and Magazine of the Oeylon Agricultural Society.— Oct., 1910. 



land. Other hints for culture are valuable; and 

 the manuring system recommended is to dig a 

 trench half-way round the tree, a foot deep, 9 

 inches wide, leave it open awhile, then fill in 

 with manure, and repeat next year for the other 

 half-round. For Copra manufacture ripe nuts 

 only should be takeu, one cooly husking 500 per 

 day : the kernel is more easily extracted if nuts 

 are first stored a month. Details are given for a 

 cheap drying kiln, the woodwork being made 

 from the Nebong palm. The remaining sections, 

 deal with Extracting Toddy or Sugar, Collecting 

 the Produce (a mature non-bearing tree, he says, 

 should have a heap of leaves and rubbish burnt 

 close to the trunk — which will bring it to its 

 senses !), and Protection against Pests (buffaloes, 

 cattle, pigs, black and red beetles). In con- 

 clusion we quote the following very interesting 

 sections— the '"estimates" being provided by 

 Mr. Munro. of Jugra, a practical and experi- 

 enced coconut planter: — 



Returns. 



On rich alluvial soil trees have been known to 

 give fruit in their 3rd and 4th years, but on the 

 whole an average of say 10 nuts per tree in the 

 6th year, 30 nuts per tr9e in the 7th year and 

 50 nuts per tree afterwards is all that can be ex- 

 pected though with good cultivation the crops 

 are often in excess of this estimate. Inland the 

 trees do not come on so quickly, in fact, it is 

 usually not till after the 8th year that the trees 

 come into bearing. 



An average return of copra, under ordinary 

 circumstances, is 4 - 30 pikuls [one pikul is 133 3 

 lb.— Ed. CO.] per l,0u0 nuts, but this percen- 

 tage is often greatly exceeded where proper at- 

 tention is given to its manufacture. 



Prices. 



The average price for coconut for the past 5 

 years, i.e. 1905 to 1909 has been a little over 

 $30.00 per 1,000 andthatof copra $8.65 per pikul. 

 [One dollaris equal to Rl*75. — Ed. C.O.] 



Estimate fob Opening up and Bringing 

 into Bearing 500 Acres of Coconuts 

 in the Coast District. 



(1st Year's Expenditure,) 



Premium $1,500, Quit Rent $500, 



Survey fees $500 ... $2,500 

 Felling $6,000, Draining $6,0,0, Seed 



$2,750 ... ... ... 14,750 



Fencing $1,500, Lining and Planting 



$1,000 ... ... ... 2,500 



Cooly lines $500, Bungalow $1, '200 ... 1,700 

 Tools $250, Stationery $100, Medical 



$1,500 ... ... ... 1,850 



Weeding 1st 6 months at $1.50 por acre 4,500 



Contingencies ... ... 1,000 



Superintendence ... ... 3,600 



$32,400 



(2nd Year's Expenditure.) 

 Rent $500, Weeding $6,000, Superin- 

 tendence $3,600, Medical and 



Contingencies $2,000 ... $12,100 

 (3rd Year's Expenditure.) 



Do do do 12,100 



Do 



(8th 



(4th Year's Expenditure.) 

 Do Weeding $3,600 (60c) do 



(5th Year's Expenditure.) 

 Do $3,000 (50c) do 



(6th Year's Expenditure.) 

 Rent $1,000, Weeding $3,000, Superin- 

 tendence $3,600, Picking $300, 

 Curing $1,130, Transport $1,130 



(7th Year's Expenditure.) 

 do do 

 Years' Expenditure.) 



do do 

 Years' Expenditure.) 

 do do 

 Returns. 

 year 10 nuts per tree = 1,130 

 pi kuls of copra at $8.00, 220 nuts 

 to pikul 



7th year 3,4U0 pikulsof copra at $8 '00, 



30 nuts per tree 

 8th year 4,500 pikuls of copra at $8.00, 



40 nuts per tree 

 9th year 5,650 pikuls of copra at $8,00, 



50 nuts per tree 



Do 



(9th 



Do 



6th 



9,700 

 9,100 



10.860 

 14,800 

 17,300 

 19,400 



9,040 

 27,200 

 36,000 

 45,200 



NOTES ON TAPPING CASTILLOA 

 RUBBER. 



The Late Mr. J. B. Carruthers' Last Work. 



The above was the title of a paper by the late 

 Mr J B Carruthers, Assistant Director of Agri- 

 culture, Trinidad, at the Congress of Tropical 

 Agriculture, in May (20th-23rd) at Brussels. He 

 stated : — The yield of rubber from Hevea brasi- 

 liensis trees, over five years old, tapped on the 

 ' herring bone ' or ' V ' system may be taken as 

 1 lb of dry rubber per annum, for each foot dia- 

 meter of the tree, measured at 3 feet from the 

 ground. In Castilloa trees tapped by hatchets, 

 chisels or axes or by the methods used fortievea, 

 the yield is much poorer and does not exceed 

 6 oz. per foot diameter, measured at three feet 

 from thegrouud. The author considers that this 

 smaller yield is due mainly to the lack of a sys- 

 tem of tapping suited to Castilloa, and he has 

 undertaken a series of 



EXPERIMENTS DESIGNED TO DISCOVER A BETTER 

 SYSTEM. 



Experiments in pricking Castilloa trees, vary- 

 ing in diameter from 27 to 45 inches and in age 

 from 7 to nearly 10 years, indicated that good 

 results may be obtained in this way, and these 

 trials are being continued. It was observed that 

 Castilloa trees continued to yield latex for from 

 10 to 20 minutes after pricking, but that the 

 period of flow could be lengthened to about 50 

 minutes by continuously spraying the pricked 

 portion (10 by 10 inches in the trials) of the bark 

 with water, and in this way the yield of rubber 

 could be increased by from 20 to 40 per cent. The 

 latex was collected by means of an unbleached 

 calico 'apron' of special form attachod to the 

 tree about 8 inches from the ground. A suitable 

 pricker' has yet to be devised for Castilloa ; the 

 author is making experiments in this direction. 

 —Bulletin of the Imperial Institute, No, 2, 1910. 



