162 
f 
seed is very indi and light, e that probably a pre und or two will 
be found sufficient instead of 1 cwt. as now order 
I have, e 
(Signed) MAN 
Conservator ‘of stokta, Assam. 
Copy of LETTER No. Af. 73, dated Shillong, the 21st July, 1890, 
from the Conservator of Forests, Assam, to the Secretary to 
ed Ee Commissioner of Assam 
IH the honour to Eois wledge dri of your office Memo. 
and directing me to send to his eaa the Governor of Lagos 
on the West Coast of Africa, l cwt. of seed of Ficus elastica for 
oo in that Col 
t to be 
sufficient to begin experimenting with, even though there should 
be no skilled labour available for sowing it. 
3. I have obtained about llb. of seed from Kamrup, which I 
will send at once to his Excellency the Governor of Lagos by post, 
and I shall write direct advising the despatch of the seed, and 
giving a brief account of the methods employed in cultivating the 
rubber tree here in Assam ; the expenditure incurred is so trifling 
(six annas), that it is not worth while recovering ; the postage on 
two letters would exceed it. 
4. I shall await further instructions before despatehing more 
seed. 
BRIEF ACCOUNT of how Rubber Trees (Ficus elastica) are 
grown in Assam 
The seed ripens from o to March, when € is collected as 
it um off the trees, = afterwards dried in the 
rent: nid the dod | thus tired with the ee of the fruit is 
sown without any attempt to clean or separate the seed. 
2. Germination takes place m only reum months after 
ihe seed has been sown, and as it i very small it must be sown on 
= — of ne soil only, but Metro just like the seed of 
t requires as much light as possible from mr : 
neni ire The seed can be sown on beds, or 
