263 
TfiE TEOPiCAh AGRICULTURIST, fOoT. 1,1902* 
India Rubbek.— The India Rubber Industry 
is one of the most remunerative in Russia, 
and is conducted by wealthy companies. British 
dealers in the product should bear this in mind 
and aflford every facility to purchasers of the 
commodity in question. — Board of Trade Journal, 
A.ug. 14, 
KUBBEB IN THE STRAITS.— We are much 
indebted to Mr, P Pears for his letter in 
correction of our estimate of the area under 
rubber in Johore, which he would raise 
from 200 to at least 1,000 acres. We had 
Jess information about Johore than any 
other division of the Straits ; but we 
would like to hear from residents in the 
other States as to our figures, which ran as 
high as 2,926 acres for Selangor. 
Tea Growing in America. —America 
persists in her attempts to grow tea. Ac- 
cording to the Am.erican Grocer of the 30th 
July "Texas is to have a tea farm at Port 
Lavaca. A start has been made with 500 
plants. This is in line with similar experi- 
ments made fifty yeax-s ago." In the same 
journal we read the following: — "Sinko 
Hatto, on behalf of Japan's tea interest, has 
been appointed by his Government to make 
a thorough study of the tea-growing con- 
ditions in South Carolina." 
The Mungpo Cinchona Plantation.— Dr. 
Stuhlmann, Director of Agriculture in German 
East Africa, has reported upon various Indian pro- 
ducts ; among others upon Cinchona. As he says, 
the bark is chiefly cultivated by the Government. 
He deals specially with the Mungpo plantation, 
near Darjeeling, where an area of 40,000 acres is 
reserved. About 200 acres are planted with cin- 
chona every year, so that about 1,500 acres are 
always occupied by this product, the trees being 
only maintained for about eight years, then rooted 
out and the ground left to rest. One plot has, says 
Dr. Stuhlmann, been resting for 15 years ajter pro- 
ducing a crop of Cinchona succirubrai and it will 
still be necessary to manure with bone dust before 
planting Ledgiriana, Wherever the soil is suit- 
able Calisaya, var. Ledgeriana, is preferred but 
ib requires good drainage. Officinalis does not 
succeed at Mungpo. — Planting Opinion, Aug. 23, 
Bananas — are now-a-days quite common objects 
of merchandise, and to a certain extent the 
banana peel has ousted the no less dangerous 
orange peel as a trap for the unwary in the London 
streets, but now the fruit will probably become 
even more common, for an agreement of consider- 
able importance to Jamaica has just been entered 
into between Messrs. Elder, Dempster & Co. 
(Imperial West India Mail Service) and the United 
Fruit Company of Boston. The Direct Mail 
Company are under contract with the Government 
to run a fortnightly service of steamers, and to bring 
over from Jamaica 20,000 bunches of bananas by 
every steamer. Sir Alfred Jones has all alopg 
been anxious to make the service a weekly one, 
but the supply of fruit on the south side of the 
island was insufficient. This difficulty has been 
overcome by the agreement with the United Fruit 
Company, which does most of its own fruit farming, 
aiid undertakes to supply the extra steamers of 
the British line, which are to run from the northern 
Bide of the ielaud to Mauchester.— Grocers' «7owr««^, 
A New Weed-cutting Machine.— A 
Ceylun official is good enough to send us 
the extract from The Field on this subject 
which we reproduce elsewhere and to ask: — 
"Would not this be worth trying on the 
Colombo Lake ? " — We commend the extract 
to the attention of the Chairman and Mem- 
bers of the Colombo and Kandy Municipal 
Councils— and also of the Local Board, Nuwara 
Bliya, where Lake Gregory is being steadily 
encroached on by vegetable growth, weeds, 
rushes, &Ci 
Java Tea. — As foreshadowed in the British 
Consular report for 1900 the season's production of 
Java tea in 1901 exceeded any of its prodecessors. 
The bulk was almost entirely shipped to Holland 
and London, though regular small parcels of speci- 
ally prepared tea were forwarded to ports in the 
Persian Gulf. Attempts are being made bj Java 
planters to prepare their tea in tabloid form, which 
is considered in some quarters to be most suitable 
for the markets in Russia. Statistics of Exports 
for the last four years are as follows : — 
1898 .. 12,110,724 1b. 
1899 .. 12,841,702 1b. 
1900 ... 15,406,984 lb. 
1901 ... 16,750,872 lb. 
Plmting Opinion, Aug. 23. 
Destruction of Pests.— There has just been 
issued from the Agricultural Department at Ottawa 
a valuable pamphlet whose title runs thus : — 
"Agricultural College, Bulletin No. 122. Spray 
Calendar — directions for treatment of insect pests 
and plant diseases. By W Lockhead, Professor of 
Biology and Geology, Orleans Agricultural College, 
Guelph. 1. Thorough intelligent spraying pays; 
2. Spraying is a insurance ; 3. Clear up refuse, 
gather up fallen leaves and fruit in the fall and 
burn them ; 4. Protect birds and beneficial insects. 
Published by tho Ontario Department of Agri- 
culture, Toronto." There are a large number of 
recipes for " extirpation," with instructions of the 
mixing of ingredients, and notes as to how and 
when to apply them to the affected trees, vege- 
tables, &c. Altogether it is a little work of great 
value to the market gardener and private grower. 
Such a work must spare the " Inquiry Department" 
at Ottawa much work and save mucli time just 
when a loss would be of importance. For such a 
work a large sale might be guaranteed in this 
country. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 
Improvement in Coconut Culture.— An 
old resident writes : — 
" It would seem that the coconut does not admit 
of exploitation to any great extent — being indige- 
nous and apparently unimprovable by pruning 
and grafting. "Selection" of seed, or "fertilizing 
flowers to that end, might do something, bub 
lite is short — and a coconut tree is not a goose" 
berry bush ! " 
Careful selection of fully-grown, ripe nuts 
from a good district for the nursery is the 
only precaution we have heard of. It might 
be well to experiment in Ceylon with seed- 
nuts from the Straits or Java. Decandolle 
puts the Eastern Archipelago, extending 
up to Sumatra, as the original habitat of the 
coconut palm, from whence the nuts floated 
away both to Eastern and Western shores. 
Experiments in fertilising flowers ought to 
be tried in the Heneratgoda Gardens, if 
deemed of sufficient importance. What do 
Messrs. Lamont, Jardine and, ^Vy.jJJL Wright 
say to this idea ?— Ed, 2'.4.J i r^^ 
