Tlin AOittCULTtJBAL jouhnal. 



of coal tar to the mealies would prevent 

 the crows from pulling (hem up. I tried 

 it, bnt our birds pull them up just as badly 

 as ever. 



Yours, etc., 



Arthur L. Allkins. 

 Silstone, Verulam. 



A satisfactory answer to Mr. Allkins's 

 question would be of very great value. 

 These bird depredations are a serious 

 matter on the ( oast. A planter living 

 also near Verulam, in a letter to the Editor 

 not intended for publication, casually re- 

 ferred to the same subject. He said: — I 

 have 100 acres of mealies coming up, and 

 am having a troublesome fight with the 

 small birds. Twenty Coolie children are 

 on the land to keep the birds moving and 

 to drive them over to a man who shoots 

 them with No. 8 shot. If this were not 

 done I should not get a single mealie 

 head. Last year I expended lOlbs. of 

 powder and two bags of shot on the birds. 

 "We don't at any rate require a law in our 

 parts to protect small birds ; they are a 



costly nuisance, and nothing but powder 

 and shot have any effect on them. — Ed., 

 Ag. JournaL 



" ROCK" GUANO. 



Sir, — Can you or any of your readers 

 inform me as to the difference between 

 ordinary guano and rock guano ? 



Yours, etc., 



C. S. D. Otto. 



Shawlands, Nottingham Road. 



" Rock " is a term which came into use 

 when the trade in Peruvian guano with 

 Great Britain sprung into existence some 

 fifty years ago. Guano in most places 

 where it is found is roughly classed into 

 three layers— top, middle, and the lowest, 

 which is called " rock" or "crust." The 

 upper layers have most organic matter, 

 but the lowest is richest in phosphates 

 and greatest in manurial value. The Cape 



rock " guano costs nearly a pound more 

 per ton than the " ordinary " or upper de- 

 posits. — Ed., Ag. Journal. 



India Rubber. 



CULTIVATION AND PRODUCTION. 

 An Idea by ANTHONY WILKINSON. 



SOME years ago I tried an experiment of 

 planting an acre of " Manihot 

 Slaziovii," or the Ceara rubber tree of 

 South America. Mr. Medley Wood, 

 Curator of the Durban Botanic Gardens, 

 was kind enough to furnish me with roots 

 and cuttings of Cerea trees from trees he 

 had growing in the Gardens, and wished 

 me to try the experiment on a larger 

 scale. I planted an acre of Manihot with 

 coffee plants between. The rubber trees 

 grew well and seeded abundantly, and at 

 four years old, when the trees got a good 

 size, 4 to 5 inches in diameter, on scoring 

 the bark to extract the rubber, although 

 the rubber was of good quality and very 

 elastic, the collecting or getting it was 

 slow and costly. Accordingly I came to 

 the conclusion that the experiment would 

 not pay, unless the trees could be tapped, 

 and the juice collected in quantity, as is 



done in South America, and further, that 

 Natal was not sufficiently tropical to make 

 a good flov/ of sap. Coming to those con- 

 clusions I cut the trees down, but still the 

 trees come up again from the seeds every 

 year, and grow luxuriantly 5 or 6 feet 

 high in the first year, showing the climate 

 to be suitable to their growth. Among 

 my coffee I have a self-sown Ceara only 

 three years old and over twenty feet high. 

 The red sandy soil of the Coast such as 

 that of the Berea, Durban, would be the 

 most suitable. The seeds left to nature 

 do not come up for a year or two. By some, 

 filing is recommended, but this is a 

 tedious process ; tapping them with a 

 small hammer until they crack serves as 

 well, and is much quicker. 



The plan adopted to collect the rubber 

 with the Cerea rubber trees is to strip off 

 the thin outer bark, which is like 



