and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. —December, 1912, 491 



SALES OF PRODUCE IN BRITISH AND CONTINENTAL MARKETS. 



Fibres, Cotton, Grain, Oil Seeds, Hides and Skins, 

 Timber, Rubber, Drugs, Wool, Ores, Mica, Gums, Tea, 

 Cocoa, Coffee, Copra, Sugar, etc., are being regularly 

 dealt in; Keymer, Son & Co., being selling Agents for 

 Estates, Mills and Exporters. 



Sampler valued. Best ports for Shipments indicated. 



The management of Estates undertaken. Capital found 

 for the development or purchase of valuable properties. 



KEYMER, SON & CO. , 

 Cables: Whitefriars, 

 KEYMER, LONDON. LONDON, E. C. 



(Same address since 1844). 



in draining waterlogged soils. The chapter on 

 the formation of forests is an interesting one, 

 and the argument for and against pure and 

 mixed crops is exhaustively discussed. The 

 author in his succeeding chapters gives full 

 information of the steps to betaken, and how 

 to take them. The chapters on preparation, 

 sowing and planting, nurseries, woeding, re- 

 generation by seed and coppice, cleaning, 

 pruning, felling, demarcation, the fixation of 

 unstable soils etc., together with a combina- 

 tion of systems give full advice for both the 

 planter, and the keen student of afforestation. 

 Altogether the book is a most useful and valu- 

 able one, and should be in the library of all 

 interested in land culture. He remarks with 

 truth that even in tropical couutries, where the 

 growth of trees is rapid, it takes only a short 

 time to fell a tree, but several years to grow 

 another in its place. Mistakes, therefore, take 

 a long time in being set straight, and no pains 

 should be spared in avoiding them. And this 

 book shows how those mistakes can be avoided. 



The Ceylon photographs contained in the 

 work are : — Moist zone evergreen forest in 

 Ceylon; Wet zone undergrowth in a Ceylon 

 forest ; Wet zone : forest of Dipterocarpus in 

 Ceylon ; Wet zone, buttressed tree, Tetra- 

 meles nudiflora ; Forest of wet upper montane 

 zone ; Littoral forests ; Epiphytic fig; Hill sides 

 deforested by fires and grazing (Patauas of Uva); 

 A clearing for tea, and consequent silt ia a 

 river ; and Teak planted in cleared lines. 



THINNING OUT HEVEA ESTATES. 



We have received a very detailed document 

 from a planter resident in the East, whose know- 

 ledge and administrative capacity have long 

 since been proved. He has formulated 



A DEFINITE SCHEME 



of thinning-out according to the original 

 planting distance. We give a synopsis of his 

 views which we think will be of particular in- 

 terest to those having estates or blocks of land 

 planted at the distances mentioned. As a preli- 

 minary he expresses the view that Hevea estates 

 throughout the East are too closely planted, and 

 that if Hevea trees are to be expected to yield 

 rubber in constant and increasing quantities for 

 twenty years or more they must be thinned 

 down to from 50 to 70 trees per acre. This is 

 coming very near the late Mr. Francis Pears' de- 

 claration in the Souvenir of the India-Rubber 

 Journal regarding the minimum number of trees 

 desirable. 



Furthermore, he maintains that all areas car- 

 rying 100 trees per acre should be at once mark- 

 ed for thinning. It is as well to bear in mind 

 that the advice of this esteemed planter is largely 

 based on his experience in Malaya and Sumatra, 

 where, as we know, the soil is particularly rich 

 in plant food, and where climatic conditions 

 favour very rapid growth, The advice to thin- 

 out all areas having 100 trees is not in accord 

 with the advice given by planters who have to 

 deal with a much pouier soil as in Cejlou ; in 

 fact, as pointed out by some correspondents in 



