mid Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



389 



Rains commence November and end March- 

 April. Light showers in May gradually getting 

 colder, and dryer. June cold, sometimes misty 

 but on the whole dry. Atmosphere gets drier 

 and hotter till November when the shade tem- 

 perature occasionally reaches 95. Rains break 

 again in November. Rubber is leafless as a 

 rule from September to November. Rubber as 

 tapped runs in wet months, but only older 

 trees run in the dry months and that not 

 so freely. If outer bark is removed and inner 

 bark pricked, in dry season, rubber quickly 

 coagulates. I may say that the rubber is ex- 

 cellent and our only difficulty is the tapping, 

 i.e., what method will give the best results with 

 least danger to the tree. 



Tapping with patent knives by making grooves 

 seems to us not so suitable. The outer bark would 

 require to be removed and in the dry season, as 

 has beon found in India, this is apt to harm the 

 tree— as towards the end of the dry season the 

 tree is leafless, the atmosphere is dry, and the 

 inner bark gets dried up ; the sun plays on it, 

 and it is apt to be a severe tax on the tree. 

 Moreover it is difficult to get the rubber to run 

 freely except in the rains. 



Would the new system suit the dry northern 

 districts of Ceylon, where Dr Willis is at present 

 experimenting with Ceara ? We have four-and- 

 a-half year old trees running from 14 inches to 

 20 inches in girth at three feet from the ground. 



[We have forwarded the letter quoted from 

 to Messrs. Lee, Hedges & Co., for roply to the 

 special point raised ; but will be obliged for 

 any recent information from rubber growers 

 who have tapped Ceara.— A. M. & J. F.] 



RETURN OF MR. C. 0. MACADAM. 



His Opinions on Rubber Matters. 



Mr C O Macadam, who recently returned 

 to Ceylon is not so sure— says our contem- 

 porary — that 1912 is the best year for the 

 next Rubber Exhibition, and thinks that the 

 claims of 1911 may with advantage be consi- 

 dered. He is of the opinion that the recent 

 Exhibition suffered by being held in September. 

 So many people who would otherwise have at- 

 tended were away shooting or on holiday. A 

 good month, he thinks, would be May. 

 The Manufactured Article. 



Mr Macadam thinks that for a thorough test 

 of rubber-manufactured articles they should be 

 made and kept for a year or eighteen months. 

 He holds that it would be an important advan- 

 tage if Ceylon could have experiments put 

 through to the finished article from rubber 

 harvested from different aged trees, aud not only 

 that but from different ages of renewal of bark. 

 Such experimental work would formerly have 

 fallen to Mr Herbert Wright to carry out, but 

 Mr Macadam did not think there was any one 

 specially doing that work now. Mr Macadam 

 holds that plantation rubber should always be 

 estate or Company marked, if possible; that 

 there should be care in sorting true to grade ; 

 and packing in clean packages, and the preven- 

 ting of small chips of wood and dust becoming 

 attached to the rubber. 



The New Tapping System. 

 Mr Macadam preferred not to say anything 

 about the new tapping system until he 

 knew more about it. With regard, however, 

 to the point that there was a danger to the 

 industry in tapping too young trees, he said: 

 "I have always been against tapping im- 

 mature trees, and the question has not been 

 decided at what age the tree is mature ; 

 it can only be settled by sending a sample to 

 a manufacturer to be converted into rubber. 

 Even then it cannot be decided till the rubber 

 has been allowed to remain for about eighteen 

 months. The fact that you cannot tell what 

 therubber will prove, looking at it immediately 

 after manufacture, makes the danger greater." 



THE RUBBER INDUSTRY IN JAVA. 



Mr, Talbot's Impressions or his Recent Visit. 



Mr. G A Talbot, on his return from a visit to 

 the Straits and Java, gave a Ceylon Observer 

 representative a good deal of interesting informa- 

 tion with regard to planting matters in Java. 



He was lirst asked if he could give his impres- 

 sions of Java rubber cultivation methods as 

 compared with those practised in Ceylon. 



"Well," he said, "it is difficult to give an 

 opinion about Java rubber generally, because 

 the soils and climates differ very much. Java is 

 a very big country, and in the West you have a 

 red ferruginous soil, more or less stiff, whereas 

 in the East you have a brown volcanic 

 loam. Not only do the soils differ but the 

 labourers and people that work them, and as 

 regards the Java methods they differ very much 

 indeed. You will find hardly any two estates 

 working the same. Perhaps the characteristic 

 of Java planting is that they have 



TWO PRODUCTS GROWING 



at the same time. With Hevea they grow Coffee 

 Robusta, which is a very hardy coffee that has 

 no leaf disease and bears as much as nine to ten 

 hundredweights an acre in the third year. It 

 grows well with Hevea as it likes shade and 

 damp. 



How are they off for labour in Java? 



It varies. In West Java it is very cheap, 

 where they employ the Sundunese. In East 

 Java it is not so plentiful, but there are plenty of 

 labourers because in Java there is a 



POPULATION OF 33,000,000 JAVANESE 



and the natives are willing to work, in fact 

 they are obliged to work. There is such a 

 large population and they have to work for 

 their food. 



Is labour fairly cheap ? — Yes. It is about 

 sevenpence a day for men. 



Not Much Tapping. 



Have you found much tapping done yet 

 No. I saw very little. 



Three Days by Rail. 



In answer to questions about the acreage 

 and outturn for 1908, Mr Talbot said: — "I cannot 

 tell at all. It takes you three days' travelling by 

 rail all the time to go from one end of Java to 

 the other, so you can imagine what it is, and 

 as they grow dadap with their rubber you 

 cannot see very far ; iii fact, you see hardly 

 any rubber." 



