ii4 



favourably with that of English hay. On Richmond river, N. S. W. 

 Government Farm it gave in one year in three cuttings— 28 to 31 

 tons of fodder per acre. The amount of pasture land in the Malay 

 Peninsula is small and cattle-farming is in a very rudimentary state. 

 The poverty of the milk supply especially near our big towns is strik- 

 ing, and the difficulty and expense of procuring milk is perhaps 

 one of the causes of the great infant mortality of the towns. The 

 Kling cattle which supply the milk of the poorer classes, are mostly 

 fed on roadside weeds and rubbish, which cannot be expected to 

 produce good or abundant milk. The chief horse fodder is derived 

 from the grasses Isachne australis and Leersia Oryzoides, slender 

 narrow leaved water grasses, but the supply of these is limited. In 

 Pernambuco, Brazil every garden has its grass patch for the horse 

 fodder from which a cooly cuts a sufficient supply each day. The 

 grass I saw there was Panicum numidianum> a good fodder grass 

 which has long been introduced here and occurs as a weed all over 

 Singapore. Guinea grass {P. maximum) has also been often grown 

 for horsefood, but it has rather gone out of favour in consequence 

 of its having when given in quantity occasionally caused the death 

 of the horses, apparently from colic. No such accident has been 

 charged against the Paspalum and it might be well worth the at- 

 tention of planters and others interested in cattle to plant this grass 

 with a view of improving their own and also the local breeds of cattle. 



H. N. R. 



THE GROWTH OP THE RUBBER TRADE. 



Sir, — In your, article on " Growth of the Rubber Trade " pub- 

 lished in the Financial and Commercial Supplement of the Times 

 of February 26, you state that the estimated production of rubber 

 in the year 1905 amounted to 65,000 tons, of which Brazil pro- 

 duced 34,000 tons, or rather more than half of the total production. 

 You also state that the area of rubber plantations to date is esti- 

 mated at about 150,000 acres, an area which is rapidly increasing. 

 On the strength of these data you express the opinion that the 

 activity in planting in various parts of the earth makes the outlook 

 less promising for the shareholders in new rubber growing com- 

 panies, as the supply will over-reach the demand. 



I have had to do with the supply of rubber in my official capa- 

 city in India, and I have watched the development of the industry 

 for many years. My experience has taught me two things — (1) 

 that the natural sources are rapidly diminishing, and (2) that sup- 

 plant the natural sources we require not less than 800,000 acres of 

 plantations. As regards the first point I can, unfortunately, not 

 bring direct evidence referring to Brazil, but the following data 

 regarding British Colonies may prove interesting to your readers : — 

 Production of rubber in 1896 — 12,457,187 lbs. 



Do. 1904— 5.0554 60 » 



This represents a falling off amounting to 60 per cent. 



