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system of tapping which he calls drastic and barbarous, in favour 

 of the Brazilian system of single taps. He saw he says great V 

 cuts leaving a huge wound in the bark in Singapore, and great 

 knobs and warts on the bark. How can you tap over these he asks? 

 Presumably he refers to the Botanic Gardens trees, the only ones 

 tapped I think when he was here. There were I think two or three 

 trees tapped once with the simple V as an experiment, but perhaps 

 he refers to herring-bone tapping in this way. There are plenty of 

 trees which have been tapped on and off for 12-15 years with the 

 herring-bone method and there is no trace of the cuts on the bark. 

 Even in later tappings there is as little roughness as could be 

 expected from any kind of cut. There are a number of trees cer- 

 tainly covered with knobs and warts and with very rough bark. 

 These are the trees tapped in the Amazonian method recommended 

 by him. The injury to the bark and the small amount of latex 

 obtained by this process was the reason for abandoning this system, 

 which is perhaps suited to the ideas of the natives of the Amazons, 

 but we have got beyond native methods a long time ago and need 

 not return to them. 



His doubt as to the continuity of yield under the spiral system 

 so much wanted in Ceylon is certainly verified. It is being given 

 up everywhere by the Malay planters who have tried it, and has 

 been practically a failure here. Up to date no one has shown a 

 better all round method than the herring-bone down to the wood, 

 either for yield or inflicting no permanent injury of any kind on 

 the tree. 



H. N. R. 



AGRICULTURE IN THE SEYCHELLES. 



An interesting Colonial report on the Seychelles with an account 

 of the progress in Agriculture, by M. DuPONT has just been pub- 

 lished. M. DuPONT was deputed in 1902 to make a tour in the 

 East to collect information on the Agriculture of the East. The 

 Seychelles Government revenue depends apparently mainly on its 

 Agriculture, and the fall in price of vanilla, its staple crop, and the 

 unprecedented drought last year caused a shortage of 16 per cent, 

 on the estimate and a heavy retrenchment, which included apparent- 

 ly the destruction of the experimental plantations at Capucin, and 

 retrenchment of the Botanic Station. 1 he Botanic Station vote is 

 6,000 rupees per annum or 1-5 per cent, of the expenditure of the 

 Colony. This is by no means a large expenditure in proportion, 

 though very much higher than that of the Straits Settlements which 

 is but i per cent. Besides Cocoa, Coconuts oil and copra and soap 

 made of coconut-oil and vanilla the exports of the islands are a little 

 salt fish, tortoise shell and guano, so that practically the islands 

 depend on coconuts and vanilla. 



It was high time that some development of agriculture should 

 take place when M. DUPONT was sent to the East to see what 

 could be done. 



