and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society.— Oct., 1910. 375 



count, but the heretofore disturbing element in 

 combustion, viz : "Nitrogen" has been intro- 

 duced—this, we take it, is one of the strong 

 points of the two Inventors, in chemically and 

 by a natural source cooling the smoke, and add- 

 ing a further strong antiseptic as the heated 

 nitrogen has a great avidity for water and if 

 treated with water gives off Ammonia. 



We are not in possession of the details, 

 but are informed that good results were obtained 

 from this method on a small scale some time ago. 



The machine about to be tested is we, under- 

 stand, capable of dealing with a considerable 

 quantity of Latex. We will be pleased if Messrs 

 Brown and Farbridge will give us full parti- 

 culars for publication after their machine has 

 been tested, as the information may be of the 

 greatest interest to the Rubber Industry. 



THE TAPPING OF "CASTILLOA." 



Planters of Castilloa rubber six months ago 

 were, many of them, quite discouraged. . . . No 

 man had put more thought upon this problem 

 than the late Mr. J. B. Carruthers, of Trinidad. 

 He argued that, as the tree does not show wound 

 response, it should be practically drained of 

 latex at one tapping, and then allowed to rest 

 until the lactiferous tubes fill up again, whether 

 it took three months, six months, or a year. 

 Instead of stripping the bark with any sort of 

 cutting tool, he suggested the use of a pricker 

 that should puncture nearly every tube, an 

 apron at the foot of the tree to catch the latex, 

 and a jet of water, if necessary, as a vehicle to 

 carry ail of the latex down into the apron. The 

 suggestion is of much merit. Pricking the 

 Castilloa bark, every square inch of it, from the 

 ground to the first permanent branches, should 

 not injure the tree in the least. The wounds ought 

 to heal and leave practically no scar, and several 

 times the present amount of latex be secured. 

 Were the problem solved along these lines it 

 would be a great boon to the thousands who 

 have invested in Castilloa plantations throughout 

 Mexico, the Central American states, and tho 

 West Indies. — India Rubber Worlds Sept 1, 



HEVEA CULTIVATION. 



Dutch Guide to the Planter, based on 

 Government Investigations. 



" The Cultivation of the Hevea " is the title 

 of a work from the pen of Dr. P. J. S. Kramer, 

 Director of Agriculture in Surinam, which is 

 published by Mr. J, H. de Bussy, of Amsterdam. 

 The work is intended to serve as a guide to the 

 planter. Dr. Kramer explains in a foreword to 

 the guide that he was instructed by the Govern- 

 ment to break his journey home from Java at 

 Singapore and Colombo for the purpose of visi- 

 ting the Malay Peninsula and Ceylon so as to 

 study the methods adopted there in the culti- 

 vation of rubbor. He now submits to his rea- 

 ders the results of his investigations, detailing 

 the progress of the plantations for a number of 

 years back in the districts visited. — Financier, 

 Sept. 6. 



YIELD OF COC ONUTS PER TREE. 



Answer to Intending Planter, Cairns : — The 

 average yield of coconuts per tree is usually set 

 down as sixty nuts per annum ; but numerous 

 instances have been given of trees yielding 100 

 nuts, and even more, per tree. We have seen 

 numbers of trees in Papua from which 100 

 good nuts were obtained, and as many more left 

 for the next crop. In the April number of the 

 "Journal of the Board of Agriculture'' of 

 British Guiana (Demarara), mention is made of 

 a very prolific coconut palm. Mr E B Copeland, 

 Dean of the College of Agriculture of the Phi- 

 lippines, is said to have written to the " Agri- 

 cultural Bulletin of the S. and F. M. States ■' : 

 " The Mora Plantation and Development Com- 

 pany has a coconut-tree near Zamboanga, from 

 which 106 nuts were taken at one cutting and 

 112 two months later. I saw the tree less than 

 two months later still, and it seHmod to have 

 fully 100 nut3 ready to harvest again.— Queens- 

 land Agricultural Journal, for September. 



CASSAVA AND DATES IN THE PUNJAB. 



The expert date grower engaged from Basrah 

 has now arrived with ),000 suckers of the best 

 varieties of Persian Gulf dates. These are being 

 planted at Multan and Muzaft'argarh. 



Experiments with cassava last year were far 

 from encouraging owing largely to the rava- 

 ges of white ants which destroyed the majority 

 of the sets planted in spite of the measures 

 taken to keep them off. But for the damage 

 done by white ants, an outturn of 10,000 lb. of 

 roots would be obtainable per acre on irrigated 

 land. This would be half the outturn reported 

 in Travancore, where the plant flourishes, and 

 would give a fair profit. But it must be re- 

 membered that nothing approaching this out- 

 turn can be expected unless some method can 

 be devised of combating white ants. Cassava 

 seems unable to grow without irrigation in 

 this Province, and it is very doubtful if it can 

 profitably displace any of the existing crops. 

 — Pioneer, Sept. 29. 



COCONUT AND" CACAO PLANTING 

 I N JAVA . 



A 3,700-Acre Concession for a Ceylon 

 Planter. 



Mr A van der Poorten, the well known Ceylon 

 planter, recently returned from a trip to Java, 

 which he had come to the conclusion was the 

 best place for money to be made by new enter- 

 prise in planting nowadays. The terms in Ceylon 

 were nowadays not favourable enough. While in 

 Java he saw a good deal of the country, and 

 eventually bought over at the rate of some R25 

 per acre a 75 years' lease of 2,000 bouws of 

 land (some 3,700 acres) near the south coast, 

 with good river communication to a small port 

 which provided an excellent harbour. It is 

 three hours distant from the station giving rail 

 communication (taking 7 hours or so in all) with 

 Batavia — but less altogether if the whole jour- 

 ney is done by water. The transport by sea is 

 very cheap — amounting to some 25 cents per 60 

 kilos, or 132 lb. ! There is no extra rental to be 

 paid to Government for six years — by which 

 time the land will be producing crops. 



