476 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



attending a meeting of the Central Travancore 

 Planters' Association on April Oth and lecturing 

 upon the treatment of Helopcttis and manuring 

 of Tea. I finally returned to Bangalore on 

 April 13th. 



Rubber. 



Without making any distinctions between one 

 estate and another, or one district and another, 

 I may say that I was very much struck by the 

 appearance of the para rubber throughout the 

 whole of my tour and can congratulate the 

 planters as a whole on its excellent prospects. 

 I had the pleasure of visiting the far-famed 

 Palapilly estate, without doubt a most success- 

 ful piece of rubber cultivation in every way. 



Diseases.— As is the case with all cultivations 

 of one plant on a large scale and over a large 

 area, diseases are present. This is to be expec- 

 ted indeed it would be a very, remarkable thing 

 were it not the case. Both "Pink disease " and 

 "Die Back" occur and cause an amount of 

 trouble which varies from place to place. Both 

 diseases are to be found on several indigeuous 

 trees in the surrounding jungle and spores are 

 constantly carried from the jungle to the rub- 

 ber, which accounts for the annual recurrence 

 of the disease on the rubber. Thero is, however, 

 no cause for special anxiety. Planters know all 

 about these diseases, and are taking every pre- 

 caution and there is no reason to suppose that 

 they will ever bo allowed to assume the pro- 

 portions of an epidemic. Every care should be 

 taken to tackle the disease directly it appears, 

 and a constant watch should be kept for its 

 first appearance. This, in fact, io being done 

 throughout the district. Of the two, the " die 

 back ' is probably the more important and 

 the more to be feared, especially if it is neg- 

 lected. Quite recently two Circulars (Vol. iv. 

 Nos. 21 and 23) have been published by the 

 Royal Botanic Gardens, Ceylon, written by Mr 

 T Petch, the Government Mj cologist, dealing 

 at length with the "pink fungus " and the "die 

 back," and 1 cannot do better than quote Mr 

 Petch's excellent descriptions of the two 

 diseases. At the same time 1 advise every 

 planter interested in rubber to obtain these 

 most interesting circulars, and "read, mark, 

 learn, and inwardly digest " every word of them 

 even down to the scientific names of the fungi 



producing the diseases The disease is 



always apparent soon after the monsoon has 

 begun. In the dry season the spores are pre- 

 sent, lying dormant on the trees in convenient 

 places such as the forks of the branches, which 

 is a very common point of attack, waiting only 

 for the rain to supply them with sufficient 

 moisture to start them into growth. This sug- 

 gests the possibility of a preventive method of 

 control. Copper sulphate is a well known 

 fungicide, and its presence kills growing fungi. 

 If then during the dry weather the trees can be 

 coated with this fungicide, when the rain comes 

 the spores will germinate in its presence and be 

 killed. The spores are blown about in the dry 

 season, and the fungus grows during the Mon- 

 soon, the production of spores being its final 

 stage at the beginning of the following dry 

 oeason ready for redistribution. Presumably 

 then there are few or no spores being carried 

 about in the monsoon and if those in i(u are 



killed by copper sulphate as they germinate, 

 the rubber should be free from the disease 

 for a year. This is the method "on paper." 

 In practice it needs an experimental trial, 

 and at Palapillay it is undergoing this 

 trial. Every tree was, during the dry weather, 

 painted as far as it could be reached with Bor- 

 deaux Mixture made up with gum to make it 

 stick. I am informed that the work was not 

 difficult ; and the cost was small. The result 

 as far as the protection of the trees from disease 

 is concerned will not, of course, be known until 

 after the monsoon. I hope at a later date, with 

 the permission of Mr Nicoll, to publish fuller 

 information about this method and its results. 

 The disease appears to attack trees from two to 

 live years old more than older trees. When it is 

 found, the affected part should be cutout. In 

 the case of quite young trees they should be cut 

 back well below the affected part. On old trees 

 the diseased part should be cut out, and care- 

 fully collected and burned. The wound should 

 then be tarred, care being taken to apply the 

 tar to the cut and not to spread it over the bark 

 A still better plan would be to wash the 

 wound first with Bordeaux Mixture and to 

 tar it afterwards. A watch should be kept 

 on all treated places to see that the new bark 

 is healing up properly, and that all traces 

 of the fungus have been removed. If this work 

 is consistently done and a watch kept, especially 

 at the beginning of the wot weather, for the first 

 appearance of the disease, there is no reason to 

 fear the disease. 



It would be interesting to know exactly what 

 trees in the jungle are attacked by Corticium 

 Javanicum, and, these being known, it would 

 obviously be an advantage to eliminate them if 

 possible from the borders of the estates. 



Rudolph D. Anstkap, Planting Expert. 

 — Planters' G/ironic'c, April 30. 



RUBBER CULTIVATION IN SPANISH 

 POSSESSIONS IN GULF OF GUINEA. 



The following information is from the report 

 on the trade of tho Spanish Possessions in the 

 Gulf of Guinea in 1000, which will shortly be 

 issued : — There is said to be a plentiful supply of 

 vine rubber in tho districts of Bata and Elobey 

 on the mainland. Trade in this article fell off 

 during 1008, owing to the fall in prices in 

 Europe ; during 1000 it improved, but was 

 affected adversely by the prohibition of the sale 

 of guns and powder, for which there is a great 

 demand amongst the natives. 



The planting of Para rubber is being taken 

 up in the Island of Fernando Po, one firm having 

 about 3,oQ0 trees growing well, of which about 

 500 have been raised from Ceylon seed and 2,500 

 from local seed. The larger trees, which are 

 seven years old, have been tapped, but only to 

 ascertain the flow of latex, which is said to be 

 greater than from trees in the gardens at 

 Victoria, in the Cameroons. Another firm has 

 about 500 trees from seed obtained from plan- 

 tations in the Eket district, Eastern province, 

 Southern Nigeria. The climate and soil of 

 Fernando Po appear to be generally suitable for 

 the cultivation of Para rubber. — Board of Trade. 

 Journal, March 31. 



