Fehruary t, 1882.] THE TROPICA!, AGRICULTURIST. 
665 
hBMFv ' ' 1 ' — 
To the Editor of the Ceylon Observer. 
MR. A. SCOTT BLACKLAW ON RUBBERS. 
Clifton Cottage, Dollar, via Stirling, 21st Oct. 1881- 
Dear Sir, — Your people generally make pretty good 
work of my letters, considering they are written 
rather hurriedly, and the writer has no means of see- 
ing the proofs. I must, therefore, be to blame for 
a mistake in the lust paragraph but one of my letter, 
which you kindly inserted in your paper of the 17th 
September. It is Para rubber seed I brought home 
two tins of, and which I sent to Ceylon on trial. 
I have no doubt of Ceard rubber seed growing in 
Ceylon if it is closed in tins while in transit from 
Brazil to Ceylon. 
They told me in Para that Para rubber seed would 
not grow if kept for more than a month ia a dry place, 
and my friends in Ceara told me they had tried to 
grow Para rubber from seed in Ceara, and failed, I 
did not get much information in Ceard regarding 
the collecting of tho rubber. I had people working 
with me for the three years who were Iudiarubbcr 
collectors in Ceara before the famine in the years 
1877-7S-79. Their account agreed exactly with that 
given by Mr. Cross as follows :—" The collector 
goes out in the moraine with a basketful of cups 
made of clay and mii-dried and some soft clay. 
He makes incisions in the bark of the tree, and 
by means of the soft clay fastens a cup to the 
trunk of the tree, under tho cut, taking care to 
form tho soft clay at the same time into a channel for 
the juice to run with the cup. He taps a great num- 
ber of trees in one day. The juice is put into a 
larger vessel and a piece of wood in the shape of an 
oar is dipped in it and held over a smoky fire. 
Dipping and drying goes on until a thick skin is 
formed on the end of the piece of wood ; this skin 
is easily cut off. Some only lay bare a piece of the trunk 
aud let the juice ran down outside and dry as it runs." 
I did not see any Ceara rubber prepared for ship- 
ment, but at Paid I saw a lur"o quantiti of whit 
was collected up the Amazon of tl.c Park rubber 
The best kind was in large sheets about tnree feet 
by two and about an inch thick. This was white 
and exactly like the white rubber in use when I 
was at school for crazing pencil marks. The rubber 
is all packed in large boxes of North American deal. 
The inferior quality of rubber is mado in round 
balls the size of a man's h.-ad. Outsido it looks yood, 
but inside are pieces cf bark, earth &c. sticking to 
the rubber — apparently the refuse gathered from tin- 
ground and cuttings from the corners and edges wbile 
shaping the square sheets of tho good rubber. This 
inferior kind gets the name of '-negro-head." It 
is also packed for shipmcut in large boxes, same as 
the square sheets. 
In the collecting ami preparation of rubber Euro- 
pean intelligence will find out improved methods. 
Hitherto there bas been no attempts at cultivati .11. 
The virgin forests have supplied it freely, and tho 
nauves cut down the trees in some parts to get at 
tho rubber.— Yours, A. SCOTT BUCK LAW. 
BO REP IX COCONUT PALMS AND HOVY 
TO PREVENT IT. 
Johore, 5th Doc. 1881. 
< Df.ak Sir,—] note in the report of Mr. Gookborn- 
• s !' u ' l,t - ' ivi] Comini ioner of the SeyoheUw, in the 
/. .t.,for November that the coconut t siothotejs- I 
uwnda irt threatened with doKtructfuli b) the borer W.. . 
havothosame here; 1 OA e,.n,ider..bl- ektoiitnnd the only 
Known preventative is by pUornfWottt 1 lb. ordinary salt ' 
16K 
in the top of the tree. This done twice a year has 
proved to be a good preventative and at the same 
time an inexpensivo one.— Yours faithfully, 
E. E. A. 
CINCHONA : PROFIT OR LOSS ? 
Haklummulla, 5th December 1881. 
D*ar Sir, — Those interested in cinchona estates 
would do well to consider whether the harvesting of 
bark is always profitable. Economy may be carrisd 
too far and in, in ihe practice in favor among planters ; 
i- c, the collecting and barking of lopped branches or 
of young dead and dying cinchona trees — the bark 
on which is difficult aud expensive to remove. '1'he 
cost of this operation is of course variously estimated, 
but the moral is to be found in the prices obtained 
at the public sales held on tbe 20th October (vide the 
Tropical Agriculturist for December), when 2£ tons of 
bark realized from R0 07 to RO'29 per lb. 
This quantity has gone into the market at a loss 
or no profit to the planter, and has tended to lower 
tbe price he can obtain for the better class of bark he 
may have for sale. 
I have just heard of a case in point, where some 
300 lb of chips and small peelings realized R2 less than 
tho cost incurred in collecting &c. and transport to 
Colombo. In this case, the expenses incurred were 
carefully noted, with the object of testing the actual 
value of such young and brok n bark : with the above 
result. 
Let me commend this to those planters who study 
PROFIT AND LOSS. 
[" 'T is true, 't is pity; pity 't is, 't is true." — Ed. 
MR. KARSLAKE'S METHOD OF RE MO VINO 
CINCHONA BARK. 
Dikoya, 6th Dec. 1S81. 
Dear Sib, — I was not at all surprized wheo Mr. 
A. T. Karslakc informed your readers that he had 
been refused a patent for his method of removing 
aud renewing cinchona baik, and I wish he had given 
at the same time "the very good reasons" for such 
refusal. Will Mr. Karslake be so good as t > tell 
us if the bark removed fetched the price it would 
have done had it been immediately dried, instead of 
being replaced : in fact, tell your readers what it 
sold for? I myself cannot help thinking that the bark 
so removed must be totally inert aud worthless. This 
is the case with coppiced trees: nil the b irk on the 
original stem above the shoot allowed to grow being 
'•dead bark," and without any m irket value. 
Mr. Karslake must feel grateful to the present Go- 
vernment (the piasent "contemptible Gov. r ment," 
who-e mouth-piece is the Colonial Secretary,) for 
having saved his rupees, and the Madulsima Coffee and 
Cinchona Company congratulate its-lf on the intro- 
duction of "new blood." — Youis faithfully, 
CINCHONA. 
[We do not quite understand the tone adopted with 
regard to Mr. Karslake and his method. Had tho 
ba-k, treated as he suggests, turned out inert and worth- 
ies, and had a trial of the maiket settled the ques- 
tion so, Mr. Karslake would certainly not have r. com- 
mended bis method for the adoption of his brother 
planters. Nor do wo see the (orco of the slap at 
Government on the ground of the Queen's Advocate'* 
refusal of a patent on what the party chiefly inter- 
ested admits were good roasons. There are certain 
principles of originality, undouhted utility, eto., on 
which patents are granted or denied. The denial of 
■ paten'. bowe\ er, doea uot provo tba' Mr. Kara- 
lakes UK- h->d has be, 11 condemned. It sovuw to ua 
worthy of full trial. — En.] 
