THE 



TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF THE 



CEYLON AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Vol. XXXII, COLOMBO, SEPTEMBER 15th, 1908, No. 3. 



Manihot Rubbers. 



Considerable interest has been aroused 

 by the papers on the new Manihot 

 rubbers, lately published ; and, as usual, 

 the Department at Peradeniya has been 

 asked to book 100,000, 50,000, and other 

 numbers of seeds for delivery this or 

 next year. It will be well, therefore, to 

 make clear that the history will be the 

 same as with Para or Ceara rubbers 

 long ago. At present we have 100 plants 

 of Manihot dichotoma, and may expect 

 a few hundred seeds the year after 

 next ; while we, like other gardens, have 

 as yet been totally unable to get either 

 M. <piauhyensis or M. heptaphylla, the 

 two best species. In 1910 we shall be 



able to give would-be experimenters a 

 few seeds of M, dichotoma to try. 



It may also be well to point out that 

 the Manihots, though they grow so 

 freely for instance at Pallekelle or near 

 Kandy, are plants of a dry climate. 

 The finest specimens of Ceara rubber 

 (M. Olaziovii) in Ceylon, so far as we 

 know, are near Trincomalie, and the 

 tree is growing splendidly on the Ex- 

 periment Station at Maha-iluppalama, 

 near Anuradhapura. Should the yields 

 of the new Manihots turn out to be any- 

 thing like as good as stated, we may 

 expect some day to see a good deal of 

 land cultivated under them in the North 

 and East. 



