406 The Supplement to i 



MADRAS EXPERIMENTAL PLANTING. 



The annual general meeting of the Madras 

 Agri-horticultural Society was held this morning 

 at 7-30. From the Annual Report, we extract :— 



PKOGKB88 AND CONDITION OF THE GARDEN.— 



The plantation of Agave naida var. Sisalana 

 is doing exceedingly well. Twenty three plants 



Eoled during the year and produced about 55,000 

 ulbils, which were supplied to Mr Kirwan, in 

 accordance with the agreement entered into with 

 him. Suckers of this 



AGAVE 



were also supplied to him. At the time ol writing 

 70 more plants are poling and it is hoped that 

 they will produce about 100,000 bulbils. Twenty 

 seven plants attacked by a fungus, specimens of 

 which were forwarded to the Imperial Myco- 

 logist, Pusa, last year, have been removed. The 

 entire plant was dug out, and pits six feet square 

 and two feet deep were dug, all the roots being- 

 removed, as also the earth in which the roots 

 were growing. Extensive experiments with 



COTTON, 



or any other field crops, cannot be made on ac- 

 count of the difficulty in watering, the water in 

 the wells being brackish. A few plants of the 

 Rivers Sea Island cotton tree variety, have, how- 

 ever, been grown in the Nursery. Enquiries have 

 been made for this variety, and an order for 1 cwt. 

 of seed was forwarded to Sir Daniel Morris, 

 High Commissioner of Agriculture, West Indies. 

 Under the orders of Government all the cot- 

 ton seeds ordered from the West Indies have 

 to be fumigated before removal from the 

 Customs House. A large consignment of 



CAMPHOR 



seeds was again imported from Japan, but they 

 did not turn out well. What was distributed to 

 planters is reported to have failed to germinate. 

 The 4,000 camphor plants raised from a previous 

 supply have all been sold. 



PARA RUBBER 



seeds were also imported from Ceylon this year 

 and distributed. A small quantity was sown in 

 the gardens, but the percentage of germination 

 was not as good as in previous years. Only one 

 plant of Funtumia Elastica out of several raised 

 from seed is now alive, but it is feared that it 

 will not last through another long hot season. 

 The seeds were received from the Director, 

 Botanic Gardens, Old Calabar. New varieties of 



MANITOBA RUBBER 



seeds were kindly sent by the Director of the 

 Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in October last, 

 vii., 1,000 seeds of Manihot dichotoma " Jequie. " 

 1,000 seeds of Manihot piauhyensis " Ramanso.^ 



These species are found growing in the States 

 of Bahia and Piauhy and, according to the Kew 

 Bulletin, they can be tapped in tue third and 

 fourth year respectively. The seeds and plants 

 of these species appear to travel well, the plants 

 sent by the Kew authorities to Calcutta, Ceylon, 

 Singapore, Java and other places having 

 reached their destinations in good condition. 

 The teed sent to this Society also arrived in 

 good order although they did not germinate 

 quite as satisfactory as was expected. 



Plants oiM. dichotoma and M. piauhyensis rai- 

 sed have been distributed, only a few that germi- 

 nated late being now available, -M, Mail, March 27- 



e Tropical Agriculturist 



PLANTING IN THE GOLD COAST. 



{Extracts from the Report upon the Botanical 

 and Agricultural Department, 1907.) 



Introduction.— During the year under review . 

 the Department was enlarged by the establish- 

 ment of an Agricultural Station at Asuantsi in 

 the Central Province. This station has been 

 badly needed for some time and should do a 

 great deal to stimulate and supply the ever 

 increasing demand for Cacao and Rubber plants 

 in that province. 



Staff, Appointments, etc.— Mr W S D Tud- 

 hope was appointed Director of Agriculture on 

 7th September. He left for Ceylon on the same 

 date to study the different economic plants of 

 that country with a view of introducing the 

 Ceylon methods into the Gold Coast before 

 taking up his appointment in the Colony 



Aburi Botanic Gardens.— The number of 

 plants distributed during the year was the 

 largest on record but the distribution of seeds 

 was below that of last year. The total distri- 

 bution was as follows: — 



Plants. So. 



Theobroma cacao var. Forester;) . . 10,090 



do pentagona . . 350 



Hevea brasiliensis (Para rubber) . . 10,349 



Funtumia elastica (Ofruntuui rubber) .. 12,290 



Coff ea arabica . . 44 



Cola acuminata . . J7 



Various . . . . 6,060 



39,630 



Seeds (counted) 



Funtumina elastica (Ofruntum rubber; .. 2,430,000 



Hevea brasiliensis (Para rubber) .. 600,000 



Theobroma cacao var. Forestero . . 210,000 



Landolpbia owariensis . . 1,414 



Elieis guineensis .. 1,440 



Packets of seeds . . 3,243,454 



Various . . 10,000 



Seeds by weight . , 200 lb. 



Travelling.— A considerable amountof travel- 

 ling was done in the year. Mr Evans travelled 

 for nearly six months through the different cacao 

 producing districts in the Colony, giving advice 

 in planting, pruning, and the preparation of the 

 product for market. Several of the native staff 

 travelled through Ashantiand did valuable work 

 in the cacao and rubber-producing districts 



Rubber. 



Funtumia Elastica (Ofruntum Rubber).— 

 Several of this rubber tree growing in the Gar- 

 dens were tapped during the year, but we were 

 again unsuccessful in extracting rubber iu pay- 

 ing quantities. Mr Evans carried out some ex- 

 periments on trees found growing in the forests 

 of Eastern Akini and extracted 5£ oz. of dry 

 rubber per tree in one tapping. He averaged the 

 age of the trees tapped at about 12 years. It 

 appears that the conditions and soil are against 

 the successful growing of this rubber tree at 

 Aburi. Samples of this rubber prepared by the 

 Bauhinia reticulata process mentioned in last 

 year's report, also two other samples, one pre- 

 pared by a patent coagulating salt and the other 

 coagulated naturally were submitted to the 

 Director of the Imperial Institute who reported 

 on them as follows :— 



