178 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



" So far as ray experience goes, planters have generally 

 given up planting rubber through the tea, during the 

 last 12 months ; but a good deal more has been done 

 along roads, ravines, and ridges, in the tea fields, and this 

 may partly explain the wide difference in the figures. 

 Home men in sending in returns may have included 

 this as teaiand rubber. Rubber in tea on the other hand is, 

 often so very backward to start wit 1 ', that on the tea 

 and rubber areas previously, the figures may have been 

 omitted, till growth was distinctly apparent. This, I know 

 did occur in one or two instances. In very old tea, or 

 where it is poor, the stumps and plants hangfire for two 

 years and then start growing freely, after pruning and 

 manuring the tea. Till the rubber had stopped growing 

 well, men may not have thought it worth while including 

 it as rubber in any form." 



This, we must take to be the explanation 

 and, of course, it will be a question next how 

 much of this interplanted area should be cre- 

 dited to rubber and how much to tea and 

 cacao. On this point, our correspondent remarks 

 in answer to our decision to take two-thirds 

 for the older staple :— 



" 40,000 acres, in tea alone, would be a fair proportion 

 to allow out of the 60,284 acres rubber and tea. The 

 tea will undoubtedly give place eventually to the 

 rubber ; but it takes a good many years before tea will 

 cease to yield profitably with present prices— 10 years 

 from time of planting the rubber, if the land is 

 manured. 



" I know of no cases where overlapping of rubber has 

 been deliberately done to show a high yield to sell the 

 estate on. No doubt mistakes in the methods adopted 

 have been made, but they are being gradually rectified." 



Of course, a great deal depends on the price 

 of rubber keeping up. Should the price, eight 

 years hence or so, fall by any chance to a level 

 leaving little or no profit, we might expect 

 every endeavour to be made to keep on 

 the tea, even to the sacrifice of the rub- 

 ber. But if, as is expected, the latter 

 continue to be the more profitable of the two, 

 as the trees come to be tapped and attain 

 maturity, the tea is bound to gradually dis- 

 appear. Meantime, most of the extra 18,000 inter- 

 planted acres — tea-and-cacao-and-rubber— -may 

 fairly be credited to 1906-07 planting rather 

 than, we think, to 1907-08. But of that, planters 

 and merchants must judge for themselves. We 

 can only give the figures as they work out from 

 the Estate and District returns sent in to us. 



COCONUT BLEEDING DISEASE: RE- 

 MEDIES AND DANGERS. 



We direct attention to a coconut planter's 

 warning hereafter, and his complaint that 

 the cracks caused by the sun after cutting 

 out and tarring the parts of a coconut stem 

 affected by the bleeding disease, attract the red 

 beetle. He has come across woodpeckers, too, 



to follow up the traces of the plant-surgeon's 

 knife, or of the disease, and finding these stems 

 particularly to their " taste." (Jan Mr. Petch, 

 the Government Mycologist, suggest a practical, 

 and not too costly, means of guarding against 

 both contingencies ? 



Western Province, July 23rd. 

 Dear Sir, —During Mr Petch's lecture in 

 Colombo a few months ago, I pointed out to him 

 a danger I experienced by cutting into the 

 stem of young coconut palms. The danger was 

 that, after the disease had been cut out and the 

 stem tarred, cracks resulted, from the heat of 

 the sun, attracting thereby the red-beetle. No 

 remedy to keep on' the beetle could be suggested 

 beyond the expensive one of having the trees 

 daily watched and the cracks tarred over as soon 

 as they showed themselves. 



This is not the only danger. My attention 

 was attracted a few days ago to what looked like 

 a cracked stem on a palm which had been oper- 

 ated on in the • tiBual fashion several weeks pre- 

 viously. The trunk is about 20 ft. and it had 

 to be cut into for a length of 5 ft., reaching right 

 to the crown where the disease was arrested. 

 On closer examination, however, it was revealed 

 that the wood-peckor (the ordinary black and 

 red-plumaged bird) had been at work along the 

 stem and eventually made a hole, about 3 inches 

 in diameter, at the summit, right into the stem. 

 Fortunately the red-beetle had not entered. This 

 is a danger that will have to bo guarded against, 

 so planters beware !— Yours truly, 



A. K. 



COCONUTS AND THE CYCLONE AT 

 BATTICALOA. 



The following Report made by the District 

 Engineer (Mr. A N Robertson), which we give in 

 full, is a very practical and satisfactory one. His 

 reckoning is of a total of 300,000 palms blown 

 down, of which over 230,00J belong to native 

 gardens or tmall estates, since the total apper- 

 taining to 12 estates mentioned was 66,783— 

 but these mean more than livo thirds of the 

 whole number previously on these same proper, 

 ties! This is a terrible loss and that the industry 

 altogether in the Eastern Province has suffered 

 to the extent of £250,000 is quite evident ; but 

 the loss is much more if it is considered how 

 long coconuts planted anew must take to come 

 into bearing. 



