Jan. 1, i8i)4.] 
TliE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
4/t 
Z# M< Eiittr, 
CEYLON RUBBEE : A FINE SAMPLHi AND 
GOOD EEPOET ON MATALE EUBBEE. 
London, E. 0., Nov. 9. 
Deab Sik, — We ate in receipt of your favour 
of I8th ult. with sample of Ceylon rubber for 
wbioh we thank you. The quality of this rubber 
ia very godd and should an/ quantity arrive in 
good oonditiOQ it would sell here at about 2s 3d 
per lb. probably. As you know most of the rubber 
irom your market is of muoh inferior quality to 
this, in (aot we may say this is the finest sample 
we have seen of Oeylon rubber. 
If you oould establish it ia the market here, 
it would in our opinion oome into competition 
with Fine Para, day about 41 to 5d per lb. less 
money. In small quantities it would hardly 
realize its full value as large oonsumers want a 
reyular and fairly large supply of clean rubber 
and this should sell readily (as fine Columbian 
does at 2s 3d — 23 7d per lb.) when fine Para is 
. 4d to 6d more, — We are dear sir, yours faith- 
fully, S. FIGGIS & (JO. 
fThe above refers to the sample of rubber 
produced in the Matale district, and sent us by our 
ooriespondent " J. M." about the middle of Oat. — 
' Ed. T.A.] 
THE CULTIVATION OP CACAO WITH 
LIBEEIAN COFFEE. 
North Borneo, Nov. 18. 
Djbak Sib,— It would confer a great favour on 
me if someone of your many correspondents 
would kindly inform me if cacao requires shade 
when planted with Liberiau coffee. — Yours faith- 
fully, HENRY WALKEE. 
l^We believe oaoao is found to be all the better 
of shade trees in Oeylon even when planted with 
Liberian coffee, though of course the shade need 
not be BO continuous or dense. The best illus- 
tration we can think of is UdapoUa estat?, 
Polgahawela, where cacao, Liberian coffee and 
shade trees are intermingled. In one or two cases, 
cacao has been planted with coconuts — in the 
Knrunegala district — and we believe the experi- 
ment is considered a saooess— though there has 
Bcaroely been sufScient time to judge of crop results. 
We have just been hearing from Mr. Vanderpoorten 
of a flourishing cacao estate in the island of 
Fernando Po, West Coast of Africa, without any 
ihade.— Ed. T.A.] 
CEYLON RUBBER. THE MATALE 
SAMPLE. 
Kandy, Deo. 2. 
De&b Sib, — 1 feel indebted to you for the 
excellent report you have obtained from Loudon 
and publisQed in your issue of 29th Novemtier, 
and which shows that the quality of rubber obtained 
here from the Cascilloa Jblastioa is first rate, and 
ranks not little below the value of Para. Indeed the 
prices quoted, say 2a 3d to 2d 7J, wfien Para 
might be 4d to 6d more, are extremely encouraging, 
I was first led to address you on the subject 
on perusal of your very iuteresting reports upon 
coffee and rubber planting in Mexico in whion it 
appeared that shade trees for cufiee were beiog 
aisoarded in favor of Caiitilloa Elastioa which had 
given good results with tbe two euterprises ooQee 
»ad rubber, jjoiog oa together. 
This seemed to me very important, for now-a- 
daya shade is so largely usei in some of the 
lowoountry products that to find one which shall 
be a source of profit in itself without injuring 
the superior product it is sheltering and protecting 
would be invaluable. Ceara rubber has no merits 
as a shade tree; it is greedy, it does not like being 
tapped too young; it has nasty ways of falling 
to pieces before a gust of wind, and in some strange 
fatality always falls on its richest neighbour, 
and then while almost too soft for any use 
what<'Ver, yet lingers unrotted on the ground to 
the disgrace of any tidy clearing. It is the 
attraction and delight of wild pigs, who 
work in disorderly fashion in quest of its tubers. 
If, therefore, Oastiloa prove good shade tor 
coffee in Mexico, why should it not for similar 
purposes in Ceylon render us aid also? What 
value, for instance, it might have given to old coffee 
fields before abandonment? The lapse of cultivated 
fields of stricken coffee into useless ohena and 
rubbish has always been a ragretful remembrance 
to me. There were hundreds of acres all over the 
lowoountry that might have been filled with 
products uf some kind, if ia those days we bad had 
the knowledge, the seed and the stimulus of 
encouragement. 
I think I saw in your paper that the authorities 
at Peradeniya had not entertained a high opinion of 
the Oastiloa rubber, as to growth or yield. The 
question of value, however, is quite set at rest by 
your London valuation. We do not seem to have 
statistics available as to yield ; .but I am sorry that 
there should seem to be discouragement as regards 
growth from so authoritative a quarter, and I 
hope that despite this there will be somebody with 
euffioient faith to try the experiment. 
It doei not do to yield to temporary disoourage- 
ment, for I remember some years ago, when pnoea 
were poor, Liberian coffee fell into discredit and I 
was advised to root out mine. Yet I have got in 
some R20,000 in value of that product since then, 
though my small area has been orowdad out by 
other trees, and succumbing sometimes to the 
various ailcuents and diseases coffee i3 heir to, and 
suffering from its overcrowding also, it still 
foims a valuable portion of my property and yields 
me a welcome addition to my annual returns that 
might have been wanting if the early discourage- 
ments had not been faced and repulsel. — Youra 
faithfully, J. M. 
WEEDS ON PLANTATIONS AND HOW 
TO DEAL WITH THEM. 
Marakona, Dec. 2, 
Dbab Sib, — The editor of the local "Independent," 
iu his issue of 20th November, has given ua 
in a leader his experience as to c>llowiag 
" Weeds" to grow on estates, and ^Mnds up by 
advising not to try the effect of weeds. Luc ua 
now analyse hia objections, taking each paragraph 
separately and my reply to each foUowing on iDe 
same : — 
"It waa the lot of the writer, during many of the 
earlier years of hia aojoarn of nearly half a century 
iu Ceylon, to wage a war d I'oittrance against ilie 
deadliest enemy of the cofi^ee bush, weeds. Toere 
was but one estate, when this warfare comiiieaced, 
that had been kept free of weeds for more thau 
two, or at most three years, and there were not a 
dozen that had even been kept clean during their 
first year. There were two principal reasons tor this 
state of affairs. One was deficienoy and irref^nlarity 
in the labour fotcc. 'I'he other was the inexponenoo 
f the planters as to the practical means of estir- 
atisg weeds, bg fat m wg cod rccoUeci thoiq 
