and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society.— March, 1910. 283 



CULTIVATION OF MANIOC 



(cassava). In digging out the roots, for which 

 this crop is grown, the soil is loosened and 

 broken up, and so brought into a state in which 

 it is easily washed away by heavy rain. It is at 

 present impossible to restrict the growing of 

 manioc, since this is one of the principal food 

 crops of the population. The Curator is, how- 

 ever, of opinion that these slopes might be 

 afforested with Albizzia moluccana trees, in the 

 shade of which coffee, cocoa, beans and other 

 "edible" crops could be grown. — Bulletin of 

 the Imperial Institute, Vol. VII, No. 4 of 1909. 



RUBBER IN THE STRAITS. 



A CHAT WITH MR. W. N. TISDALL. 



Mr W N Tisdall, who has just completed a four 

 weeks' visit to the Straits, has returned with a 

 very high opinion of rubber in that quarter. 

 Speaking to a representative of the Ceylon 

 Observer, he said that he had been as V.A. to 

 Blackwater, where the rubber was growing very 

 well, and to Lapan Utan. He had also seen Bukit 

 Kajah, Damansara, Vallambrosa, Pendamaran, 

 Highlands & Lowlands (including Ayer Kuning's 

 3,000 acres, a very fine concern), Seatield, one of 

 the finest of the young estates, on which the 

 growth of rubber was excellent, Batu Caves, 

 another very fine property, and a number of 

 small Chinamen's places nearKajang. 



Tapping. 



One thing he particularly noticed was that on 

 nearly all the estates the old tamer's knife or 

 the gouge was being used. They did not seem 

 to go in for the guarded knife, such as that used 

 in Ceylon, and in one instance only did he see a 

 patent knife. Excellent work, however, was being 

 done and the tapping was very good indeed. 



An Improvement. 

 Rubber had improved a good deal since he 

 was there two years ago and the growth of 

 rubber, after the third year, was a good deal 

 better than in Ceylon, principally because the 

 climatic conditions were better, there being, for 

 one thing, a more even constant rainfall. The 

 trees had a more even growth and the yield per 

 tree was in excess of that of Ceylcn. The yield 

 on the bukit or hill land promised to be better 

 than that on the flat land, where the yield was 

 greatly affected by the rainfall, the flow of latex 

 stopping considerably when there was any ten- 

 dency to drought. 



The Chemist, 

 The chemist, who had been brought out from 

 England by the Rubber Growers' Association, 

 had just arrived, and was going to live at Bukit 

 Rajah and work from there. He (Mr. Tisdall) 

 thought it was an idea which should be followed 

 by Ceylon as anything which was likely to ad- 

 vance knowledge of the product was an excel- 

 lent thing. 



Manufacture. 

 The rubber factories there on the older places 

 did not come up to Ceylon in the way of build- 

 ings, which were mostly old converted coffee 

 stores, with additions. The new estates were 



building good factories, but they were going in 

 a great deal for natural drying, and not provi- 

 ding any Siroccos or drying machines. Natur- 

 ally dried rubber was supposed to be of better 

 quality, but it took ten days or a fortnight to do. 

 , Labour. 

 Labour conditions seemed to be very satis- 

 factory, and there was certainly not the same 

 bother with advances. Most places seemed to 

 have a sufficiency of labour although a few of the 

 outlying places were short. Chinamen had taken 

 very kindly to tapping and were doing very good 

 work. They were considerably more expensive 

 than Tamils but they did more work. A cooly 

 to two acres was usually sufficient. 



Disease. 



There was nothing in the way of disease to 

 cause any alarm, and the utmost care was being 

 taken to prevent any danger in this respect. 

 Weeds. 



Most of the places were quite clean weeded. 

 Passion flower was being used very largely for 

 keepiug down the growth of weeds, and for 

 killing the lalang. It was, however, used only 

 for the latter purpose, where there was a scar- 

 city of labour as it was recognised that the best 

 thing to do was to dig out the lalang, the oper- 

 ation although rather costly paying in the end. 

 Other Interesting Visits. 



Ho paid a very interesting visit to Kedah, one 

 of the native states on the west coast, between 

 Province Wellesley and Siam, and another to 

 Kelantan on the east coast. He heard very good 

 accounts of it as a rubber country, the soil being 

 very fine, and the conditions good. 



Development. 



The principal people opening land were the 

 Duff Development Co., of Singapore, who in- 

 tended to open several thousand acres. 

 A Lack of Scperintendents- 



There was likely to be a scarcity of Super- 

 intendents as a good many men, having made 

 their "pile," would be leaving the country very 

 shortly. He knew of at least a dozen quite 

 excellent billets which were unfilled. 



Old Friends. 



He saw a number of old Ceylon men there, inclu. 

 ding Messrs. R W Harrison, C Henly, W HTrot 

 ter, W R G Hickey and B C N Knight of Jebong" 

 Forward Sales. 

 He knew of the crops of several estates which had 

 been sold forward at a very good figure for 1912. 

 Future Movements. 



He was going to Periyar at the end of the 

 week and after about seven days there he would 

 return and take up some more visiting. 



RUBBER IN B. N. BORNEO. 



The Protector, Mr W H Penney, visited Si 

 Bode Rubber Estate, the property of the North 

 Borneo Trading Co., on the 11th inst. He re- 

 ports that planting operations are being actively 

 carried on and that it is expected 500 acres will 

 be fully planted up by the early part of next 

 year ; about half this area is already plauted 

 and the growth is very satisfactory — B, North 

 Borneo Herald, Dec, 16, 



