i6 3 



year for the last ten years, and we in. Nyasaland, like our 

 friends in Uganda, are beginning to abandon the cultivation 

 of this variety. The tapping of Ceara rubber in my experience 

 is very much influenced by the rainfall. In Nyasaland we 

 have two very distinct seasons a very wet, rainy season, and 

 a dry season. During the dry season the Ceara tree casts 

 its leaves. For the first months of the wet season it is putting 

 on new foliage, and if you try to tap it then the wcrk is prac- 

 tically futile. From numerous experiments the best results 

 I have had with Ceara rubber is a yield of under 4 oz. of rubber 

 per tree, and I find the profitable tapping season in Nyasaland 

 is only three months. The consequence is that the cultivation 

 of Ceara rubber hardly pays in Nyasaland, and it is not 

 surprising that the planters as a body should abandon its 

 cultivation. There is one spot in Nyasaland where Ceara 

 gives results like those mentioned by Mr. Anstead. We have 

 a rainfall in that part of Nyasaland of something like 70 in. 

 per annum, spread evenly throughout the greater part of the 

 year. In that district Ceara rubber does well; but the con- 

 ditions there are equally favourable for Hevea brasiliemis, and 

 a comparison of tapping expenses, to produce a pound of 

 Hevea rubber and a pound of Ceara rubber, leaves a good 

 deal in favour of the Hevea tree. 



Professor P. CARMODY (Director of Agriculture, Trinidad) : 

 These two papers are really very interesting, one being an 

 account of the successful cultivation of Ceara, and the other 

 an account of an unsuccessful attempt. I would like to know 

 from Mr. Anstead what is the nature of the soil andi what is 

 the rainfall in Southern India, and how that 'Contrasts with 

 the conditions under which Ceara trees have been grown in 

 Uganda. 



Mr. ANSTEAD : There is very little doubt that the success or 

 non-success of the cultivation of Ceara rubber depends almost 

 entirely on climate. That is why in Southern India it is only 

 in a few districts that any attempt is made to grow it. The 

 three districts in which we have cultivated it successfully are 

 Coorg, the Mysore State, and the Shevaroy Hills. There we 

 have light soils, and it is my experience of Ceara that it 

 needs a lightish sandy soil, and will not grow successfully in 

 heavy clay. Again rainfalls are light with us; we have 

 70 in. in a year, which is hardly anything at all, because 

 on our Hevea rubber estates the rainfalls run up to 

 250 in. and come at two periods of the year. In the 

 particular districts where Ceara is grown, there are periods 

 when we get the heavy north-east monsoon, and then we get 

 50 in. or 70 in. of rain, distributed over four weeks. The rest of 



