and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society.— July, 1910. 



87 



No machinery is required, very few tools, no ex- 

 pensive bungalows for managers. The capital 

 is not required all at once, the cost of bringing 

 a large property into bearing being spread over 

 a period of 8 or 9 years when an evenly, planted 

 held will become self-supporting. The finest 

 jungle can be had for R50 an acre, and labour 

 is cheap, from 25c to 30c for men. We have no 

 outstanding advances. Our trees do not bear as 

 heavily as in Malaya or the Western Province, but 

 my opinion is that even a good palm will sup- 

 port only a certain amount of kernel. If Iget50 

 nuts per tree per annum, the nuts will be smaller 

 than 30 nuts from the same tree in another year. 

 I do not know how many nuts makoa candy of 

 copra in the F. M. S., and what price they get for 

 their copra. We use, in an average year, about 

 1,000 nuts per candy, if the estate is not too old 

 and has been manured. Therefore 1,000 nuts 

 are —at present — worth to me about R76. At 

 Galle and in the W. P. they have to handle 

 about 1,500 nuts to turn out a candy of copra. 



There is one great drawback to working large 

 properties in this district. Scarcity of cattle, 

 and the unsatisfactory results from applying 

 artificial manure. Artificial manure does not 

 pay here. Most careful analyses have been 

 made by the most experienced chemists, and 

 many compounds have been tried by me for a 

 period of over 15 years without any tangible 

 result. It cost me 75 cts. to obtain an iucreased 

 profit of 20 cts.; experiments extending on cer- 

 t »in blocks over four years. 



To answer " Investor's " questions, I think : 



1. It would cost about R40 per acre planting an 

 estate, including felling, clearing, holing, wells, 

 tools, fencing, nursery, but without manage- 

 ment. A Superintendent can work a very large 

 acreage, and R83'33 per mensem is considered 

 ample remuneration for, say, 150 acres. 



2. It is difficult to say how much it will cost 

 to bring an acre into bearing, as so much de- 

 pends on the soil, climate, conditions, etc. Gen- 

 erally speaking a property here is self-suppor- 

 ting in the 9th year. With economical manage- 

 ment, avoiding the building of bungalows, roads, 

 culverts, etc., R30 per acre per annum would 

 be ample for the first eight years not including 

 management. But it can be done much more 

 cheaply under favourable circumstances. 



3. It is quite impossible to give a guarantee 

 as regards the probable returns from the 9th to 

 15th year. — The growth of young trees is excee- 

 dingly slow here, as ourrainfall is very unevenly 

 distributed. Trees 15 years of age frequently do 

 not even flower for the first time unless ample 

 cattle manure, can be applied. 1 would call 

 a property in the 18th year in 1; full bearing." 

 But a good many side issues will have to be 

 considered. 30 nuts per tree per annum is 

 considered a fair return from a large property, 

 equal to about 2,700 nuts per acre, value 

 about R175 on the spot. I might mention 

 here that the up-keep per acre is not much less- 

 ened when an estate is in full bearing, as man- 

 uring has to 1)0 kept up continually, and carts, 

 bulls, buffaloes, etc., nave to be provided for. 



4. A long experience in this district has shown 

 me that a net profit ot even R60 per acre gives 

 a very handsome return on the invested capital, 



Many investors make the mistake of devoting 

 their profits from a bearing field to opening up 

 more land, without having spare capital for the 

 purpose, and then expecting a return from the 

 paying property as well. I have brought an 

 estate of 100 acres into bearing at a cost of R310 

 per acre, including management and cost of land 

 (R50 per acre), getting in the 11th year R67 per 

 aero nett profit, in the 14th R98 nett per acre. 



In conclusion, I may say that Batticaloa had 

 a bad name for several reasons. The district 

 was always considered a penal settlement for 

 offending officials, but this has been changed. 

 Lately vve have had the very best administra- 

 tors : Fisher, Murray, Freeman, Murty ; able 

 Office Assistants and very good and capable P. 

 W.D. and and Irrigation Officers. A great draw- 

 back to Battic v!oa is the bad and slow connec- 

 tion with other districts. 



I believe there is an export duty on copra in 

 Malaya, and labour there is dearer than with us, 

 and we are happily free from cartain palm dis- 

 eases they have over there. —I am, Sir,yours, etc, 



0. A. LIENARD. 



RUBBER: WIDE V. CLOSE PLANTING. 



900 lb. per acre from a close-planted swamp I 



It is perhaps a platitude, but it is a platitude 

 that is well worth "rubbing in," to say that even 

 tne most •'experienced'' planters know very 

 little indeed about the history of the Para rub- 

 ber tree, or heveci brasiliensis. We are, in fact, 

 only ju3t beginning to learn something of the 

 effects that varied conditions have upon this 

 tree, how it behaves in certain circumstances 

 and the response that it makes to different 

 kinds of treatment. And the reports received 

 from one quarter are often in direct contradic- 

 tion with those received from another equally 

 trustworthy source. With regard to practically 

 every feature of the cultivation of rubber expert 

 opinions differ, and the more experienced the 

 planter the readier he is as a rule to confess that, 

 like his fellows, he is working very largely in 

 the dark. Take, for instance, the question of 

 wide versus close planting. For several years, 

 basing our arguments on the fact that the heoea 

 brasiliensis in its own country is a forest-tree 

 that sometimes attains a very large size indeed, 

 and knowing, beause we have seen it, that trees 

 planted a good distance apart do show greater 

 girth— and therefore more tappable area — than 

 thoso planted closely, we have advocated wide- 

 planting. And, because it seemed natural to 

 allow a tree, like an individual or an animal, to 

 develop and grow before calling upon it to sub- 

 mit to processes which in themselves are un- 

 natural, we have advocated late tapping. And 

 now we hear of trees, that were planted very 

 wide apart and allowed to attain their full 

 growth before being tapped, which have yielded 

 practically no latex at all ; while others planted 

 close together and tapped for all they were 

 worth have in successive years given pheno- 

 menal yields. There is a well-known block of a 

 few acres on Caledonia estate, marching with 

 the railway line and quite near the station. The 

 trees here were planted some time ago, more with 



