and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society.— December, 1912. 501 



The conformation of the country and the lack 

 of means of communication render difficult, and 

 in some regions impossible, the production of 

 rubber to a degree proportionate to the wealth 

 of Bolivia in this article. Furthermore, the scar • 

 city of labour is almost absolute. 



The region of Bolivia which is richest in rubber 

 baB, too, a formidable rival in Brazil. The defi- 

 ciency of Custom Houses and frontier guards, 

 and the difficulty of other communications, cause 

 a large quantity of Bolivian rubber to be ex- 

 ported as Brazilian. 



The Bolivian product is not distinguished in 

 the European and New York markets, being in- 

 cluded with that of Peru and Brazil, and classi- 

 fied as "Para" and "Mollendo." Nevertheless, 

 in the immense zone bounded by the rivers 

 Abuna, Madre de Dios, Upper and Lower Beni 

 on the one side, and by the Itenez and the Ma- 

 mor6 on the other, there are superb forests of 

 " hevea " of well-known quality and abundance. 



The quantity of rubber exported from Bolivia in 

 1910 amounted to 3,117,650 kilogs. (9,873, 171 lb.), 

 valued at £2,212,284.— Board of Trade Journal, 

 November 28. 



COCONUT CULTIVATION. 



EXPERIMENTS AT PERADENIYA, 

 We have received from the Department of 

 Agriculture, Bulletin No. 2, treating with ex- 

 periments in Coconuts at Peradeniya by Mr. 

 Kelway Bamber, — and undertaken at the initia- 

 tive of Mr. J. D. VanDerstraaten, of Negombo. 

 Mr. VanDerstraaten's suggestion, made at a 

 meeting of the Committee of Agricultural Ex- 

 periments in November 11, 1909, was that coco- 

 nut trees be scientifically investigated as regards 

 planting distances, habit of flowering and matur- 

 ing nuts, and the time occupied during the 

 various stages. It was decided to begin the 

 manuring and other experiments in 1911, and 

 .the manures were first applied in February of 

 that year. The trees, which were irregularly 

 planted, were divided into lots of 35, or the 

 equivalent of half an acre, making 15 plots in 

 all. The trees on each plot were marked accord- 

 ing to the number of the plot, viz., 1 to 15. They 

 are all old, probably over fifty years, but would 

 represent a fairly large acreage of similar 

 coconut trees in Ceylon, so it is felt that 

 .any results obtained from the experiments 

 would afford generally useful information. 

 As separate experiments with young trees are 

 necessary for the elucidation of certain other 

 factors, these have been started both at Pera- 

 deniya at 1,600 feet elevation and at Maha-IUup- 



palama at 300 feet elevation, both about 50 

 miles from the sea ; while it is also proposed to 

 begin a further series in the different coconut 

 districts of Ceylon. The objects of the experi- 

 ments are to determine — 



(1) Whether trees of about fifty years of age 

 would respond profitably to cultivation and 

 manuring. 



(2) The best form of cultivation to be given. 



(3) The effect of common salt, lime, potash, 

 phosphoric asid, and nitrogen on leaf and fruit 

 development. 



00 (4) The effect of a complete artificial mixture, 



(5) The effect of cattle manure from cattle 

 tied round the trees in the native manner. 



(6) The effect of a bi-monthly application of 

 a rapidly available manure. 



(7) The effect of green manures[and mulching. 

 The following details are being recorded : — 



(a) Dates of cultivation and manure appli- 

 cations with the cost of labour and manure. 



(b) Dates of appearance of new leaves and 

 flowering stalks and when the fruit-sets and 

 ripens. 



(c) The number of immature nuts dropped 

 monthly, and the number of sound nuts drop- 

 ped and gathered every three months. 



(cQ The weight of nuts from each plot after 

 husking. 



All the nuts from each plot are kept separate 

 for one month before husking ; then opened, 

 and the weight of the shelled nuts, fresh and 

 dried, noted ; also the thickness of the meat. 

 Half of the dried copra is sold every two months, 

 and the other half pressed for oil and poonac, 

 the weights and value of each being recorded. 

 After the first period, when the ratio was the 

 same as on the unmanured plots, the mulched 

 plots continue to show a higher proportion of 

 mature to immature nuts. The manured plots 

 show a slightly improved ratio, while the un- 

 manured plots have gone back to 3 - 96 immature 

 for every mature nut. Taking the yields of ripe 

 nuts only for each period over the manured, un- 

 manured, and mulched plots, there is a marked 

 improvement in the manured and mulched 

 plots, while the unmanured have fallen off. 

 The average number of mature and immature 

 nuts per tree from all the plots for the first five 

 months of the experiment was 676 and 15'8 nuts 

 respectively ; for the seoond period, embracing 

 the wettest months, 21 and 16'8 nuts ; and for 

 third period of six months in 1912, includ- 

 ing the dry period, U'3 and 20'4 nuts, This is 



