602 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



which rubber is doing well ; but that concern, 

 so far as I am aware, has no interest in Rubber 

 in the F. M. S. The conversation on cost of 

 production you refer to as taking place between 

 Mr Knight and myself, occurred between other 

 planters and myself as far back as March 1906, 

 while passing through the States. I have never 

 met Mr Knight, but his name cropped up in our 

 conversation when you asked if he were the ex- 

 pert Ceylon planter sent to Jebong when that 

 Company was formed. 



The figure of cost 9d for Jebong production was 

 given to me by Mr Lauder Watson, a former 

 Assistant Manager of Jebong and, I understand, 

 also a large shareholder. Will you please 

 publish the correction, lest Mr Knight may be 

 looking out for me on my next visit to Perak? — 

 Yours faithfully, 



A ROSE. 



[We are obliged for the above letter ; as 

 stated when Mr Knight's letter in correction ap- 

 peared, we reproduced the gist of the informa- 

 tion given us, as closely as possible. And we 

 have no re-colfection of asking (what we knew 

 already !) who Mr Knight was.— Ed. CO.] 



EXPERIMENTS WITH PARA RUBBER 

 CUTTINGS IN BURMA. 



Tavoy, Burma, Nov. 15th. 

 Sir, — A letter of mine on Para Rubber cut- 

 tings to the Ceylon Observer & T.A. some 8 months 

 or so ago having received undeserved attention, 

 copied as it was into several papers and 

 journals as an "interesting experiment/' per- 

 haps the following may further interest your 

 readers. In June last, on the 15th — to be exact, 

 506 woody cuttings were made, and 25 green 

 sappy ones. The latter all have failed, but of 

 the former I have 389 plants which, if looked 

 after in the hot weather, will probably give at 

 least 350 sturdy plants by next June. I say "if 

 looked after," advisedly, as I have no intention 

 of doing so, but shall let them rip. The ex- 

 periment was simply done as an experiment, 

 and to see if my last year's success in the 

 cuttings put down was a fluke or not. No one 

 will, or need worry about cuttings, I take it, as 

 long as seed is plentiful and fairly cheap. In 

 the held 1, three times, reduced double-headed 

 plants which had been so sent out by 

 mistake from the nursery to one leader and 

 stuck in the cut-off shoot, in a pit, alongside 

 a newly planted plant. In all three cases the 

 shoots have struck and are locking as well as, if 

 not better than, the plants alongside which 

 they were put in. I attribute my success in 

 cuttings to our very heavy rainfall (200 inches) 

 as Para plants can readily be developed from 

 cuttings grown entirely in water as hyacinths 

 are at home, crotons and several other species. 

 Certainly no credit is due to me : absolutely no 

 trouble or worry was taken over the experiment, 

 the cuttings being simply stuck into an ordi- 

 nary nursery bed and no further attention paid 

 except the usual weedings by the nursery 

 coolies. — Yours truly, 



J. G. F. MARSHALL. ♦ 



PRODUCTION AND UTILISATION OF 

 WATTLE BARK-' 'ACACIA 

 DECURRENS." 



New Galway, Nov. 18th. 



Dear Sir, — The "Natal Agricultural Journal" 

 devotes nearly seven pages of the September 

 number to the above subject quoting from, and 

 commenting on, an article in the Bulletin 

 of the Imperial Institute; and although 

 Ceylon is named as one of the bark- 

 producing countries the information with 

 regard to "Bark extract" for tanning, etc., 

 etc., which is so fully given is, I fear, of 

 very little interest to Ceylon planters at present; 

 as the cultivation of Wattles, so far as I know, 

 has not been taken up on a sufficiently large 

 scale to make regular supplies of Bark available 

 in saleable quantities. 



The latest recommendation with regard to 

 Acacia Decurrens is, to plant it in hedges at 

 intervals through the tea fields, as a source of 

 green manure supply. If taken in hand at an 

 early age, it would be quite possible to train 

 them in bush form by constant clippings which 

 would produce a valuable mould, and be much 

 more beneficial to the tea bushes than frequent 

 doses of artificial stimulants.— Yours faithfully. 



WATTLES. 



RUBBER NOTES. 



Area under India Rubber in Ceylon. — 

 While the figures in the Ceylon Directory justify 

 the statement that there are the equivalent of 

 the 180,000 acres planted with rubber in Ceylon, 

 there are not a few practical men, we find, 

 who doubt if a certain (even a considerable) 

 percentage of what has been planted, is des- 

 tined to come to maturity. Hence the incli- 

 nation to reduce the estimate to 150,000 and even 

 still lower. Still, of course, Directory com- 

 pilers can only print the figures received from 

 the several districts, which will be amended 

 as any portions of rubber succumb or die out. 



The Root Disease of Para Rubber — accord- 

 ing to Mr. Petch's Peradeniya Circular of July, 

 1906 — had only been discovered on a few es- 

 tates in one district in Ceylon. Will Mr. Petch 

 be so good as to let the rubber-growing com- 

 munity know now whether the disease has 

 spread to other districts and shown any new 

 forms of development ? If the matter is urgent, 

 we would be glad, too, to hear direct of new 

 remedies — or criticism on the Malaya scientific 

 suggestions we publish. The question is 

 brought prominently forward by the report in 

 the Straits Bulletin of what seems to be fairly 

 extensive trouble on rubber estates in the 

 F.M.S. The complaints sent in have not been 

 in few or confined localities. We trust that 

 Mr. Petch may be able to reassure us as to 

 the area over which the same disease (caused 

 by the Fungus Fomes semitostus ? ) has been 

 making its appearance during the past 2£ years. 



Rubber in Eucalyptus. — The white coating 

 on the young leaves of Eucalyptus corymbosa, 

 says Henry &. Smith in a communication to the 

 New South Wales Royal Society, yields to ether 

 0*84 per cent of elastic substance and wax, the 



