bcT. 1, 1900.] 
THE TROPICAL AG illCULTURIST. 
261 
FKUIT GROWING IN LOWER 
AMBAGAMUWA. 
Ainbagamuwa, Sept. 5. 
Dkar Sir,— I think it may surprise a good 
many that lowcouiitry fruits can be successfully 
grown at this elevation. On this estate, when I 
came to permanently take up my residence in 1889, 
I planted the following fruit trees :— jMango- 
steens 12 plants, 9 now growing, 2 bearing ; 
Ceylon plums (Uguressa), planted 4 dozen, 2 grow- 
ing and in full bearing ; lovi-lovi, 2 planted, 
1 in full bearing ; rambutans, 2 dozen planted, 
about 1 dozen growing, 4 in bearing ; num- 
nnm, 2 planted, one alive and in bearing ; 
billingberries, 2 planted, both growing and 
in bearing; breadfruit, 4 planted, all growing 
and bearing profusely ; loquats, 4 planted, 8 
growing and in bearing ; jamboos and rose apples, 
2, of each in bearing ; oranges and nianriarin 
oranges, a good many, all in bearing. I have even 
successfully grown peaches, two are thriving, one 
in bearing. Limes growing almost wild, cropping 
very heavily. Soursops on this estate and ponie- 
Ics or shaddocks go to feed even the coolies. 
Coconuts I planted about .SOO and have about 
160 growing luxuriantly ; two trees have borne 
this year. Thus you will see, sir, that Ceylon 
fruit, with care, can be successfully grown any- 
where in Ceylon, save and except, I suppose, 
over an elevation of about 3,500 feet. Even 
this I would question. 
I am sending you 1 mangosteen, 1 loquat, 1 
num-num and some Ceylon plums and rambu- 
tans, the fruit now in season at this "packum." 
You will, perhaps, find the fruit not quite of 
such a flavour as the' same fruit grown in the 
lowcountry, but I think you will say " They 
are not so bad." Your contemporaries would 
do well to copy this letter for the benefit of 
their readers. — Yours truly, 
ADAM. 
[The fruit sent to us look very well-grown, 
indeed, and are not without flavour, some being 
very good, the mangosteen and plums 
especially. This goes to show that every estate 
in the country ought to have a trait garden of 
some kind ; for, undoubtedly, there are fruit- 
trees suited to each elevation from Colombo up 
to New (ialway, where Mr. Kellow has done so 
luuch ; and to Nuwara Eliya, where Mr. John 
Cotton's growth of plums and strawberries is 
quite wonderful.— Ed. T.A,] 
RUBBER IN SOUTH AMERICA AND 
IN CEYLON, &C. 
September 9th. 
Deae Sir, — I enclose an extract from The 
Field of 2l8t July last. The last sentence of 
the extract appears worthy of correction. — "Vours 
faithfully, ' PLANTER. 
[The extract is as follows : — 
The recent Coufiular Report on the great interior 
district of Brazil knov\n as the State of Amazonas, 
presents itself rather as a description of the country 
from the pea of an observant traveller than aa the 
list, of exports and imports which constitutes the 
nana! contribution to literature of Her Majesty's re- 
presentative iti foreign lands. Ten or twelve pages 
are devoted to an acooimt of the rubbert,. industry 
alone. Of late, the enormous consumption of this 
article in the manufacture of bicycle tyres has 
created w ever-increasing demand, and although the 
supply from the Amazon valley has trebled in the 
last ten years, the former average price of 23 6d. 
per pound has now increased to as much as 4s 6d. . 
The total world's output is from 120 to 130 million 
pounds, of the value oi fifteen million sterling, and 
of this the Amazons supply not luuch less than half, 
though the crop obtained from East and West Africa 
is not far hehind. A little comes from Malaysia, 
Madagascar, and Mauriiius, and still less— some 500 
tons — from India and Ceylon, but South America is 
not only first in quantity, but in quality. The low- 
lying land chietly affected by the rubber-yielding 
trees is completely submerged in the rainy season, 
which lasts from January to July, so that collecting 
is only posBible during the last five months of the 
year. The trees yielding the latex are the Manihot 
Glaziovii, chiefly worked in Ceara, Hancornia speciosa 
the mangabeira of the natives, which is beginning 
to give results in Maranhao, and Hevea htasiliensis. 
The latter, however, is infinitely the most important, 
the bulk of the caoutchouc being obtained from it. 
It is, nevertheless, by no means common in the forests, 
an average of one tree only to every two acres being 
good ground. The yield of each tree when worked 
under satisfactory conditions is not more than from 
i2 lb. to 3 1b., but though a rest is from time to time 
necessary, the latex may be drawn for many years 
without causing the trees to perish, as has been , 
generally supposed. It is therefore improbable that 
the available supply of rubber will be exhausted in 
the near future, and, owing to the enormous area 
over which the tree is found, much of which still 
remains to be exploited, it is unlikely that the in- 
dustry wiil fall off. At the same time, however, 
attempts to cultivate the tree from seed in Africa 
and Ceylon have not hitherto been successful. 
We take to ourselves blame for not correcting 
The Field long ago. It is quite a mistake to . 
say that the experiments in Ceylon to grow 
rubber trees (Para especially) from seed have 
not been successful. Only the other day a 
small consignment of Para rubber taken from 
trees in Ceylon realized in London 3s 72d a lb. 
and we hope to see the export increasing year 
by year how.— Ed, T.A.'] 
TEA FREIGHT TO AUSTRALIA. 
Colombo, Sept. 17. 
Dear Sir, — The accompanying letter, addressed,,, 
to the Vice-Chairman of the Chamber of Coni-!.i 
merce, should be of general interest to both ;f 
growers and dealers in Tea, and I send it to you' ■ 
for publication should you care to insert it. — I am, ; 
dear sir, yours faitlifitlly, 
H. WALTHEW. ' 
R50 PER TON FREIGHT TO AUSTRALIA ' 
FOR TEA. 
Colombo, Sept, 17, 1900. ,' 
To the Vice-Chairman, The Ceylon Chamber of 
Commerce, Colombo. 
Dear Sir, — There has practically been a tacit con- 
tract between shippers to Australia and the mail 
steamers that freight should be paid and received at 
E40 per ton, and although all shippers know the rate 
to be excessive, they have paid it without a murmur 
or agitation, feeling that the advantages of a regular 
mail service compensated largely for this exorbitant 
charge. Shippers have borne without serious protest 
the curtailment of space to a point which has practi- 
cally starved the Australian Markets and permitted 
other growths (to the incalculable injury of the Ceylon 
Tea Industry) to find a Market in Australia which 
they never would have done, if freight space had been 
plentiful at a time when Australia was starving for 
the produce of our Island. The mail steftmers, 
