178 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



( 5) Outturn per acre.— The tapping of 4 to 4$ year old 



trees for 5 months last year worked out at 30 lb. 

 per acre. 



(6) Area fit to be tapped.— 63 "90 will be tapped from 



August 1st, 1910. 



(7) Approximate outturn for 1086. - 20,000 lb. 



Note.— Only trees 12 in., -'0 in., from the ground are tapped. 

 Vellanikara District— Total Area— l,008'17 Acres. 



(1) Area planted up to date . . 1,000 acres 



(2) Nature of growth . . Very good 



(3) No. of trees per acre . . 151 trees 



(4) Area tapped and date of tapping ., Nil 



(5) Outturn per acre . . Nil 



(6) Area fit to be tapped . . 50 acres 



(7) Approximate outturn for 1086 . . Nil 

 —M. Mail, July 30. 



RUBBER AT SINGAPORE BOTANIC 

 GARDENS. 



In the course of Mr, Ridley's report on the 

 above there occur the following paragraphs : — 

 During theyear a 



LARGE RUBBER-CUBING SHED 



was built, several new seedling sheds and the 

 old nursery sheds were also rebuilt. The 

 wood for the smaller works was obtained in the 

 Gardens. All the atap buildings were recovered. 



The greater part of the work with the small 

 staff allowed is naturally upkeep or mainte- 

 nance of the ground opened in an ordinarily 

 presentable and decent condition. All the 

 stock plants of sanseviera, ramie, nutmegs, 

 cloves, gutta-percha, rattans, citronella and 

 lemon grass were re-dug, cleaned, and in some 

 cases replanted. A great deal of work was 

 done in cleaning and deepening drains, plan- 

 ting and weeding intermediate crops in the 

 plot lying between Cluny and Bukit Timah 

 Roads, where there are 526 trees of Para 

 Rubber, of which many will be tappable in a 

 year's time, A great deal of time was occu- 

 pied in mowing and cutting grass under the 

 rubber trees in order to gather the seed crop 

 and also in the arboretum which had got much 

 overgrown. A number of old dead or useless 

 trees were removed and the stumps dug out. 



THE DEMAND FOR SEEDS FROM THE OLD TREES 



of the gardens still maintained its height, and 

 there was no difficulty in selling all that were 

 procurable, 271,000 seeds were sold from the 

 garden and 102,300 were purchased from out- 

 side. The price of the garden seed, viz., ten 

 dollars a thousand, was maintained, although 

 seed from estates was selling at a much lower 

 figure. The chief recipients of the seeds were : 

 — The Governments of Papua, British Guiana, 

 British Honduras, Dominica, and Sierra 

 Leone, the Liberian Corporation, Mabira 

 Forest Rubber Company, Kelantan and Sin- 

 gapore plantations. Of Para Rubber seed- 

 lings 20,500 were also sold locally. 



THE COLLECTING OF IHE SEED, PACKING, EXPORT 



and all the business connected with this trade 

 is naturally a great strain on the staff, and much 

 ordinary work had to be put aside for it How- 

 ever, it is only by such sales that the gardens 

 can be kept up at all. The whole rubber ground 

 had to be mown twice during the year employ- 

 ing the whole time of most of the men for a 

 long period, and seed collectors and packers 

 were employed for a considerable period every 

 month, The floods were more frequent this year 



than formerly for some unexplained reason, 

 entailing more maintenance of pathn and drains 

 and more constant weeding in the rubber ground. 



The balance at the end of the year appears to 

 be a large one, but it must be remembered that 

 the gardens are to a large extent maintained 

 by sales and that the money thus received does 

 not come in till towards the end of the year. It 

 is therefore essential so have a balance sufficient 

 to maintain the Gardens in the first half of the 

 year. The Government grant for upkeep, $8,61)0, 

 pays only for the minimum amount of labour 

 required to keep the Gardens in a respectable 

 condition, all improvements, tools, stores, etc., 

 have to be paid for by sales. The revenue thus 

 obtained is received from sales of para rubber 

 seeds, crude rubber made during experiments, 

 and a little from sales of ornamental plants 

 etc. The rubber seed has hitherto been sold 

 at ten dollars a thousand, and to the present 

 date there have been sufficiently large orders to 

 take all the seed we have. Plantation seed, 

 however, is so abundant - and for sale at so low 

 a price — that we could not maintain the high 

 price of the garden seed, were it not for the 



GREAT REPUTATION 



it has got. The sale of para rubber seed 

 at any price which would pay is not likely 

 to continue much longer and perhaps in a year 

 may cease to be a source of revenue to the Gar- 

 dens Sales of other economic and ornamental 

 plants bring in a revenue which is practically 

 negligible, and is also very unreliable. In 

 past years it has fallen as low as three hun- 

 dred dollars in the year. 



THE ONLY THING LEFT IS THE SALE OF CRUDE 

 RUBBER 



to make up a deficit of at least four thousand 

 dollars a year on the most economical lines. 

 This source of revenue it might be suggested 

 might be increased by concentrating the work 

 of the staff on the ground as a rubber plantation.. 

 But this would be very inadvisable. The com- 

 petition of a Government gardens with outside 

 plantations has long been shown to be eventu- 

 ally a disastrous failure in every case. The staff 

 instead of doing its legitimate work in aiding 

 by experiment and propagation the agriculture 

 of the country, would be employed as planters 

 only, for it would be impossible to carry on both 

 works at the same time and the trees now valua- 

 ble for experiments would probably deteriorate 

 and in any case be spoilt for research work. — 

 S. F. Press, July 25. 



SUGAR PROFITS IN MAURITIUS. 



An 18 per cent Dividend. 

 At a meeting of the directors of the Mauri- 

 tius Sugar Estates Co., which was held on 

 Wednesday, it was decided to give dividend 

 of 18 per cent. It was declared that the man- 

 agement hope to be able to completely pay off 

 the mortgaged claims on the estates within 

 4£ years. It was decided to pay R100,000 in 

 advance on the debt to Government under the 

 Mechanical Transport Ordinance. With such 

 a prosperous state of affairs it is probable that 

 this Company will be quite free of all claims. 

 — Planters' and Commercial Gase.tte, June 25, 



