and Magazine 0/ the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



477 



depended upon, but the whole lot of seed failed 

 to germinate; and as no seed could be got in the 

 country at that time, the attempt to turn the 

 Company's estate into tea failed and like many 

 other pioneering Companies was soon afterwards 

 closed down. 



In the course of time Mlanji district will be- 

 come a large tea-producing division of Nyasa- 

 land as the bush, when once established, has 

 beeri proved to yield well and has no natural 

 enemies to speak of. 



Chillies 



form a considerable item in our export list. They 

 are easily grown and give a considerable amount 

 of crop within two months of the date of plan- 

 ting and last for two or three years, giving 

 crop for years after the date of planting. 

 Good prices are got for bright cured chillies, 

 from 45s to 56s per cwt.,and the natives can pluck 

 about 5 lb. each per diem which turns out 

 about 1 lb. when dry, so there is a good margin 

 of profit. They make an excellent catch-crop 

 and take little out ofthesoilas they are com- 

 posed of 80 per cent, of woody fibre. 



H. B. 



RUBBER CULTIVATION ON SO- 

 CALLED PEAT SOIL. 



By H. N. Ridley. 

 In many parts of the Malay Peninsula 

 usually in the vicinity of large tidal rivers 

 we find a somewhat peculiar soil formation 

 popularly known here as peat formation. It 

 consists exclusively of dead timber roots 

 and decayed leaves, to a depth sometimes of 

 as much as twenty feet. Often no trace of 

 clay, stone or other mineral matter is to be 

 seen in it. The formation appears, even if deep, 

 to be of comparatively modern date, geologi- 

 cally speaking. Before being cleared for plan- 

 ting it is seen to be covered with dense wet 

 forests, in which grow a number of somewhat 

 peculiar or local plants mixed with many trees 

 which also occur on more ordinary soil. A 

 characteristic tree is the Kempas, Cumpassia 

 malaccensis ; abundant, too, is the well-known 

 red-stemmed palm, Cyrtostachys lacca and the 

 ground is often covered with an abundance of 

 Gingers (Scitamineae) and ground orchids. Wal- 

 king through these woods one often sinks deeply 

 into a massof wet decaying leaves, over and 

 through which lie the great roots of the big 

 trees. Below this great mass of decaying vege- 

 tation is usually a greasy blue clay lying at 

 various depths and apparently mainly old 

 Mangrove mud and over which this forest has 

 gradually grown. When felled and burnt this 

 so-called peat after a period of exposure com- 

 mences to shrink, the surface of the ground 

 often soon falling a foot or more. The exposed 

 surface wood decays and forms at last a brown 

 powdery soil, mixed with fragments of sticks, 

 etc', and reminding one of the surface of an old 

 tan yard. The water which fills the drains and 

 streams from this formation is dark brown, re- 

 sembling tho brown peaty water of a Scotch 

 moor, but is by no means safe to drink though 



it has only a slight peaty flavour as it is apt to 

 produce a violent diarrhoea and has been known 

 to cause much sickness of this nature among the 

 coolies working in such land. 



We have not seen any analysis of either water 

 or soil from such ground but it is probable that 

 it contains an excess of humic acid and also of 

 salts of magnesia, sodium and potash. 



Not long ago I visited the 



FIBRE PLANTATIONS 



of the Peneiro estate in South Johore, recently 

 floated as a Company. Here Sanseviera, Agave 

 sisalana and Fourcroyagiganteaweve being culti- 

 vated on a large scale for fibre making. I was 

 much struck with the appearance of the sisal 

 hemp, Agave sisalana. This plant long in culti- 

 vation in the Botanic Gardens in Singapore has 

 never really made good growth, though being a 

 desert plant, such as is scientifically called a 

 xerophyte, it had been planted in the driest cor- 

 ners of the Gardens. 



In this damp mass of decaying logs and 

 branches, it was growing luxuriantly. The 

 plants were strong and healthy ; in fact, quite 

 handsome and throwing up suckers in every 

 direction — the suckers growing wherever they 

 happened to be thrown. Fourcroya and San- 

 seviera, which, however, are much easier plants 

 to grow here were also doing well. One would 

 not indeed have been prepared to find a 

 xerophytic plant cultivated successfully in dry 

 sandy places in the West Indian Islands thri- 

 ving in a strongly peaty damp locality. On ex- 

 actly similar ground I have seen Para rubber 

 planted on a large scale. Now Para rubber is 

 a typical hygrophyte, that is to say, a plant 

 adapted for growth in the wettest regions of the 

 tropics, the region known as the ''Tropical Kain- 

 jorest Region." 



For a short time the little rubber plants 

 looked all right, but only for a very short time. 

 The mortality was frightful. The dead ones 

 were replaced in vain. The plants all looked 

 sickly and died, some from attacks of Fomes, 

 others perhaps from termites, some from un- 

 known fungi. The dead plants were pulled up 

 were remarkable for their long tap root and for 

 the fact that all the roots descended vertically 

 parallel to the tap root. As every planter 

 knows, the Para rubber is a high rooter thro- 

 wing its roots out horizontally over a large area. 

 Here the roots were descending vertically as 

 if seeking to reach the clay bed which under- 

 lay the peat at a considerable depth. Where the 

 clay came near the surface, the plants undoub- 

 tedly did better but a depth of 12 feet or even 

 less of the vegetable debris was fatal to them. 



It has been shown lately by experiment that 

 a wet swamp of peaty soil, that is one with 

 an excoss of vegetable matter is not hygro- 

 phytic but xerophytic and that the plants 

 naturally found there are specially adapted for 

 drought, that is to say, a shortage of water. 



The reason for this is that these peaty soils 

 contain in their water an excess of humic acid. 

 This acid has so deleterious an effect on the 

 protoplasm of the plants not especially adapted 

 for growth in such soils, that the water, which 



