500 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



The Return. 

 In the course of rolling the rubber into 

 barterable balls some of these primitivo 

 sons of the forest will with careful craftiness 

 core their balls with stones or lead bullets, 

 thus increasing the weight of the produce, 

 for which they are paid so much per lb., 

 and when ultimately the trader cuts the balls 

 of rubber into two pieces before weighing, the 

 black vendor always expresses blank amaze- 

 ment at the discovery of such things inside his 

 rubber. 



Having gathered and prepared his rubber, 

 the collector makes up his load again, and with 

 the four or five pounds of rubber which his day's 

 labour has yielded he prepares to return. Every 

 one finishes at much the same time, and when 

 the furthermost men start back the others are 

 ready to join, and so, growing in size as man 

 after man rejoins, the procession proceeds on its 

 homeward way, until ultimately it emerges com- 

 plete out of the forest and arrives with great 

 eclat back into the village. 



In the evening every inhabitant of Ojuka 

 will gather in the street to feast and sing 

 to the beating of tom-toms, and there will be 

 groat discussions as to whether it is more 

 profitable to dispose of the rubber to Moma 

 the Hausa trader, one of the bush ' bagmen,' 

 or to load up canoes tn the creek and go to 

 white man Holtyt>' trading station. Some are in 

 favour of ' Moma,' and others want to go to 

 ' Holtys.' Whichever is done, each man will 

 drive a hard bargain, and the trader who pays 

 the best price will get the produce. 



In each mud hut that night dusky dames are 

 dreaming of yards and yards of pretty cloth and 

 new cooking pots, whilst their lords and masters 

 are indulging in anticipatory revels in the de- 

 lights of rolls of tobacco, gun powder and shot, 

 new knives, cowries (currency), which the 

 ' heap dam fool trader' will give for the rubber. 



Six months later, this rubber gathered from the 

 heart of a remote African forest by these dusky 

 Nigerian villagers will be fulfilling its purpose 

 in the heart of civilisation. — Pall Mall Gazette, 

 April 13, 



THE HANDBOOK OF NYASALAND 



is a handbook in the true sense of the word, and 

 though only in the first year of its publication 

 it has been admirably compiled. It contains 

 chapters descriptive of the Protectorate, its 

 Geology and Minerals, Zoology with Game Regu- 

 lations, its Woods and Forests, etc. ; sections 

 are devoted to Administration, Revenue and 

 Expenditure, Commerce, and all other subjects 

 appertaining to a complete Directory of the 

 country. A historical sketch of the Protec- 

 torate is interesting, while many valuable hints 

 for the preservation of the health of the resident 

 are given in the medical section. With agri- 

 culture as the chief industry of the people a 

 large portion of the handbook is devoted to the 

 products cultivated and some good practical 

 notes with illustrations are given of Cotton, 

 Tobacco, Fibres, Rubber, etc. 



The book is printed and published by the 

 Government Printer, Nyasaland Protectorate, 

 and though compiled in part from official records, 

 jt is not an official publication. Price is 3s (jd. 



TAPPING AT HIGH ELEVATIONS. 



RESULTS IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 

 Some four years ago we published a number 

 of interesting details regarding the results ob- 

 tained from tapping Para and Castilloa trees at 

 high elevations in Southern India. The special 

 estate on which the operations were carried out 

 was the Hawthorne Estate on the Shevaroys, 

 which is situated about 3,500 feet above sea 

 level and our correspondent's conclusion was 

 as follows :—" It seems fairly certain that at 

 3.500 feet in South India we can get rubber 

 to grow and yield at a paying rate." Little has 

 since been heard of rubber tapping at high ele- 

 vations in Southern India, the reason being, we 

 understand, that it has been found more profi- 

 table to reserve the more mature trees for seed 

 it being well-known that tapping rubber trees 

 affects their seed-bearing powers. We have now, 

 however, been favoured with details of the ex- 

 perimental tapping work carried out on Para 

 and Castilloa rubber trees growing on the Glen- 

 burn Estate on the Nilgiris. at an elevation of 

 3,500 feet, at the end of February, or in one of 

 the driest seasons of the year. None of the 

 trees had more than one spiral which, in some 

 cases, was started at 6 feet from the ground and 

 in others at only 3 feet. A girth of 16 ins. 

 was the * fixed limit from which the spiral 

 started. On six days 21 men, whose wages 

 are 3| as. per man, operated on 745 trees 

 and extracted therefrom 45 lb. 2 ozs. of 

 latex, which were made into thirty-three wet 

 biscuits weighing 14 lb. 11 oz., and 1 lb. 

 of scrap remained, making a total of 15 lb. 

 11 oz. of rubber. Thirty-one Castilloa trees 

 produced three biscuits weighing 1 lb. 6 oz. 

 The results obtained, though of little value 

 as to exact or maximum yields, nevertheless 

 give a good idea of what may be expected 

 per tree. Sixty tappings of Para rubber similar 

 to those described above, i e., from partially 

 tapped trees in dry weather, during a year, 

 would mean 12 oz. wet rubber per tree obtained 

 at an average cost of 4 as. 9 pies per lb. The 

 coolies employed in the tapping referred to 

 had never clone any similar work three weeks 

 previous to the days on which these results 

 were obtained ; and there is little doubt that 

 larger amounts of latex might be expected 

 per head if experienced coolies were employed. 

 The usual practice, moreover, is to have double 

 spirals 6 in. apart up to an average height of 

 6 ft., and this, if introduced, would probably 

 cause an increase in the returns.— M. Mail, 

 April 29. 



RUBBER PLANTING IN TRINIDAD. 



The latest report of the Warden, Naparima 

 Union, Trinidad, makes reference to the rubber 

 planting on Sir Edward Tennant's estate in 

 the Pointe-a-Pierre district. The area planted 

 with rubber contains 18,0j0 Castilloa trees, and 

 experimental plantings of Herea and Funtumia 

 trees are also being made. About forty trees, 

 of seven years old, were tapped in August last, 

 and yielded 4 lb. of dried rubber, or an average 

 of about U oz. per tree, which is considered a. 

 fair result, 



