84 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



PS. — When tine rubber is down to 2s/6d per lb. 

 will it pay to collect scrap? — and if the scrap 

 amounts to 40 per cent oi the estate crop, what 

 then ? 



II. 



Dec. 11th. 



Deak Sib, — In further reply to your corre- 

 spondent, " C. W, H.", who certainly appears to 

 be " a beggar for argument," I'll remind him 

 " Quot homines, tot sententiae." Superinten- 

 dents do not all think, or act, alike ; a man is 

 right because he thinks he is. I do not know 

 much about " underlying common principles" — 

 only sound common practice. Isn't it obvious? 

 — the more No. 1 rubber and the less scrap, 

 the better, since the former fetches the better 

 price. I was visiting a neighbouring place last 

 week where instead of any drip-tin they use a 

 water bottle and pour water into the tapping 

 cuts, with excellent results. Figures are not 

 kept, but the percentage of scrap there is, 1 

 should think, about 2 per cent. With the use 

 of the drip-tin, it is practically nothing — there 

 is so little scrap to collect, it does not pay to 

 regularly collect it. If a cooly finds a little 

 inthe cut, he just pulls it oft', and brings it to 

 the factory with him. — Yours, 



H. V. A. 



RUBBER-GROWING IN QUEENSLAND. 



Much interest has been manifested by bota- 

 nical experts inthe Commonwealth of Australia 

 in the 300 Isoandra gutta percha trees grown 

 at the Melbourne Botanical Gardens from seed 

 procured in Java by Dr. Crivel. This parti- 

 cular species, which is unknown in Australia, 

 produces a gutta-percha which is unequalled 

 for several classes of work, particularly in con- 

 nection with electrical fittings. The tree takes 

 20 years to come to maturity, but is seed- 

 bearing before that time. Mr. Howard Newport, 

 of the' Queensland State nursery at Kamerunga, 

 has inspected the seedlings, and found them 

 healthy and flourishing plants. The 300 avail- 

 able plants will be divided equally between nur- 

 series in the Northern Territory, in Queens- 

 land, and in Papua. It is Mr. Newport's inten- 

 tion to recommend the Queensland Government 

 to retain the trees in the Kamerunga nursery 

 as a base stock for the future supply of seeds to 

 planters, as the importation of the stock is dif- 

 ficult by reason of the short vitality of the seeds. 

 He considers the establishment of the nucleus 

 stock will ultimately assist in creating a valu- 

 able industry in Queensland. — Financier, Nov.25. 



RUBBER PLANTERS IN DELI 



—Sumatra — are setting their faces against the 

 use of tin cups for collecting the tapped latex 

 from the trees. It seems that, in the open air, 

 these cups are attacked by rust which stains the 

 coagulated latex in them and spoils its market 

 value. Several planters are using aluminium 

 cups instead to catch the latex. This metal is 

 not liable to rust and has the additional advan- 

 tage of being cheap.— Straits Times, Nov. 11. 



INDIA'S TEA COUNTRY. 



(The Field, Nov. 20.) 

 I think the first impression made on me when 

 I came here now nearly twenty years ago, was 

 the denseness of the jungle growth as seen from 

 the river steamer. The hills along the banks of 

 the Brahmaputra seemed like great heaps of all 

 kinds of trees cut and piled up in stacks, rather 

 than a natural growth, as from a very short dis- 

 tance no ground at all is visible. If inclined to 

 sport, the new chum's 



SPECULATION RUNS ON WHAT SORTS OF GAME 



are hidden beneath all that wonderfully dense 

 greenery, how it is to be got at, and what 

 his luck at the shikar he has heard so much 

 about will be. If it is the cold weather, when 

 the river is low, he will probably take shots from 

 the deck at the crocodiles, which are visible in 

 their hundreds lying basking on the mud banks. 

 These are entirely fish-eaters; for the mugger, or 

 carnivorous and man-eating sort, is not found 

 in Assam rivers. One can swim in perfect safety 

 everywhere, nomatterhow numerous the "crocs" 

 may be. A very general idea is that their scales 

 are almost impenetrable. This is quite wrong, 

 so far as this species is concerned, at all events, 

 for an ordinary gun will send a bullet right 

 through them. 



WHAT A PERFECT CLIMATE THE COOL SEASON IS 



in Assam from November to April! There is prac- 

 tically no rain, and the temperature is seldom 

 more than 75° even at midday, and is down 

 to 45° at night. The cold weather visitor of the 

 " Padgett, M.P.," type wonders what hardships 

 there can be to grumble at with such a climate ; 

 but he never stays till the rains set in, and rain 

 it does then, very consistently, when the register 

 is 90° and higher and the atmosphere so satur- 

 ated that it is that of a forcing house; then, even 

 with no exertion, our clothes are soaked with 

 perspiration during the whole twenty-four 

 hours for five months on end, and there is 

 a ceaseless hum of mosquitoes. 



WHAT A FRIGHTFUL PLAGUE INSECTS ARE 



in the tropics ! They are worse than the heat 

 itself. The mosquito is, of course, the worst, and 

 is, as most people now know, most dangerous, 

 especially the anopheles species. There are 

 many species of mosquito, but this, 1 believe, 

 is the only dangerous one. The so-called "harm- 

 less " ones are, in all conscience, unbearable 

 enough pests, it being impossible to get any 

 sleep without the net during the rains. Even a 

 more painful experience is that poisonous little 

 sandfly, no bigger than a pin's head, but an 

 " incarnate bite," far more irritating than Mr. 

 Skeeter. He comes in silence : is not perceived 

 until his work is done and he departed. Skeeter, 

 on the other hand, is a sportsman to the extent 

 that he sings on his way to and fro, which is a 

 mercy, though a small one. Very luckily the 

 sandfly is not ubiquitous, like the mosquito, 

 being peculiar to certain soils, for a net in order 

 to keep him out would have to be so closely 

 woven as to be impossible to sleep under. Ticks 

 in the jungle are very bad too; one " jat" is so 

 small as to be almost invisible. I have had these 

 on my legs above my stockings so thick, as to 



