Nov. 1, lOO-l] tHK TROPICAL AGPJCUi JHIRIST. 
COFFEE AND RUBBER. 
A writer of Planting notes in the Madras Mail 
Sept. loth says; — Advices from Lonilon as reg.'uds 
the state ot tlie coffee market are measure in the 
extreme. While stoclcs of course still remain 
higl), deliveiies in London are very much loss than 
at the same time durins; the last fewyears. Mean- 
wliile, the price for rubber is risinn; steadily and 
there i« little doubt tliat there will be a great 
and increasing market for it for many years to 
come. The uses for rubber have increased so 
"really in the last few years, — and the industries 
for which rubber is so indi^'pensable are all thone 
with great; futures before ti em — that there is 
nvery probability that the demand will ere long 
exceed the supply. Rubber of one kind or another 
— and the name of rubber-yielding plants is legion 
— will thrive almost anywliere in the tropics. 
But, it may be alleged, the areas of indigenous 
rubber forests now in full bearing are so vast as to 
make one doubt if the supply from them could 
ever fail. There is certainly no denying that 
there are prodigious forests of these trees ; but at 
the i«ame time one must bear in mind that the 
methods of extraction in many of these places are 
most crude and destructive, and the methods em- 
ployed leave the jungle a useless and barren waste. 
Tlii* reckless destruction is bound to tell before 
long, with the world's consumption increasing as 
ripidly as at present. On the other hand, there 
is a talk of artificial rubbeis, not of one but ot 
many, and with the example of the indigo planters 
before lliem coffee planters may well hesitate 
before running their heads into a similar noose. 
I have been led to make these remarks on rubber 
in connection with coffee owing to something I 
read in the Report for 1901 of the United Planters' 
Association of the Federated Malay Slates. This 
say* that a good deal of coffee was planted in 1901 
mostly in conjunction with Para rubber, and that 
the cultivation of it (the coffee) has been well 
maintained and the quality improved. This will 
be news indeed to planters in Southern India, 
both on the score that rubber growing among coffee 
does it no harm,— Para rubber, that is to say, for 
Gstta Rembong (^"-10148 elastica) is acknowledged 
to be prejudicial to coffee,— and secondly, that 
it even improves the quality of the coffee produced. 
Nor does this seem unreasonable when one con- 
siders how very much pi inters depend for their 
shade on the ficus species— the atti or ficus 
glomerata being the most favoured of all, — and 
that trees of the ficios tribe all produce milk from 
which rubber of a sort may be made. The Hevea 
Bmmiliensis or Para rubber is expected to yield 
in four to five years about 6oz. of dry rubber per 
tree, and some six year old trees have yielded 
over lib. at their first tapping. This is in the 
Federated Malay States of Peiak, Selangor and 
Negri Sembilan. And Para rubber is selling ab 
Home now at 3< 4d per lb. From two 19 year old 
trees of Ficus elastica in Perak I learn that 25ro 
of rubber was extracted per tree in one year. 
« 
THE MADRAS GOVERNMENT CINCHONA 
PLANTATIONS. 
Tlie Report of the Administration of the Govern- 
ment Cinchona Department, togellier with the 
Gorernment Order thereon, have just been 
published. Mr Guorwe Romilly, the officiating 
Director, in issuing the Report, recalls to mind 
that he only took over charge of the Department 
five days bsforc the end of the official year 1901 02, 
and that he was consequently in charge for that 
time only of the year under review. However, 
the Report has been prepared on the lines hitherto 
adopted and, in the words of the Government 
Order, is clear and concise. The year seems to 
have a successful and fortunate one in every way. 
Not only was the season favourable on all the 
estates — the rainfall being ample and well- 
distributed— but the quantity of quinine distri- 
buted was the largest on record, viz., 11,978J lb. 
The installation of new machinery was the feature 
of the year. By means of it the bark is dealt with 
by the shale oil process inste:'d of with the fusel 
oil in use before. But it was soon found that the 
machinery w.as in some respects defective and the 
results unsatisfactory. It M-as not till steam coils 
had been inserted in the extractors for the purpose 
of he.a;i ig the shale oil that the full return 
of alkaloids- was obtained. The machinery 
itself was not in full working order until 
November, but from then till the end of the 
year work progressed steadily and satisfactorily. 
The bark worked up was, however, of im inferior 
quality, so that, as the Government Order says: — 
" In the circumstances, the year's work cannot 
either in point of quantity or of cost be taken 
as a criterion of tlie efficiency of the factory." 
The total area under cultivation is 1,071t,- acres, 
of which 831i^ acres are old, the remainder being 
composed of three extensions. The expenditure 
on the upkeep of the total acreage, including 
the charges of the head office, works out 
at R47-10 per acre. The total expenditure was 
Rl, 30,051. Of plantations was R58,938-13-l, and 
the expenditure in the purchase of bark and on 
manufacturinganddistributingcharges was R71,lo2- 
9. Excepting on one estate— Hooker — where the 
trees died out in considerable numbers, the plant- 
ations thrived in the year under review. The 
year's crop amounted to 154,0-14 lb, of crown and 
hybrid bark, but the annual yield required 
from the existinsx plantations has been fixed for 
the present at .3,000 lb. of manufactured quinine, 
and this amount is represented by 85,750 lb. of 
bark of per cent, quality. This has led Gov- 
ernmenc to state in its Order that it would be 
glad to have the Director's assurance that the 
plantations have not been overworked, and it 
draws attention to the importance of maintaining 
the plantations as a reserve against the contin- 
gency of the market price rising. Some import- 
ant scientilic experiments were made on the 
Doddabatta estate during the past year. Samples 
of bark were taken from 38 trees selected at 
random, but large and well grown ones, and 
their bark was analysed. The results in some 
cases were extraordinary, some samples giving as 
much as 13'90 per cent, ot sulphate of quinine — a 
percentage which is probably unequalled by 
Cinchona officinalis anywhere. At present rates 
the value of an acre of trees giving bark containing 
10 per cent sulphate of quinine, would be approxi- 
mately R18,7.50. Further experiments are to be 
continued in the coming year, and seed from these 
good-caste trees will be carefully selected, sown and 
their produce tested. If the desceadanis of the 
parent trees prove equally ricii in quinine, and 
fields can be grown giving an average of this 10 
per cent bark, the poorer barks can be gradually 
eliminated and neg'ecie I. The extreme richness 
of certain of these samples augurs well for the 
success on the Nilgiris of the .lystem of propaga- 
