and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



283 



without artificial heat and renders it very liable 

 to attacks of moulds and bacteria which damage 

 its marketable value. It is possible to improve 

 the quality by putting up light roofs which can 

 be quickly placed over the copra being dried 

 when rainiscoming. Arrangements will be made 

 for the Coconut Preservation Staff to instruct 

 small-holders as to the advantages of such me- 

 thods in preparing their product for the market. 

 Another factor which in some cases reduces tho 

 profits which should be obtained by tho coconut 

 grower is the practice of taking the nuts from 

 the tree before they fall. It is not easy to see 

 the advantage of this method, and it has always 

 seemed to me curious that the Malay, with 

 whom dislike to unnecessary work is no less a 

 trait than in other races, should so frequently 

 adopt it. If a nut is plucked unripe the amount 

 of copra it contains is less than if it is left on 

 the tree ; we have no data to show that any de- 

 crease in the amount of copra or the oil it con- 

 tains takes place if the nut is kept a little time 

 aftet it is ripo. When the nut is fully ripe it 

 falls from the tree and can be collected from the 

 ground with considerably less trouble than if it 

 has to be picked from the top of the tree, and 

 with the additional advantago that it contains 

 its maximum amount of copia. 



Further observation seems to point to tho 

 fact that the thorough drying of copra is more 

 easily effected in the case of ripe nuts which 

 have fallen from thetree than with those picked, 

 many of which are not fully ripe. The argu- 

 ments I have heard adduced in favour of tho 

 practice of climbing the trees and plucking 

 the nuts are that the copra is darkened in colour, 

 that the other nuts still unripe on the bunch 

 are improved by the excision of the ripe ones 

 before they fail, and that the prevention of 

 theft is more difficult. None of these reasons 

 seem to me to weigh seriously against the pro- 

 bable increase in the crop of copra and the 

 saving in labour which gathering the nuts from 

 the ground ensures. The coconut planter, liko 

 other tropical cultivators, is conservative in his 

 methods, but such an easy method of improving 

 his cultivation should at least be the subject of 

 careful experiment before its adoption is re- 

 fused. Coconut cultivation, while not offering 

 the possibilities of profit which the growing of 

 rubber shows, is an extremely safe and profit- 

 able industry, and many areas of accessible Itnd, 

 especially on the Coast, are much better suited 

 to the coconut palm than the Para Rubber 

 tree, The acreage under coconuts in the Native 

 States at the end of 1908 was 118,697, an in- 

 crease of over 6,000, or five per cent., since tho 

 same date in 1907, when there were 112,550 

 acres. The value of the coconut land planted 

 in tho Federated Malay States cannot be less 

 than some ^23,000,000. — Report of Mr. J. B. 

 Varruthers, Director of Ar/ricuiture and Govern- 

 ment Botanist, F. M. 6', 



MR. PETCH ON "RUBBER PADS." 



Mr. Fetch's note on the pads Rent to him for 

 examination, published in last Tropical Agri- 

 «6ft«ris£, must have gratified the sup porters of the 

 Northway tapping system, which it appeared very 

 largely to vindicate and relieve of responsibility 

 for causing tho unhealthy sub-cortaceous for- 



mations; Mr. Williamson, however, has some 

 very penetrating criticism to offer elsewhere in 

 our columns today, on the conclusions drawn; 

 and some still more searching questions to ask. 

 No doubt Mr. Fetch is in a difficult position, 

 asked point-blank to approve or condemn the 

 Northway system ; seeing that the Peradeniya 

 Director, Dr. Willis, gave it general approval 

 before its birth into the world of public notice. 

 But the problems Mr. Williamson submits can 

 be answered independently of this, and we 

 await the Mycologist's reply at the earliest 

 possible date as being of high importance to 

 rubber planters. 



More Information Wanted. 



Sunnycroft, Ruanwella, Aug. 25th. 

 Sir, — With refereuceto Mr Petch's article on 

 rubber pads copied into your paper of 20th inst., 

 I would like to make the following remarks as, 

 evidently, the pads, which he writes about, are 

 the ones originally forwarded from this estate. 

 Mr Petch gives as a reason for saying that the 

 rubber pads were formed on the trees before the 

 bark was pricked ; that the pads had, on the 

 outside and inside, teeth marks of the pricker. 

 This is true, but does not prove that the pads 

 were there when the bark was pricked for the 

 following reasons : — 



1st. It is impossible for any one to force a 

 small Northway blunt pricker through nearly 

 2-an-inch of bark and also through a pad of rub- 

 ber adhering to it and into the wood as well; 

 both because the force required is more than any 

 man could fxert, and also because the pricks on 

 the small Northway pricker are not long enough 

 to penetrate right through. 



2nd. When a pricker is driven into the bark 

 and wood of a tree deeply and a pad is formed 

 afterwards, it will have marks on the inside as 

 well as the outside, due to the hollows in the 

 wood filling up with latex and coagulating in 

 that shape in the former, and in the latter, of 

 course, the pushed-in bark will show on the close 

 fitting pad, and will correspond with the in- 

 side marks, 



Mr Petch, in summing up, arrives at the 

 following conclusions to account for the rubber 



pads : — 



1st. Scraping kills the bark in patches when 

 sunlight comes in contact with it. 



2nd. After death of the bark, rubber pads 

 are formed before pricking, due to inflow of 

 latex from surrounding parts. 



If these conclusions are correct, will Mr Petch 

 inform me and my brother planters through the 

 medium of your paper, why it is, although we 

 scraped thousands of trees on this property, not 

 a single pad was found on any unpricked tree, 

 only on some of those which had been pricked 

 the most, and these trees were growing in a 

 heavily shaded spot where much sunlight could 

 not penetrate ? It is a pity that Mr Petch did 

 not finish his article by approving of the North- 

 way System or condemning it, for thousands of 

 rupees have been spent on it, and many planters 

 would like to know from such a high authority, 

 whether to go on with it or stop it, Destructive 



