306 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



In addition to this the outbreak of malaria 

 during the last two months of the year rendered 

 nearly 90 per cent, of the estate labourers unfit 

 for work weeks together, in the Kurunegala, 

 Chilaw and Negombo districts. 



In the more progressive districts it is a grati- 

 fying feature that the application of artificial 

 manure and the systematic cultivation of land 

 is being carried on more and more as the ad- 

 vantages resulting become manifest. During the 

 last two years experiments with the growing of 

 c rotalaria having proved useful a very large ex- 

 tent of land is now under this for green manure. 



MR. J. B. CARRUTHERS. 



Impressions of Changes in Ceylon. 

 In an interview an Observer representa- 

 tive had with Mr. J. B. Caekutheks, Director 

 of Agriculture in the Malay States, who is now 

 going home to represent the Malay States at the 

 I)3rwin Centenary at Cambridge, and later will 

 proceed to Trinidad, to be Assistant Director 

 of Agriculture, the first question asked had 

 reference to the changes which had struck 

 Carruthers in Ceylon since his last visit. 

 -. Caeeuthees— said that when he was last 

 , they wore only just beginning to think 

 3 rubber was a future possibility. Now it was 

 an absolutely ascertained certainty. The rub- 

 ber industry was on quite a different footing 

 and it was only now a question of solving the 

 problem of the most profitable ways of cultiva- 

 ting it. That had affected tea and the whole 

 thing seemed rather more prosperous. The tea 

 industry was itself more prosperous and every- 

 thing seemed more prosperous in tho planting 

 line. He had not really seen very much of 

 Ceylon. He went up to the Gangaroowa Ex- 

 periment Station. That was beginning to 

 add to knowledge and it was getting into 

 shapo, and becoming a useful sort of Tex Book 

 for Tropical Agriculture. 



The Noethway System. 

 The patent thing of Northway's interested 

 him. Without having paid his 200 dollars 

 he seems to have found out the main principles 

 of the thing and it seemed to him very likely 

 to be, not revolutionary, but a very sound ad- 

 dition to their experimental knowledge on the 

 question of the extraction of rubber. 



What changes did you notice at Peradeniya, 

 Mr Carruthers ? 



I do not really know. The changes are for 

 the better. The building done is a great im- 

 provement. Their housing is a great advance. 

 They were cribbed, and cabined, and confined 

 in little laboratories and now they have fine 

 places to work in. The Gangaroowa laboratory 

 has been built since I was there. The gardens 

 seem to be just as beautiful as ever or rather 

 more so. All traces of the blubber exhibition 

 seem to have been swept away. (Laughing.) It 

 is about three years and nine months since I 

 was here last. I passed through in May. 



Were you present at the Experiment Stations 

 Committee meeting? 



No. I just waited to meet all the members all 

 of whom were friends of mine but I didn't stay 

 to the discussion. I heard of everything they 

 were going to talk about. The green manuring 

 question was one of the chief matters. Some 

 of the plots are most interesting, nearly every 

 plant that can be conceived to be useful is to be 

 seen there. Then they have been working at 

 tfiese extraction questions, oils from grass, 

 citronella oils and other oils, the most profit- 

 able grass and all that sort of thing. The most 

 interesting thing about the station is that it 

 was about 7 or 8 years ago 90 per cent, diseased 

 with cocoa canker and if it had been in ordi- 

 nary hands it would have been abandoned, but 

 there is now about 2 per cent, of canker and the 

 place is giving handsome and profitable crops. 

 It can always be quoted as a fine instance of what 

 scientific tackling of a disease will do. It has 

 justified its existence if only for that and it has 

 added to knowledge in many other directions. 



In answer to a final enquiry Mr Carruthers 

 said that the total acreage under rubber now 

 in the Malay States was 240, OOOacres. 60,000 were 

 planted last year as against some 55,000 the year 

 before. There were 37, 000, 000 trees in the Penin- 

 sula. There were 112 000 acres of coconuts. 



COCONUTS IN B. E. AFRICA. 



The value of the coconut plantations on the 

 coast, says a report from British East Africa, 

 has depreciated, owing to the damage caused by 

 beetles and to the custom which prevails among 

 the natives of tapping the flowers, from which 

 they obtain "tenibo," a native intoxicating 

 beverage which is largely consumed. The Gov- 

 ernment entomologist is investigating the life 

 history of the beetle with a view to devising 

 means for its extermination. There has latterly 

 been a distinct movement to revive the coconut 

 industry on the coast, wherein past years it 

 proved a large source of income to the Arabs 

 before they lost the services of a number of their 

 slaves. — Trade Journal. 



[I presumo the "native intoxicating bever- 

 age" is our old friend arrack. It only shows 

 how the good things the Creator gives us are 

 abused and how the abuse recoils on our own 

 heads. — Cor,] 



THE COCONUT OIL MILL IN 

 KUALA SELANGOR. 



The one and only sight at Kuala Selangor is 

 the Oil Mill on the opposite side of the river. 

 Visitors embark in a sampan from a shelving 

 stone jetty, if it can be so called, which might 

 be vastly improved. At low water the embark- 

 ing in a sampan is an acrobatic feet. The Oil 

 Mill is well worth a visit. The first process is 

 to convert the nut into copra by means of 

 dryers, the copra is then passed through various 

 machines which grind it to a small powder. 

 This powder is then placed in fold over canvas 

 covers— about half a kerosine oil tin going to 

 one cover— and then placed in the hydraulic 

 press. This press takes quite a number of these 

 canvas bundles in its different compartments. 



