and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society.— June, 1912. 575 



There is no lack ot talent among our scientists 

 and older planters in this country and we feel 

 sure that if the Government took an interest in 

 the subject the services of many a leading planter 

 could be enlisted in the cause. The Director of 

 Agriculture, in our opinion, would be the fittest 

 person to take a leading part in the Rubber 

 School. Lectures from him, as well as, say, 

 from Mr Bancroft, Mycologist, Mr Spring, and 

 Mr B J Eaton on the scientific side would do 

 more good from a practical point of view than 

 all the Bulletins put together. The Medical 

 aspects of rubber could be entrusted into the 

 safe and able hands of Dr Malcolm Watson, 

 while Labour hints would be ably handled by 

 men like Mr Harvey, Mr Macfadyen and others. 

 As wo have said there is no lack of available 

 talent and many names occur to us as being 

 suitable for the role ot lecturer. Perhaps the 

 suggestion put forward by us can be improved 

 upon and made more useful but we shall rest 

 content if we bave been the means to induce in- 

 terest in the subject and from which might re- 

 sult what we fain would wish to see established 

 —a rubber school in our midst.— Grenier's Rub- 

 ber News, May 25. 



COTTON GROWING IN SIND 



Experiments with American Seed. 



Karachi, June 1. — Nothing will be done this 

 year in Sicd with American cotton, outside the 

 Government farms. Seed sufficient for 4,000 

 acres was ordered from the United States, but 

 owing to various difficulties it will arrive too 

 late for sowing this year. Over 3,000 acres 

 would have been sown ou the Jamrao tract and 

 1,000 acres in Upper Sind. For dealing with 

 the latter area a gin was to be erected at Jaco- 

 babad by a Syndicate of Bombay Cotton Brokers. 

 It was arranged that when the Semindars 

 brought their cotton to gin they would be paid 

 half the value, payment for the remainder being 

 made after sales at Bombay or Liverpool. In 

 this way all trouble with auction sales and bad 

 ginning which occurred with Egyptian cotton 

 grown in Jamrao would be avoided. A new Ex 

 perimental and Demonstration Farm is being 

 opened at Larkana, in Sind, where work on rice 

 and general crops will be carried out. — M. Mail. 



MIXED VS UNMIXED PLANTATIONS. 



The results which are being obtained from 

 Coffee Robusta in Java, coupled with the most 

 promising outlook for the .same product, in that 

 island, in the uear future, has caused some people 

 to consider whether it would not have been a 

 wiser policy if we in Malaya had gone in for a 

 more mixed policy in planting than has been 

 done. It is true that some of our estates have 

 a second string to their bow either in the shape 

 of tin, of coconuts, of tapioca or of coffee but 

 these, it will be admitted, form the minority. 

 The bulk of our plantations are wedded to rub- 

 ber alone. Java has followed a poljgamous 

 policy and, apparently, is beginning to direct 

 attention to herself, and that as a result there 

 is every likelihood of shares in Java companies 

 going up before we are very much older. It is 



a pity, we think, that Coffee Robusta has not 

 been planted ou a much larger scale than has 

 been done, for where it is being grown it is 

 doing uncommonly well and we have only to cite 

 the case of Sungd Sedu, one of our moat pro- 

 mising estates, to prove the truth of this asser- 

 tion. Of course we may be told that in the case 

 of Java the rubber planters in that country had 

 no alternative in view of the slow growth of the 

 rubber in that island but that would be no an- 

 swer to our contention that we should have 

 grown more Coffee Robusta in this country. The 

 fact of the matter is that we were so obsessed by 

 rubber in 1910 that we had no thought for any- 

 thing else. Nothing was good enough for us but 

 rubber, rubber, rubber but there are many now 

 who must be sorry that they did not strike out 

 into other lines as well. Joconuts too have been 

 very much neglected while not the slightest at- 

 tempt has been made to grow tea though more 

 than one planter has told us that there are some 

 parts of the Peninsula where the tea bush would 

 thrive. It must not be deduced from the fore- 

 ging remarks that we would like to see rubber 

 supplemented by some other product — that 

 would be diametrically opposed to our mission — 

 but ready we would like to see more interest 

 taken than is done at present in other products — 

 apolicy which would, we think, add to the wealth, 

 the beauty and welfare of this favoured country, 

 the soil of which is suitable tor the growth of 

 not only one product, like rubber, but of a variety 

 of products, which could be grown alongside the 

 stapleone. — Grenier's Rubber Neivs, May 25. 



JAFFNA TOBACCO NOTES. 



Tobacco is being cut and cured in all parts of 

 this District. The price now paid by village 

 traders for tobacco in plants to be cured and 

 sold to merchants is not less than that paid last 

 year. The quantity of last year's tobacco re- 

 maining in stock for export to Travancore dur- 

 ing the next Malayalam year is estimated at 

 about 3,800 candies. This year's crop was esti- 

 mated at a meeting of tobacco merchants held 

 last month at about 8,000 candies. There will, 

 therefore, be 



Available in Jaffna a Quantity More than 



Sufficient fok two Years, 

 the quantity of this tobacco allowed to be im- 

 ported to Travancore in one year being 5,745 

 candies. Tobacco is a perishable article which, 

 if kept more than a certain period, will become 

 damaged. In spite of the tempting price now 

 prevailing, which may not last if the supply ex- 

 ceeds the demand, our cultivators will do well 

 to restrict the area of tobicco cultivation and 

 to cultivate other products such as manioca, 

 chillies, plantain, onion, <fcc, for which there 

 is good demand locally as well as in other parts 

 of the Island. There can be no donbt that, 

 if not this year certainly during next year, a 

 deadlock will occur if the production of tobacco 

 in this District will go on at this rate, and the 

 result will be heavy loss not only to the cultiva- 

 tors but also to the merchants who will be ob- 

 liged to have in Jaffna large stocks of tobacco of 

 previous years which will deteriorate in value 

 and also become damaged by natural process. 

 — " Hindu Organ ", May 29. 



