climate, and to have that chill develop 

 into an incipient fever. Although the sun was scorching hot 

 and I was exercising, 1 wasn't perspiring a particle. When we 

 got back to the bungalow in the early afternoon, therefore, 

 after due apology for being ill, I took twenty grains of quinine, 

 and wrapping myself in blankets, went to sleep. The quinine 

 or the blankets did the business, and the next morning I was 



able to take a bullock hackery at 5 o'clock and rattle and bump 

 down the mountain road to the railroad station, whence I took 

 train for Colombo. 



The next day I was fortunate enough to meet Mr. F. Lewis, 

 the assistant conservator of forests, who has done a great deal 

 to further the planting interests in Ceylon, and whose opinions 

 on rubber are most sound. In the course of conversation, he 

 acknowledged that he and his coworkers were continually on 

 the outlook for the appearance of disease in the rubber. He 

 said that wherever large areas of anything were cultivated, 

 nature came forward with some disease or pest. He believed, 

 however, that intelligence and vigilance would keep such visita- 

 tions at least under control. I asked him specifically about his 

 idea of distances in planting rubber, and his conclusions were 

 almost identical with my own, that it was well to plant closely 

 at first, that weeds and grass might be kept down and perhaps 

 cut out the weaklings later. Of course in planting through tea 

 no such close setting can be indulged in. 



My visit to Ceylon was drawing rapidly to a close, as I was 

 booked to sail on the Bengal on the 20th. Any further excur- 

 sions that I took into the country were, therefore, of minor im- 

 portance, and of adventures I had none except that little affair 

 with the water buffalo. It came about through my desire to see 

 a paddy field at close quarters. I was some little way out of 

 town, and stepping down off the roadway walked out on the 

 narrow bank of clayey mud that separated one rice plot from 

 another. There were hundreds of these plots and miles of nar- 

 row earthworks, and I had gotten some distance out, when a 

 huge water buffalo, wallowing in the mud, made up his mind 

 that I was an intruder, and started for me. As he weighed 

 about a ton, and knew the country anyhow, I didn't stop to 

 argue, but raced back for the road. I am considered a pretty 

 fair runner, but I verily believe that the beast would have caught 

 me if it hadn't been for a native who ran out with a switch and 

 headed him off. The absurd part of it was that my rescuer was 

 a mite of a boy, his only clothing being a red string round his 

 waist, but he certainly knew the proper profanity to apply to 

 water buffaloes. 



By the way, speaking of paddy fields, it seems a shame that 

 the very best land of Ceylon should be given up to the culture 

 of rice. If those same fields were drained and planted to Para 

 rubber, there is no doubt but they would show an infinitely big- 

 ger profit, even if those who turned them into rubber orchards 

 paid, as an annual rental, the amount of rice that they are sup- 

 posed to produce. 



[TO BE CONTINUED] 



PAODY [RICE] FIELD IN CEYLON. 



