and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



383 



public. Regarding the position from all points, 

 it looked as if for several years we should 

 not see the low prices to which we had been 

 accustomed. Grocers were getting a smaller 

 profit on their low-price canister, and many 

 of them were in consequence endeavouring to 

 make up for this by giving less for their better 

 tea. Sure ly they would do better to keep up 

 the character of their higher blends, and 

 endeavour to increase their sale for good tea, 

 instead of decreasing it by giving inferior 

 quality. It might be advisable to stock low- 

 priced canisters— in fact, it was necessary in 

 some neighbourhoods— but it never paid to 

 show them. Common tea, as' shown, was not 

 economical, as the leaf was coarse and flat with 

 little sap,consequently taking much more to make 

 a cup of equal strength, with that brewed from 

 young leaf and higher grade. The grocer 

 could gain neither profit nor reputation by 

 cutting retail prices in low tea, so that after 

 all the big advance of the last twelve months 

 might ultimately benefit him. Under present 

 conditions it seemed to him that what the grocer 

 wanted to do was to force attention to the 

 better value and greater economy of good tea — 

 i.e., tea at 2s. per lb. as compared with lower 

 grades. He should like to see enterprising 

 grocers driving this fact home. They could never 

 permanently satisfy their customers with com- 

 mon tea, and after twenty-five years of ex- 

 perience in the trade he might say that he had 

 seldom met a grocer who had constantly main- 

 tained the quality of his best canister, and 

 kept it constantly before the public, who had 

 not held his trade in the present day of keen 

 competition. Unfortunately, the grocers who 

 did this were decreasing in number/'-^// & C 

 Mail, Feb. 21. 



HEVEA AND CASTILLO A, 



Castilloa Outgrown. 

 In July, 1898, a small experiment plot was 

 planted with Hevea and Castilloa mixed, the 

 trees of each kind being the same age. The 

 growth of Hevea has been such as to compel 

 the removal of the Castilloa to give them room. 

 In fact the Hevea had outgrown Castilloa to 

 such an extent as to completely dwarf them. 

 The trial therefore decides that Hevea, on the 

 St. Clair lands, will outgrow Castilloa com- 

 pletely, all conditions being equal. This growth 

 of Hevea cannot be attributed to preponderating 

 numbers, as the trees of Castilloa outnumbered 



them by two-thirds, and for the first two years 

 outgrew Hevea. 



The land on which the trees were planted was 

 evidently not so well suited to Castilloa as to 

 Hevea, and the latter in consequence made most 

 progress. It is a well-drained sandy alluvial 

 deposit, but scantily charged with organic matter. 

 The experiment therefore shews not only that 

 Hevea will outgrow Castilloa, but that it can out- 

 grow it on lands which are stated by some recent 

 writers to be utterly unsuited for the growth of 

 Para Rubber, who maintain that Hevea cannot 

 be grown to advantage anywhere but in the 

 damp and dismal swamps of the Amazon and 

 kindred localities. — Trinidad Bulletin for Jan. 



DEAD OR DISEASED COCONUT TREES. 



New Regulations. 

 The following are promulgated in the Govern- 

 ment Gazette in substitution of the regulations 

 published in the Gazette of 3rd January last :— 



1. It shall be the duty of the owner or person in charge 

 of every coconut tree which is dead to forthwith uproot 

 such tree and either to consume it with tire or to keep it 

 completely submerged in water so that the beetle and all 

 eggs and larv.-p thereof may be totally destroyed, and that 

 the tree may not serve as a breeding place for any or either 

 of the beetles mentioned in the schedule to Proclamation 

 dated December 18, 1907. 



2. It shall be ithe duty of the owner or person in 

 charge of every living coconut tree which is attacked by 

 the beetle secondly described in the said schedule either 

 completely to destroy the tree in one or the other manners 

 described in section 1 of these regulations, or to cut out 

 an! destroy the portion of the tree that is attacked, to- 

 gether with all the contained beetles and their eggs and 

 larvse, and to till up the cavity with mortar or any other 

 material that will prevent the re-entry of such beetles. 



3. No owner or person in charge of any land or premises 

 shall keep or permit to be kept on such land or premises 

 dead coconut stems or pieces of coconut stems (except 

 such as have been sawn or split into rafters for buildin" 

 purposes) or other matter which would be likely to harbour 

 or become breeding places for the sxid beetles, or neglect 

 or refu?e to remove or destroy the same when required so 

 to do by a notice in writing signed by the Government 

 Agent of the Province, or the Assistant Government Agent 

 of the District, or any Police Officer or Headman. 



4. No owner or person in charge of any land or premises 

 shall retain on such premises rubbish heaps or other 

 accumulations of dung or vegetable refuse required 

 for manurial purposes for a longer period than four 

 months before application. 



5. The Government Agent, Assistant Government 

 Agent, and every Police Officer and Headman shall have 

 access at all reasonable times into and upon any land 

 whereon any coconut tree is growing for the purpose of 

 inspecting such tree, and also into and upon any land or 

 premises where there is reason to suppose that there are 

 kept any^ such things as in the preceding rule are 

 referred to. 



