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and crepe. The trees over this very large area were very 

 uniform, and regular. While walking round with Mr. 

 Petrie we came across the corpse of a rhinoceros beetle 

 (Oryctes). These beetles he assured me had taken to ex- 

 perimenting on Para rubber tree leaves as a food, rather 

 an unusual thing for a beetle which does not as a rule at 

 least eat leaves. The result to the beetle was disastrous 

 its mouth and gullet were soon choked with latex and it fell 

 to the ground in a moribund state and was soon attacked 

 and killed by ants. The dead one I examined and found 

 that it had quite a string of rubber in its gullet and mouth. 

 It was another example of the way the Para rubber defends 

 itself from insect attacks by its latex. The rubber at Tali 

 Aver was being made in temporary quarters in the form of 

 a Krani's house, but a new building was being erected for 

 the factory. It had naturally not been expected that the 

 tree would be ready to produce so soon as three and a half 

 years. The basal V was the form of tapping used and the 

 cutting by the Tamil coolies all over these estates was as 

 perfect in fineness of cut, and in absence of slips into the 

 cambium layer as one could desire. The renewed bark was 

 smooth, regular and full of strong latex. 



There was no fungus to be seen anywhere and but few 

 trees damaged by Termites. Mr. Turner however has put 

 up a Carbon-bisulphide plant at Caledonia which will en- 

 able him to deal with these pests wherever they occur. 



I have been impressed lately more and more with the 

 importance of planting Para rubber seed right way up, 

 that is to say with the flat side down. Some planters seem 

 to think that it does not matter at all whether you plant it 

 upside down or not, and that it will right itself. And so 

 it will to a certain extent, but if you get the tap root curved, 

 this may remain as a permanency. The defect may not 

 show for some years, but the result is that the main 

 root or part of the root through which the water sup- 

 plies ascend to the tree is permanently bent and the ascent 

 of the water, and of course the plant food in it is seriously 

 retarded. The tree is stunted. It is shorter and less well 

 developed than the others with straight roots, and in most 

 trees or shrubs when this happens the life of the tree is 

 short. There is no reason why rubber seeds should be 

 planted on the rounded side instead of the flat. It is really 

 just as quick to plant them properly as to plant them any- 

 how when one has got the knack of the thing and it 

 should be made imperative on the coolie to plant each seed 

 properly. When planting seedlings out care should be 

 taken to get the tap root straight. In the old days of coffee 



