The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



rubber trees. I feel sure there is a great deal 

 yet to be learned about the proper harvesting 

 of the latex in different districts and at 

 different altitudes in Ceylon, and the more 

 notes of actual experience we can get together 

 the better. — Truly yours, 



PROPRIETOR. 



[There can be but one opinion held among 

 experts who have extended practical know- 

 ledge of all the various methods of extrac- 

 ting latex, and who have given Mr Patter- 

 son's method the trial it deserves. There 

 are methods of tapping that destroy the 

 tree almost as surely and rapidly as the bar- 

 barous fashions obtaining in parts of Africa and 

 America. The Patterson system of tap- 

 ping the tree in sections, allowing for 

 increase in girth, and taking, as circum- 

 stances demand, from four to live years in 

 working round the bole, permitting the 

 fullest bark renewal and sap supply, secures at 

 once a copious flow of latex, and preserves the 

 health and power of growth of the tree. There 

 is always a large area of bark uninjured, per- 

 mitting the tree to secure the steady nourish- 

 ment required for its continued growth and the 

 renewal of the latex supply, and four years, 

 at least, during which growth is continuous, 

 elapse before the old wounded areas are again 

 approached. This means everything for the tree, 

 steady growth, better powers of disease resist- 

 ance, and less liability to wound infection. 



There is only one point in this method 

 where controversy arises. There is some 

 difference of opinion as to annual rate of 

 growth. Mr. Petch, and others contend 

 that the annual increase of four to five 

 inches in the girth of the tree reckoned 

 by Mr Patterson can refer only to exceptional 

 trees, or to trees exceptionally well situated 

 as to locality and soil. Even if this be con- 

 ceded, it in no way vitiates the advantage 

 of Mr Patterson's truly scientific and rational 

 method of tapping. It is certain that these 

 same trees that do not put on five inches of 

 girth a year would be very much more handi- 

 capped by another method of tapping, and that 

 the Patterson system gives trees moro chance of 

 attaining to the increase noted by Mr Sheridan 

 Patterson where he has experimented. In the 

 matter of keeping the numbers of cuts low, and 

 in their objection to the use of the pricker 

 Messrs Petch and Patterson are agreed, whilst 

 every practical planter will support Mr Pat- 

 terson in his plea for full manuring and clean 

 cultivation. At the same time we want more and 

 more detailed information published on all sorts 

 of obscure points, and particularly, as " Pro- 

 prietor " says in his letter appearing above, 

 on the proper harvesting of latex in different 

 districts and at different altitudes. Theory is 

 excellent, but it must be supplemented by prac- 

 tical experience and experience has a way of 

 varying according to locality and circumstance, 

 — A. M.&J.F.] 



Will. W. WICHERLEY ON THE VALU- 

 ATION OF COCONUT ESTATES. 



Marawila, Nov. 20th. 



Dear Sir, — In your issue of November, ^you 

 have an extract from the Financial, Times under 

 the above heading and signed by Mr. Wicherley. 



When Mr. Wicherley was here last year, he 

 posed as an authority on Rubber, especially on 

 Ceara Rubber. He made application to Gov- 

 ernment on behalf ot an influential Company to 

 buy a very large area of land in the Wanni. The 

 Government pursued an indefensible dog-in-the- 

 manger policy, and imposed conditions which 

 no sensible man could possibly accept. 



During the time of his visit, there were wild 

 rumours that he had at his back capitalists of 

 unlimited means, and that as a first instalment 

 several coconut estates of well-known Sinhalese 

 families in the Negombo and Chilaw districts 

 were to be acquired and formed in a Company, 

 and thereafter the trade iu copra was to be 

 cornered ! 



He went away and did not return, but amuses 

 himself by occasionally writing about coconuts 

 and a coming boom, in financial papers. 



On the present occasion, he poses as an expert 

 valuator. He nowhere in his letter indicates 

 that he is writing about coconut estates in 

 Ceylon. That can, however, be safely guessed. 



It is a Jib<*l on native estate owners to say 

 that their estates are " for the most part grossly 

 neglected as regards cultivation and wastefully 

 managed into the bargain." I believe I have 

 visited and valued more "'native-owned ' estates 

 than any other valuator, and I cannot subscribe 

 to the above. 



I will not take exception to his statement that 

 a full bearing tree will yield 40 to 60 nuts per 

 annum, but I will qualify it by adding " under 

 favourable circumstances," Nor is he far wrong 

 when he states that4,00L) to 5,000 nuts go to a ton 

 of copra. The general experience, however, is, 

 that a given weightof copra will yield two- thirds 

 oil and one-third poonac. 



In very few instances are the husks of coconut 

 used for fibre making. In most instances they 

 are used for packing drains, protecting supply 

 plants or for burning in quantities between the 

 trees. Some penny-wise-pounds-foolish people 

 sell their husks. These people can have no 

 idea of the wanton robbery of the soil the sale 

 of husks involves. 



Mr. Wicherley is quite correct when he states 

 that " valuations of coconut estates based on 

 the per capita value of each tree are fallacious 

 and utterly worthless from an investor's point 

 of view." Yes. From the investor's point of view 

 only. No careful valuator and one with a sense 

 of responsibility does this. 



Mr. Wicherley states that " one of the recog- 

 nised systems is to take a qualified expert's re- 

 port on the property as a whole and then to 

 dissect the certified ' counts ' of nuts for each 

 of the six picking periods over the previous 

 four years, carefully noting the picking of the 

 fifth period, as this should always give the 

 largest proportion (20 to 25 per cent.) of the 

 total "yield." 



