14 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



[At the "estate store ,; in an upcoun try district 

 as quoted by a planter. — Ed., CO,] 



Page 11 of pamphlet footnote— R22 to R40 

 per cwt. ! ! 



[That is in Bombay for superior kinds —of 

 course some years ago. — Ed., CO.] 



(iii) On page 21 of pamphlet — " wholesale 

 value at Galle or Colombo is R8 per cwt' : is this 

 in the husk ? 



(iv) On same page— "At Madras and Bom- 

 bay Ceylon nuts fetch about Rio per cwt:" — 

 is this for dried nuts (?) [Both dried and 

 husked of best quality.— Ed., C.0.~\ 



(v) On page 30, at the bottom, is given the 

 recipe for ' pandhri ' or white betel-nut. Is this 

 the method of preparing all the nuts described 

 as white betel-nuts on page 23 ? If this be so, 

 how is it that red betel nut such as ' tambdi ' 

 and ' chikni ' (page 30) fetch a lower average 

 price than white betel-nuts (see page 23) when 

 their preparation is so much more tedious and 

 consequently more expensive ? 



(iv) Can you give me any information as to 

 shipping and agents' charges at Bombay (apart 

 from freight) ? Also the names of leading betel- 

 nut merchants there. PLANTER. 



[Here is some further information from Col- 

 ombo native dealers : — 



Arecanut exporters to Bombay from Ceylon 

 are : — Three Parsee firms and about two to 

 three Borah firms. Nuts are exported without 

 husk. They are exported in pieces, too, but 

 generally whole. The merchants in Bombay 

 who deal in arecanuts are natives, branch firms 

 of the Ceylon merchants. The charges in 

 Bombay are R250 per cwt.— Ed., C.O.] 



In reply to "Planter's" letter on this subject* 

 from New Guinea, Messrs. J. P. William Bros., 

 the well-known seed firm of Henaratgoda, say 

 that the arecanut crop is gathered when the 

 nuts are ripe, the whole bunch or cluster being 

 pulled; self-sown nuts are gathered from the 

 ground. A man or boy ascends each tree for 

 plucking. It is easy work : one man can pluck 

 over a hundred trees a day. The nuts are dried 

 in the sun in dry weather and in the wet weather 

 by heat or smoke. To further points preferred 

 in " Planter '"s letter, the replies are: — 



1. Nuts are husked by an arecanut cutter : 

 " gire " of the Sinhalese and " pakku vetti " 

 of the Tamils— the cost is 4 to 5 cents per 1,000. 



2. Price R715 per cwt for dried and husked 

 nuts is for inferior quality, Average price for 

 undriod nuts in hunk is 60 cents per 1,000 at 



estate store. When dried and husked the average 

 price is for ordinary RS to R9 ; " Hamban " R10 

 to Rl2 per cwt. Undried, or dried nuts in husk, 

 are not sold by the cwt. 



3. The wholesale value R8 per cwt is for 

 dried and husked nuts. 



4. Madras and Bombay prices R15 per cwt 

 is for dried and husked nuts. 



5. It is not advisable to go in for special pre- 

 parations ; besides, they are expensive. The mar- 

 ket for such kinds is limited in Ceylon. No special 

 preparation is made for exporting purposes. 



6. Dried and husked arecanuts are shipped 

 in bags to Bombay and other parts of India. 

 As regards shipping agency charges and those 

 for selling, they may be ascertained from the 

 Mitsui Bussan Kaisha, P.O. Box No. 14, Bombay. 



7. Arecanuts are dried in the sun iu dry 

 weather and in wet weather by- heat. 



8. The variety called Hamban Puwak is ex- 

 tensively grown in Ceylon and found to be more 

 profitable than other varieties. 



9. Ordinary, dried and husked, arecanuts are 

 now sold in the villages at 87i cents per 1,000 ; 

 Hamban Puwak at Rl'12i per 1,000, the latter 

 fetches always 25 cents more, a hardy tree, nut 

 large, bears more nuts than the ordinary areca. 

 Ordinary, dried arecanuts, huRked, holds about 

 82 to 85 per lb., 1,000 equal to about 11 lb and 

 about 10,000 to the cwt. Hamban Puwak. dried 

 and husked, holds about 72 to 75 per lb. 



10. Ordinary arecanut crop per tree average 

 per annum about 300 to 450. Hamban ditto 

 about 400 to 550. 



As regards getting samples of Ceylon nuts, or 

 other business arrangements, we would refer 

 "Planter" to Messrs. J. P. William Bros., 

 Henaratgoda, Ceylon. 



RUBBER-GROWING IN BURMA. 



a planter's experience. 



Tavoy, Burma, May 29th. 



Sir,— With reference to the leaderette iu 

 the April Tropical Agricultural on the weeding 

 question as regards rubber, will you allow me 

 to give my experience. 



I am planting 15 ft. by 15 ft. now, but one 

 field of 60 acres is planted 15 ft. by 10 ft. No 

 catch crops are grown. Weeding is only don© 

 in the rubber rows 4 ft. on each side of the tree 

 or about 8 ft. in all ; the balance of 7 ft. is 

 left alone to grow up with secondary jungle 

 growth. This secondary growth is not allowed 

 to get much more than 10 ft. to 12 ft. high 

 so far, so as not to suppress the rubber, and, 



