and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



195 



" synthetic rubber " sooms to have subsided ami 

 most people accept the view of a high chemical 

 authority that a commercial rubber is not likely 

 to be produced in the laboratory to compete in 

 quality or price with natural rubber. You may 

 judge from the figures I have given, how im- 

 mensely important the rubber-growing industry 

 in all Southern Asia, covering perhaps 520,000 

 acres, now is, and what its value will be when 

 the t:oes are ready for tapping five or six years 

 hence. At a moderate computation, a crop of 

 some 36.000 tons seems then (say in 1914) to be 

 very likely and even at about half the present 

 average in London, per lb.— or say 2s 6d, this 

 means a value ot £10,000,000 sterling in a single 

 year. The share of this appertaining to Ceylon 

 should not bo less than £3,01)0,000 sterling five 

 years hence. 



ELECTRICITY AND AGRICULTURE. 



Berlin, March 27.— Hitherto the progress 

 made in the employment of electricity for agri- 

 cultural purposes has been very restricted, and 

 in spite of the frequent exhibitions, lectures 

 and demonstrations, and the vigorous propa- 

 ganda of the great electrical undertakings, the 

 farmer has been backward in adopting the new 

 source of power. The reason does not lie 

 wholly in the reluctance of the agriculturist to 

 make any changes in the systems of working 

 with which he is familiar, but rather in the 

 defective organisation for the distribution 

 of electrical energy in country districts and 

 for the want of the requisite machinery for pro- 

 ving its economical importance to the farmer. 

 The great industrial tasks which electric energy 

 in the near future may be called upon to fulfil 

 has induced agriculturists to bestir themselves 

 in the matter, and one of the latest movements 

 .has been the establishment of free intelligence 

 centres where gratuitous information cau be 

 obtained by the farmer in the applications of 

 electrical power for his requirements. Mr Pod- 

 bielski, the former Minister for Agriculture, is 

 at the head of this movement. — London Times 

 Supplement, March 31. 



issued capital. It is quite clear that if the mature area 

 was capitalised at actual cost there would have been a 

 dividend considerably higher than 100 per cent.—" India 

 Rubber Journal," April 5th. [I may add to the above a 

 case that came under my notice when visiting Malay 

 States in September last; an individual planter in the 

 Perak district, with 100 acres planted with rubber trees 

 which were all in bearing in 1907, netted an iucome for 

 that year of £3,500.-0. F.] 



At one time the world's record for the highest value 

 in agricultural land was held by the celebrated vineyards 

 in the Cantenac, Margaux, and other communities of 

 the Bordeaux district. These values, seldom over one 

 hundred and twenty pounds per acre, 1. id gmie long before 

 the advent of rubber plantations ; but at their best they 

 would have paled before the three hundred pounds per 

 acre, at which rate fairly mature rubber works out in 

 the prices actually paid for shares in some of the Malayan 

 companies. It is possible to frame almost any estimate 

 of profit from a rubber plantation if the returns actually 

 given by single trees or small plots be taken to represent 

 actual figures. Single trees have given in a few months 

 twelve to twenty pounds of rubber, worth ovor five shillings 

 per pound; and small areas have given returns equal to 

 more than sixty pounds sterling per acre profit in the 

 year. The planter knows, however, that when he has to 

 deal with more closely planted trees, and has to take 

 the average for some years of large areas, the figures 

 will be different, although still in his slumbers dreams 

 born in avarice are more likely than nightmares of 

 poverty !— Thomas North Christie in " Chambers Journal " 

 tor August, 1907. 



CASTOR OIL PLANT FOR GREEN 

 MANURE. 



From analyses made of the castor plant, the 

 total weight of crop per acre (1,210 plants) 

 was found to be 6,655 lb. containing 2,323 lb. 

 of organic matter (34-91 per cent) or humus- 

 forming material. The nitrogen added to the 

 soil by a crop of castor would thus be 33'3 lb. 

 per acre, while at the same time it furnishes 

 21 3 lb. phosphoric acid (anhydrous) and 53'2 

 lb. potash. 



A NEW FODDER. 



We are always hearing of new fodders, but as 

 a rule they turn out to be unsuitable in the 

 end— particularly for tropical conditions. The 

 agricultural press has lately been describing a 

 plant called " Chou Moellier " as suitable for 

 feeding cattle, a rapid grower, highly nutritious, 

 and frost and drought resistant. The plant, 

 which is a species of cabbage, can be seen grow- 

 ing at the Government Stock Gardens, where it is 

 thriving well, but, as the Superintendent reports, 

 it is more suitable as a village food stuff than for 

 stock. Being a coarse kind of cabbage it should 

 do very well as a vegetable for curry. 



RUBBER TANNED LEATHER. 



235/239, Finsbury Pavement House, 

 London, E.C., April 9th. 

 Dear Sir, — A short time ago I sent you 

 samples of our Rubber tanned leather. Will 

 you kindly put a piece down and see if the 

 Ceylon white ant will attempt to eat it, and let 

 me have a notice in your paper as to results ? 

 We are making cricket balls for the principal 

 Clubs in England by Mr Reader.— Yours, &c, 

 J. A. K. CLARK. 



[We will try the experiment as requested by 

 our correspondent and will let him know the 

 result in due course. — Ed., CO.] 



PLANTING IN DOLOSBAGE 



SUCCESS IN GREEN MANURING. 



Splendid weather for flush all over Dolosbage 

 and estates generally are securing large increases 

 on 1908 crop. 



Green manuring is proving, of great benefit to 

 those estates situated at a distance from cart 

 roads, and to which the cost of transport of 

 artificial manures is prohibitive. A general 

 improvement in the appearance of the tea is 

 noticeable and pests, such as shot-hole borer, 

 prove less troublesome under the shade of Al- 

 bizzias and Dadaps. — Qcc. Cor. — April 26. 



Anglo-Malay.— Messrs Harrisons and Cros- 

 field inform us that the Anglo-Malay Rubber 

 Co.'s crop for March was 38,7J5 lb. dry rubber, 

 a figure which constitutes another record. 



Balgownib Estate.— The rubber harvested 

 on the above for March was 3,545 lb. estimated 

 dry rubber. The crop for the corresponding 

 month last year was 2,241 lb, dry. 



