460 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



Magnesia 

 Potash 



Phosphoric acid 

 Containing Nitrogen 

 Acidity 



0-043 

 0-138 

 0-038 

 0-140 



faii- 



One field of tea, 22 years old, before manuring 

 Bhowed a falling off in yield, the leaf being of 

 poor quality and growing to banji before the 

 shoot had time to mature. In 1906 this field was 

 given an application of Fraser's mixture at the 

 rate of 7291b. per acre; in February 1908 an 

 application of Parry's manure at the rate of 

 1,015 lb. per acre ; and again in February 1909 

 an application of Parry's manure at the rate of 

 640 lb. per acre. 



The crops were as follows : — 



1904 798 lb. per acre. I 1907 376 lb. per acre. 



1905 463 do. | 1908 1,013 do. 



1906 590 do. I 1909 982 do. 



The trees have now quite recovered their vigour. 



The following is a comparative statement of 

 the cost of Fraser's mixture (Colombo) and 

 Parry's fertiliser with equal strength per acre of 

 essential fertilising ingredients, viz., Fraser's 

 8401b. and Parry's 1,000 lb. per acre, and the 

 actual cost on the estate including transport : — 



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-31 



PLANTING METHODS: AND TAPPING 

 SYSTEMS. 



Importance of Capable and Experienced 

 Management. 

 (To the Editar of the ""Financier") 

 As a constant reader of the Financier, will you 

 permit me, through the medium of your valued 

 columijs, to make a few remarks upon an article 

 entitled "Wide Planting— A Dutch View," 

 emanating presumably from a Mr van Romuude, 

 which appeared in your issue of March 29th? 



L The Extent and Method of Tapping.— 

 The first words I would draw attention to are 

 the following : — 



After noting that little is yet known re the extent to which 

 the Ficus elastica and the Hevea brasiliensis may be tapped 

 at one time, and also on the best methods of effecting this 

 operation, he (Mr van Romunde) says science and experi- 

 ence enable us to reach some kind of working basis. 



With regard to the first part of the above, I 

 fancy a good deal is known of the extent to 

 which Hevea brasiliensis, at any rate, will 'stand' 

 tapping, though I admit that little is known of 

 the effect it may eventually produce on trees 

 systematically tapped in artificial plantations 

 throughout a normal lifetime ; that is to say, the 

 normal period of economic utility on normal 

 plantations has only been surmised, and has not, 

 so far as I know, been yet definitely determined. 



With regard to the ' best methods of effecting 

 this operation,' there cannot to my mind, for 

 physiological reasons, be any two opinions as to 

 what principle of tapping is theoretically correct. 

 As Professor Fitting clearly demonstrated in a 

 most able treatise lately published, the effect of 

 incisions on any tree must cause a local disorga- 

 nisation of the conveyance of plant food from one 

 part of the tree to another. The water and 

 nutrient salts in solution which are obtained 

 from the soil by the roots (principally the 

 root hairs), and conveyed through the sap- 

 wood tissue (phloem) up to the leaves, are there 

 combined with the products of assimilation 

 of the leaves, that is, mainly carbon (the 

 oxygen of the CO i being returned to the atmo- 

 sphere), to form complex carbohydrates, such 

 as sugar, starch, etc., which are again conveyed 

 down the stem, principally through the bast. 

 The natural direction is vertically downwards. 

 The more a system of tapping approximates, 

 therefore, to what is known as "ringing ' or 

 "girdling," the more irregular must be the flow 

 of the plant-food, and consequently the greater 

 the difficulties placed in the way of its reaching 

 all parts of the plant quickly and efficiently. For 

 this reason I am particularly averse to the half- 

 spiral and full-spiral systems of tapping, parti- 

 cularly the former, which, if carried out with 

 two vertical channels, one on each side of the 

 tree, is tantamount to "girdling," and the tree's 

 recovery then depends upon whether the reserve 

 material stored in the reservoir ducts below the 

 girdle is sufficient to keep the tree going till the 

 cambial layer or creative tissue has bridged the 

 wound with "wound calli,' : and restored the 

 communication. 



With regard to the full spiral system of tap- 

 ping, the enormous number of transverse cell- 

 wallo that the sap must have to negotiate before 

 it can get down must render its progress very 

 slow, thereby minimising its usefulness. 



