466 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



As to the palm mentioned and the industry we 

 referred to the Secretary to the Agricultural 

 Society, and Mr Drieberg writes : — 



" The Buri palm about which you enquire is Corypha 

 Elata very closely related to our talipot (C. umbra- 

 culife.ro.) which I have no doubt can be employed ex- 

 actly in the same way- if we only knew the art of 

 hat making. Iam returning the cutting, which does not 

 give very much information, and am thinking of writing a 

 paper on the subject for the Board when I can spare 

 the time, as I have collected a good deal of material 

 about it. It has struck me that it would be an ex- 

 cellent hing if we could persuade the Philippine Govern- 

 ment or some enterprising person out in Manila to under- 

 take to send us an exhibit of hats and hat-making 

 materials for the All-Ceylon Exhibition 1912. If the 

 exhibits could come in charge of a skilled hat make r 

 who could show how it done, there will be much for 

 Ceylon to learn from such a display. I should fancy 

 there will be a good sale for hats and other articles if 

 a collection is 3ent out." 



Our Philippines' correspondent will be asked 

 as to the proposal now made and whether 

 sample hats and a worker can be got for Ceylon. 



"FINANCIER'S" SPECIAL RUBBER 

 COMMISSIONER IN CEYLON. 



A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF HIS EASTERN 

 TOUR. 



Mr. E. L. Killick, the Special Commissioner 

 of "The Financier," who has been inspecting 

 the rubber plantations of the East, in the in- 

 terests of hie journal and is now on his way 

 home in a hurried conversation with our re- 

 presentative said that he has been in all the 

 Federated Malay States, Sumatra, Java, Dutch 

 Borneo, and the Rhio Archipelago. 



Exaggerated Estimates. 



He has found that the future outputs of 

 plantations have been greatly exaggerated by 

 all estimate compilers. He considered it would 

 be found that the big estimates they had 

 worked up to for a single year would not be 

 maintained indefinitely and regularly. There 

 was a figure which might be kept pretty con- 

 stant, but it was unquestionably lower that had 

 been estimated. For this reason, he did not 

 see how rubber could fail to keep at a very 

 profitable figure for a good many years to come. 

 Little the Matter in the Industry. 



There was certainly very little the matter 

 with the industry. He had found nothing 

 alarming in the way of disease anywhere. There 

 was plenty of disease about, but it was being 

 kept under. It did not seem likely to devas- 

 tate whole areas, or anything approaching that 

 kind of thing. 



Castilloa a Failure. 

 The Castilloa rubber, which the Americans 

 had expected a great deal from, he thought, 

 would very shortly be shown to be practically a 

 failure. There was quite a lot in Java and in- 

 variably it was unsatisfactory. There was diffi- 

 culty in tapping, and a poor yield at that, and 

 both Ceara and Ficus elastica were superior. 



In the Rhio Archipelago. ■ 

 There was a lot of rubber on some of the 

 islands in the Rhio Archipelago. It has all 

 Hevea, and growing well. The labour wa3 

 Javanese indentured, and something about it 

 was that the labourers could not bolt from 

 the small islands. 



Java Unsatisfactory. 

 Generally speaking rubber was growing well 

 everywhere he had been, especially in Negri 

 Sembilan and Selangor, where the growth was 

 extraordinary. In Sumatra there were some 

 very fine trees indeed, but Java did not compare 

 at all with these places. There were one or two 

 good places in Java, but as a general rule Java 

 rubber would not do much, except in a few isol- 

 ated cases. 



Ceylon to the Fore. 

 Ceylon, in some points, such as management, 

 organisation, and cultivation, compares very 

 well with all other places, and the cost of pro- 

 duction in Ceylon will always be low in compari- 

 son with a good many places. As for finished 

 rubber, Mr Killick has seen nothing better any- 

 where than that from Ceylon's crack estates such 

 as St. George's, Gikiyanakande, and Hanwella. 

 Ceylo i rubber was as good as any, he was quite 

 satisfied of that. 



The Drought. 

 The drought had played havoc with outputs 

 in the Straits, and estimates would look silly, 

 63pecialiy on the flat land, but that was noth- 

 ing to be alarmed about. It was phenomenal. 

 It might be good for the trees, and act as a 

 sort of stimulant, making them yield better 

 when the rain came. 



High Standard and Tapping. 

 One thing he has been impressed with is the 

 very high standard to which tapping has been 

 brought. He thought that in future, as a re- 

 sult of the drought, planters would tap more 

 carefully, and be more cautious in their esti- 

 mates. He thought that in time there would be 

 practically a revolution in the curing of rubber, 

 for the last word did not seem to have been by 

 any means reached. 



