and Magazine oj the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



880 



labour, and so save the very heavy cost of ira 

 ported rice. The gardens already established on 

 Sogeri produce sweet potatoes up to 7 lb. weight 

 each, and maize cobs over a foot long. 



I visited the Queensland Government Experi- 

 mental Farm at Kamerunga, near Cairns, where 

 a number of Para trees and Ficus elastica were 

 planted eight years ago. They are now tap- 

 pable, and yielding from 1 lb. to 2 lb. of rubber 

 per tree per annum, yet they are of very little 

 larger girth than Para and Ficus elastica trees 

 of half their age at Sogeri. Rubber in the 

 countries of its origin grows in latitudes to 20 

 deg. south, in temperatures from 50 deg. Fahr. 

 to 100 deg. Fahr., and in rainfall from 30 in, to 

 150 in. per annum. The greater the rainfall, 

 the higher the temperature, and the richer the 

 soil, the better the rubber, and the quicker its 

 arrival at productiveness. There are cultivated 

 Para trees at Sogeri three-and-a-half years old, 18 

 in. in circumference 3 ft. above the ground, and 

 seeding in their fourth year, which means that 

 they rre mature and tappable. These three-and- 

 a-half and four-year-o.d trees have been raised 

 from seed ; by raising from rubber stumps two 

 years old, but cut back to represent a year of 

 growth, it is possible to steal a year out of time 

 by bringing the tree to certain maturity in the 

 fourth year. The ficus elastica at Sogeri shows 

 also a wonderful development in their four years 

 of growth. The fact of the Sogeri trees being 

 capable of production at four years is the most 

 conclusive proof of the land being ideal for rub- 

 ber growing ; and from a comparison of the 

 British Papua Land Company's country with the 

 State Rubber Nursery at Kamerunga it is patent 

 that the conditions of climate, soil, and rainfall 

 represent perfect conditions for the rubber 

 industry. 



The vine rubber, a parasite, and not of high 

 quality, grows throughout the jungle, mounting 

 the tallest trees, and the settler of small re- 

 sources might beat out hip capital by cutting jun- 

 gle undergrowth only, leaving the big trees, and 

 planting the vine parasite around the standing 

 truuks. Practically no clearing is required beyond 

 scrub knife work, the vines can be tapped in 

 the fourth year, and conveniently near the 

 ground and the big trees would clear themselves 

 in time by dying ; for as soon as the sunlight is 

 let it'to tho jungle the jungle begins to die. 



The Para tree itself is a beautiful thing, and 

 when are added the spotted white and glossy 

 green of the coffee plants on the red isoil slopes, 

 the long hedges of flowering limes, the living 

 fence of rooted sticks, the thatched roofs of the 

 native houses, the great prone cedars rotting 

 red in the recurrent rains and sunglare, coco- 

 nut and banana palms threshing their fronds 

 in the spiced air, and a grove of a thousand betel- 

 nut palms moving their feathery tops laaily, 

 Sogeri's beauty becomes indescribable only with 

 superlatives, 



'1 ho hot days and the rainfall spell financial 

 BUccesB J but the cool nights and the bracing 

 air of the plateau mean successful settlement by 

 white men. A settler may take his wife and 

 children to his new country, and be satisfied 

 that the climate will prevent the deterioration 

 pi family life so common in India and other 



essentially tropical countries ; the living con- 

 ditions of the Astrolabe will provide for the 

 white rubber plauter congenial and profitable 

 occupation in a perfect climate, which perfec- 

 tion of climate means that he will become a 

 permanent settler, bocause the social side of 

 life will not be lost to him. March is the 

 finest month of pictures in the jungle of the 

 plateau, when the D'Albertis creeper is in bloom, 

 all flower and no leaf, blossoms like red bea- 

 cons flaming from soil so treehead; but for 

 every month there is a special beauty. 



Having secured his land and his capital, the 

 next work of the planter is the finding of labour 

 — easy enough locally, and within limits if he be 

 known and liked ; easy enough at a distance if 

 he be a stranger. Rut distant recruiting calls 

 for a fair initial capital if the plantation be on 

 modest lines ; and for the ownership of a 

 schooner and a correspondingly larger captial 

 if work on a big scale is intended. The land 

 laws of the Paupan Government are liberality 

 crystallised ; for settlement is warmly welcomed 

 by tlie new regime, the only demand being that 

 the Settler shall till his laud, and not shepuered 

 it as speculation. The first work of the new 

 planter is tho establishment of gardens 

 for foodstuffs for his native labour and tho 

 second the clearing and planting of tho 

 time and money in a big plantation's owner- 

 ship ot aohooner, the cralt in slack times could 

 earn profit as a goods carrier, and also as a re- 

 cruiting vessel tor other people. 



Having regard for the harbours to be en- 

 tered, 1 recommend a 45-ton schooner, able to 

 carry 20 tons of cargo in addition to pro- 

 viding a space for natives in the holds. A 

 draught ot 7 ft. 6 in. (in ballast) would suit 

 the anchorages and rivers to be entered in 

 recruiting. Runks are not necessary, and the 

 open hold is more healthful. As ninety of 

 more natives would be recruited at a time, 

 adequate fresh water storage should be pro' 

 vided for. The schooner shoufd be a fast sailer, 



The only drawback to investment in rubber 

 cultivation is the long five years of waiting 

 and dead work until the trees are of tappable 

 size ; hut once producing, the returns are 

 very great, and continue lor more than tho 

 average litetime of a man. The investor who 

 enters a rubber-planting enterprise at the out- 

 set enters the business in tho cheapest pos- 

 sible way ; he is paying no profits to people 

 earlier in the business, ami he is assured of 

 huge returns after the necessary period of 

 growth to the point of productiveness. That, 

 once reached his capital must return to him 

 twenty-fold, promising always, of course, that 

 the plantation is working mainly for capital 

 invested, and not mainly for hot air and water. 

 Of all the countries of the earth where plant- 

 ing of Para rubber is proceeding, no country 

 has such excellent prospects as has tho Com- 

 monwealth's possession of Papua. The Gov- 

 ernment asks the planter for no money for tho 

 Treasury, demanding of him only that he 

 shall put capital into tho ground, and thus tt 

 plantation requires no purchase capital, but 

 only a working capital. And of all Papua the 

 Astrolabe has ideal conditions for the culture 

 of Para, 



