and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society.— March, 1910. 285 



people themselves are a lazy, useless lot and 

 look like a lot of brigands. They are armed 

 up to the teeth with revolvers, knives and 

 swords, which they use freely on the slightest 

 provocation. What I call " murders " are con- 

 tinually happening, but no notice is taken of 

 the affairs. One good thing is they leave all 

 foreigners alone, unless they interfere with 

 them and their politics. Politics are at the 

 bottom of nearly all the rows and troubles. 

 Everybody is a "General" in this country. Our 

 letters are brought to us by a General, also 

 the bread and milk. We have several Generals 

 working as miners and labourers. The army 

 consists of 30,001) Generals and 10,000 others, 

 only one of whom is a private, all the rest being 

 at least corporals ; but they are mostly captains 

 and colonels. The women are nonentities. Such 

 is roughly an idea of this place and people. 'J he 

 country itself is very pretty and is well watered. 



DAMAGE TO RUBBER STUMPS. 



From the Mole Cricket. 



(To the Editor, ''Malay Mail.") 



Dear Sir, — Upon an estate on the alluvial m 

 which I am interested, I find that as soon as my 

 stumps begin to shoot, the shoots are very soon 

 nipped clean off and removed. I have been told 

 that the mole cricket is responsible, and have 

 tried liming, tarring, and even bird-liming the 

 stumps in the hopes of driving off or catching 

 some of my enemies. I have had a watch kept 

 at nights, andin fact have done everything in 

 my power to check the pest, but totally without 

 avail so far. I have heard it said that the only 

 thing to be done is to pull up the bitten stumps 

 and supply with young tree stumps 8ft. high. 

 But unfortunately this latter suggestion does 

 not come within the range of practical politics. 

 I have now a gang on digging, with what success 

 I cannot at present say, but if it is the mole 

 cricket, 1 hope that the demoralising influence 

 of disturbance may effect some good results. In 

 the meantime I shall be most grateful for any 

 assistance and advice, and would also be pre- 

 pared to pay a handsome fee, it required, for a 

 satisfactory remedy for the most serious insect 

 attack which I have known in the course of a 

 very long experience. — I am, etc., 



"Mole Cricket." 



—Malay Mail, Feb. 12. 



GRASS ON RUBBER ESTATES. 



Planters will have read with much interest 

 the letters quoted by Mr R D Anstead referring to 

 " The Harmful Effect of Grass in Cultivations" 

 and his remarks thereon which were published 

 in a recent issue of the "Planters Chronicle." He 

 says : — "I have on several occasions when dis- 

 cussing the use of weeds in cultivations of tea, 

 coffee, etc., had occasion to point out that grass 

 of alj kinds is directly harmful and should be 

 eliminated as far as possiblo, on account of its 

 power of excreting a poisonous substance into 



the soil." This is a very startling pronouncement 

 and it is based, apparently, on investigations 

 carried out during the last 15 years at the Wo- 

 burn Experimental Farm and described by Mr 

 Spencer Pickering in a letter to the "Gardeners' 

 Chronicle, ' which Mr Anstead reproduces. JL'he 

 latter, however, goes further than Mr Pickering, 

 and it would be interesting to know on what 

 grounds he is able to make so sweeping a pro- 

 nouncement, viz. that " grass of all kinds " has 

 the "power of excreting a poisonous substance 

 into the soil." The idea of plants having toxic 

 effect on soil is not a new one, but unless 1 am 

 much mistaken, it was one that most scientists 

 entirely disagreed with until quite recently ; 

 and Mr Pickering, it will be seen, only goes so 

 far as to say, with exemplary caution, that 

 '• although no final solution of the problem has 

 yet been obtained, considerable progress has 

 been made in the matter and various possible 

 explanations have been definitely negatived." 



No tea or coffee planter will deny that grass 

 does harm to his t"eos, especially in the hot 

 weather. On the other hand, the rubber planter 

 will argue that he is constantly being told by 

 the scientist that it is better to leave his ground 

 covered with a jungle growth than expose it to 

 the sun's ray. Now Mr Anstead points out that 

 land left until led is taken possession of by grass 

 and that grass spells ruin. The counsel of per- 

 fection for the rubber planter is, no doubt, to 

 dig out weeds and grow leguminous plants bet- 

 ween his trees, and many are doing this regard- 

 less of cost. What, however, would Mr Ans- 

 tead have the rubber planter do whose means 

 are limited— give his estate an annual dig, clean 

 weed, or what ? Or must we consider the re- 

 placement of jungle weeds by leguminous plants 

 a sine qua non to successful rubber cultivation ? 



GeORGos. 



—M. Mail, Feb. 23. 



CASTOR OIL BEAN IN THE SOUDAN. 



Experiments in Production. 

 The monthly report of the Soudan Central 

 Economic Board for October says experiments 

 were carried on at Kassala during the season 

 1908 9 with the cultivation ot the castor oil plant, 

 Java and Indian seed being used. The seed was 

 sown early in September and the harvest took 

 place about the middle of January. The beans 

 were sent to Hull and there sold at about lit per 

 ton. The cost of cultivation and the yield per 

 feddan were as follows : — 



Cost of cultiva- Yield per 



tion per feiklan. feddan. 

 Java seed 4"479 I E. 1,840 rotls 



Indian seed 3 - 725 I E. 1,729 „ 



The results of an examination, at Khartoum 

 of samples of the beans produced, were : — 



Java. Indian, 

 tereenta^e of oil 61-4H 18 68 



Weight of 100 seeds 42.6 grams 25'2 grains 



The samples were both stated to be of good 

 quality, that grown from Java seed especially so. 



I E. equal 11, 0s 6Jd ; Kotl. equal -99 lb ; Feddan equal 

 I'M acres. 



—Board of I'radc Journal, Dec. 2. 



