and Magazine oj the Oeylon Agricultural Society,— April, 1910, 



867 



which are laid out in a quite primitive manner, 

 the seeds are planted in rows 2 metres apart, 

 making 2,500 trees to the hectare (2 47 acres). 

 Other plants may be grown between the rows 

 during the first year. With regard to tapping, 

 M. piauhyensis is ready in the third year, and the 

 other two species may be tapped in their 

 fourth year of growth. The yield of rubber from 

 a single tree of M. dicholnma in one year can be 

 reckoned at from 100-200 grammes with present 

 methods, and this is equivalent to 200-300 kilogs. 

 per hectare. Theannual yield of rubberfor single 

 trees of M. piauhyensis and M. heptaphyUm is from 

 500-1,000 grammes, which corresponds roughly, 

 to about one ton per hectare."' — Indian Forester, 

 for January and February, Nos. I and 2. 



BRAZIL-NUTS. 



The Brazil-nut tree(Bertholletia excelsa) belongs 

 to the monkey-pot section of the myrtle family, 

 and is a native of Brazil, Guiana and Venezuela, 

 forming large forests on the banks of the Rio 

 Negro, Amazon and Orinoco. Travellers de- 

 scribe it as one of the biggest tropical trees, 

 both in height and circumference. The fruits, 

 which are produced on the upper branches, take 

 upwards of a year to ripen, in which state they 

 consist of a perfectly round hard shell about half 

 an inch thick, containing 15 to 25 closely-packed 

 three-sided, rough-shelled seeds (nuts). When 

 ripe the entire fruit falls from the tree. It differs 

 in this respect from the allied Sapucaya nut, 

 whose fruit splits while still on the tree, letting 

 the seeds fall to the ground. The leaves are broad 

 and smooth and about 18 in. long. The erect 

 flower spikes are about 2 ft. long, and bear many 

 cream-white flowers, which open one by one. 



The tree is so slow of growth that while the 

 native supply continues abundant, it is not suit- 

 able for commercial planting. It has, however, 

 long been thought suitable for introduction into 

 our eastern colonies and Australia, and this is 

 not a matter of great difficulty. Fresh seeds may 

 be obtained in London in early summer, and 

 should be packed for re-export in coconut fibre. 

 On arrival the shells of the seeds should be very 

 carefully removed, and the kernels sown in nur- 

 sery beds, when they will quickly germinate. 

 Two trees, which were planted in Singapore in 

 1881, first fruited in 1902, and have since borne 

 nuts annually in increasing quantities The 

 biggest tree is now 65 ft. high. 



The manner of the germination of the seeds in 

 a wild state was long a matter of speculation. 

 It is accomplished as follows : — In each fruit 

 there is a small hole at the point where it was 

 attached to the stalk. Through this, after a 

 considerable time, the shoot of one of the germi- 

 nating seeds contrives to effect an exit. The 

 other seeds, unable to find an outlet to reach the 

 light, perish, but they are thought to be useful 

 in serving to nourish the solitary plant which 

 grows, and ultimately bursts the shell confining 

 its roots, which then strike into the soil. Ex- 

 periments showed that even if the seeds are re- 

 moved from the fruit case they take a long time 

 to germinate, but that when the kernels were 

 removed and sown the young plants appeared 

 through the soil after ten days. 

 —The Field, February 19. K. 



PADDY EXPERIMENTS IN INDIA. 



The following details of an experiment in 

 paddy cultivation at the Dumraou Agricultural 

 Station— given in the report on the Station 

 for 1908-9— should prove of interest to local 

 cultivators. The paddy grown was a variety 

 known as Bansphul, a medium-grained sort. 



Acre plots were manured as follows : — (1) 50 

 maunds (80 lb. per maund) cow-dung ; (2) 100 

 maunds cow-duug ; (3) 34 maunds cow-dung and 

 3f maunds castor-cake ; (4) 3 maunds bonemeal 

 and 1 maund saltpetre ; (5) sunn hemp green 

 manure ; and (6) Dhaincha green manure. One 

 plot (7) was left unmanured. 



The seed-bed was sown on June 1st, and trans- 

 planting (two seeds to each hole) took place 

 in the 2nd and 3rd week of July, and the crop 

 was harvested in last week of November. The 

 following table gives the results : — 



Out-turn Per Acre in Maunds. 





Grain 



Straw. 



(1) 



32 



60 



(2) 



26J 



47 



(3) ... 



37i 



824 



(4) 



27£ 



56-| 



(5) 



29 



574 



(6) ... 



25 



48 



(7) ... 



224 



31 



Another experiment dealt with varieties. This 

 experiment was begun in 1906, and the results 

 prove that for a fine medium and coarse-grained 

 rice, the varieties known as Srikola, Bansphul 

 and Maharajvva paddies are the best. These 

 yielded per acre, respectively, 22^ maunds grain 

 and 51J straw, 16 maunds grain and 27£ straw, 

 30£ maunds grain and 56 straw. The selection 

 of a coarse, medium and fine-grained variety 

 must depend entirely on the market and be de- 

 cided by the cultivator himself. 



Still, another trial dealt with the question of 

 draining the field during the last fortnight. 

 This is the usual practice and is known as niqar. 

 The continuance of water on the land is indi- 

 cated by the term no-nigar. The following were 

 the results : — 



Out-turn in Maunds (80 lb.) 



Grain, Straw. 



Niger ISA 36g 



No-nigar ... 13 40| 

 Hence the results were very much in favour of 

 nigar. In the no-nigar plots the plants were 

 sickly and were badly attacked by caterpillars. 



The conclusions to be drawn are : (1) that 

 a mixture of 34 maunds cow-dung and 3J maunds 

 castor-cake is an economical application, while 

 green-manuring with sunn-hemp (Crotalaria 

 '/uneen) and Dhaincha (Sestunia aculenta) is well 

 worth the attention of cultivators ; (2) that 

 the practice of witholding water from the 

 field during the last fortnight of cultivation is 

 to be commended. 



To show the value of conserving manure, a 

 trial was made in manuring paddy : (1) with 100 

 maunds cai tie-dung and urine protected from 

 sun and rain ; and (2) with the same quantity of 

 ordinary exposed manure usod by the ryot. The 

 results are very striking, for, while the yield in 

 the former case was 26& maunds grain and 47 

 straw, in the latter case it was 15| maunds grain 

 and 274 straw. 



