826 
(June i, 1894. 
seem to to indicate a royal residence in the village 
in ancient times, perhaps for hunting or kraal 
purposes ? , i u- i 
Every one with whom we spoke on the subject 
realized the immense advantage 
KAILWAY COMMUNICATION 
with Colombo would be to the Ohilaw and Puttalani 
districts. No possible system of canal boats or even 
steamers can give such regular and easy trans- 
port ; while if, at the same time, direct communi- 
cation by rail with India were established, the 
advantage would be doubled. There is an im- 
mense local passeugcr as well as goods trafQc 
ready to be thrown on the railway, whenever it 
comes. With the Govoriimeht Agent. Mr. King, we 
did not talk oa this subjeot. He, no doubt, rcgtirds wilh 
favour Extension Norihwsrds Irom Kurunegala ; but 
when ond where are paaRpngPrs and traflic to he 
reached on tha*; r. n'e? 
TEA PLANTING : INDIA f'S. CEYLON. 
• 
We can do no more than direct attention to the very 
long letter of " European Employee " on page 833. 
He makes some points in his oomparisons ; but he 
overlooks a variety of cireumstaDcea which tell 
against his rather extreme views. For instance, 
Indian tea districts are very different in extent to 
what we call a " district " in Ceylon. A District In- 
spector in India might possibly have to travel 
over more ground in actual mileage,— although 
within one large eo-oal.ed district,— than a 
" Visiting Agent " in Cejlon. Besides we 
have always regatded as one of the ad- 
vantages of the latter that he brought 
in new " wrinkles " from other districts, and 
enabled comparisons to be made between the 
working of plantations far separated in situ- 
ation, and yet under very much the same 
conditions. Indian 'lea Companies have all their 
proptrties as a rule in one large district. What 
is said about training " creepers" as engineers and 
only sending them out as required, is more to 
the point. But then Ceylon is not isolated like 
As3am, but is an island and a great centre of 
the Eaf tern World and a great Bohool for tropical 
Qultivators. 
RUBBER CULTIVATION : 
IN THE FAR EAST AND WEST- 
CEYLON LEADING THE WAY IN 
EXPERIMENTAL CULTIVATION. 
The Editor of The India Rubber World — an 
important periodioal published in New York — takes 
a special interest in the oultivalion of rubber- 
yielding treep, and in an editorial note on a 
oommunioation from " Professor Henry Trimen" 
he says : — 
The expsrimenta in rubber-eultuie in Ceylon muet 
be regarded a^ the most important yet made outside 
the natural habitat of the treea here discussed, and 
upon the resulta there attained mnst rest to a large 
degree, the question of the furthec development of 
this indnstry except, as Mr. DeKalb euggeets, in the 
ooun tries where rubber-produoiog plants flourish 
naturally. The Ceylon experiments cannot be said, 
however to have been completed. 
The Editor pays a high compliment to our 
Tropical Agriculturist : — 
One of the most interesting exchanges received at 
this office is I'he Tropical Agriculturist, published a*^' 
Colombo, Ceylon, devoted to fuFormation rfgarding 
products whieh in America are scarcely regarded as 
pertainiDg to egriculture, prominent among them be- 
ing tea, coffee, cocoa, sugar, oinohona, rubber, and 
palms: The publithers of the Agriculturiti loDf have 
been perronslly interested in the derelopment of the 
planting coterprixe in Ceylcn and from tlie beginoing 
they hare regarded rubber as cbg of the products whieh 
might be cultivated with eucoets in tliat colony. Tbey 
liavo appreciated, however the fact that onder aoyeir- 
cuinstancfs a nambcr of years nould be neretsarT 
for making any satiRftctory teft, (cr the reasoD that 
rubber-treea cuonct be tapped before th«y ha»e reached 
Bome debtee of maturity. 
A correspondent (interested in the Para trade 
dcubtlcse) does not oCTer much encouragement to 
rubber cultivation : — 
A BRAZILIAN VIKW OF BCBBKB-CULTl-RE. 
To the Kditorof the Jiulia Rubber World. The argu 
nienth published in favour of rubber tree culiure are 
very plansib'e, but many eeem unatrare ol the fact that 
even the oldest rubber-forests are constantly renewing 
themselves. Worn-out trees are substituted taturally 
by new ones. A proof of this is the conetanlly 
increasing supply of rubbrr from the ctate of Park 
alone, from the some districts. Ktw trees in a few 
years begin to jield rubber, ard, when rarefally taken 
care of, lis in the stare of Far.-i, grow wcn<lerfully, 
yielding year by yrar more rubber. There is about 
ns much probability of rubber giving out in the 
Amazon valley as there is of ctals doing so in 
England. Consequently, there is do need of cul- 
tivating what nature yields so spontaneonaly, 
as was similarly remarked by a gentleman writio(( 
on the subjeot in the last number of The India Rul- 
her World. Better let well enough alone.— M. F. 
Sesselbebg. 
Para, Brazil, Ftbruary 12th 1891. 
But another authority writes very differently: — 
" In spite of frequent discoveries of new reserves, 
which temporarily sustained the usual volume shipped 
to market, it is apparent to any one who bas gone 
beyond the port cities into the wilderneEses of Sooth 
America and Central America that the robber-trees 
are being destroyed at an alarming rate, and that 
the world will feel the shortage ^before many years 
have passed, — in fact before rubber orchards planted 
now will come into service. To .see river after river, 
once occupied by hundreds of rnbbet-cnttera, onoe 
having frequent trading-posts along their banke, but 
now abandoned, tells the tale of exhaustion of the 
rubber-forests in no unmistakable manner. Bach 
year's delay in establiebini; orchards is eodangering the 
future of this industry, and inviting hardibip for the 
governments and people of these rubber-producing 
countries, and the state which offers the earliest and 
most liberal inducements to rubber cultivation will 
witness the most rapid increase of colonization in 
those regions which are today little more than a 
howlipg wilderness, and will enjoy an immensely 
larger measure of prosperity in the future. 
" It is interestine to note that Honduras has recently 
taken this matter in hand, and has attempted to sti- 
mulate rubber-growing by ofiFerirg a cash bounty of 
ten cents per tree to all farmers vho shall set oet 
2,000 trees. This will doubtless prcdace good results 
lo some extent, but it offers no incentive to careful 
cultivation, and protection of the health of the treep. 
— to that Rood husbandry, in short, which is lacking to 
such a serious degree in Spanish America, and par- 
ticularly in those regions where the inhabitants have 
corao to depend largely upon the uncultivated produce 
of the earth. If the rubber-exporting countries of 
Latin America would offer a bounty upon all rubber 
extracted from cultivited crobards, the increase of 
datiable importations aa a result of any exportation s of 
cultivated rubber not only won'd repay the bounty, 
but would mora tban indemnify the government for 
the loss of reveuue from tbe export duties on that 
amouiit of rubber. It would not decrease tbe amounts 
obtained from the wild trees, but would add ju.'t eo 
much wealth to the ration, which does not ezist today, 
and would insu'e a continuous production of the pret- 
c'oui gum, thusogiving rise to a steadily-growing 
commerce that would provide a revenue which could be 
depended upon from year to year." 
