Nov. 1, 1902.] 
THE TROPICAL 
AGMCULTURIBT. 
355 
favourite with bis planters, though it is grown 
freely by the natives along the wayside and 
in small gardens. Mr. Netscher speaks of 
the telephone connecting plantations all over 
Java with the capital and principal towns 
as extremely convenient. He can get 
switched on at the nearest railway station 
with his agent in Batavia over 100 miles 
off, and do business more sa.isfactorily in 
five minutes' conversation than through 
pages of a telegram. At the same time he 
can telegraph from his residence to any 
part of the world. The labour supply is 
no trouble nor difficulty in Javn. 
Mr. Nestcher, who carried a letter of intro- 
duction to the Governor Sir West Ridge- 
way, went first to Kandy and from thence 
made excursion into the planting districts. 
He also visited Nuwara Eliya and Bandara- 
wela and returned to Colombo via the Kelani 
Valley a,nd the Avissawella railway. We 
bespoke courteous attention to this intelligent 
visitor during his stay in our midst. 
EXPERIMENTS WITH AUSTRALIAN 
FODDER GRASS. 
The experiments made at Saharanpur with the 
Australian fodder grass, Puspahim dilatatum, 
did not indicate that the grass possessed any re- 
markable superiority over the best varieties of 
Indian fodder grass, and much the same conclu- 
sion is to be drawn from experiments made in the 
Central Provinces, though there, as at Saha- 
ranpur, it is considered necessary that further 
experiments .should be tried before ci definite 
opinion is pronounced. So far as the experi- 
ments have gone, they show that the yield of 
the new fodder grass is smaller than that of the 
local grasses, but the quality is much better. 
Though pioteeted from grazing the plants died, 
unless irrigated after producing one crop. The 
grass failed to show any special drought resist- 
ing properties ; in fact it dried up earlier than 
the local varieties. It did better on heavy black 
soil than on dry stony land, but did not spiead 
and multiply as dub grass does. It fa)'''d to 
justify its reputation as a strong pushing variety 
able to oust weeds and other grasses ; indeed, 
it was found necessary to weed it, to prevent 
its being smothered and overgrown. — Madras 
Mail, Sept. 2. 
« 
ADULTERATING RUBBER. 
According to a Foreign Office report from onr 
Consul at Dakar a crisis was due to the fall in the 
price of rubber, which, while it affected all the 
rubber-producing countries, was specially felt 
in French Gainea, eight-tenths of whose ex- 
ports consist of that article. In addition, there 
were special reasons which caused the colony to 
suffer. Having been a rubber-producing country for 
many years, the wines owing to wasteful methods 
j of tapping them, had become comparatively scarce, 
and in order to increase the quantity of rubber for 
j Bale, the natives adulterated it in various ways. 
The merchants, anxious to profit by the high market, 
{ accepted the bales without examination, with the 
reBult that the rubber bought from the natives during 
i the season 1899-1900 contaiued as much as 25 per 
cent of impurities. The home markets, who could 
obtain rubber of a much higher quality from other 
Bouroes, refused to buy the Guinea rubber, which 
^liaa {emaiaed on the hands of lihe marghaiuts, 
who in many cases were compelled to sell at a loss. So 
as to improve the qaality of Guinea rubber, a decree 
was issued in M;iy, 1900, forbidding the sale of 
rubber in unopened bales. This has already bad a 
good effect, as the natives, tiudiug they were certain 
of detection, ceased adding foreign matter, but as the 
method of coagulating the rubber in calabashes or- 
dinarily employed by the natives made it diifloult to 
detect adulteration with resins, a further decree was 
issued to the effect that, dating from the wet 
season of 1901, the only rubber allowed to be ex- 
ported would be that prepared by the Foulah 
method, in red filaments, which was found to be 
the only one which permitted the detection of resinous 
adulteration. Palm kernels were usually mixed with 
about 30 per cent of shell. By a deoreo of February 
1, 1901, the exportation was prohibited if the kernels 
contained more than. 5 per cent of foreign bodies. 
— ^> 
CACAO-PLANTING IN SAMOA 
AND FIJI 
is fully discussed in Australian and Fiji 
papers to hand, and we shall quote 
interesting details to embody in our Tropical 
Agi iculturint. Meantime we may state that 
Mr. F. Uarman, Manager for an English 
Company with a capital of £10,000 to open 
500 acres in cacao, speaks well of the German 
Government in Samoa. He has a plantation 
of 1,000 acres with good soil and in five 
years his cacao comes into full bearing at an 
outlay from of £20 to £25 an acre, including 
buildings, &c., while the crop is then, equal 
to 9 cwt. an acre of dried (prepared) cocoa, 
selling at 8d a ib. in Sydney and giving 6d 
nett to the planter or £25 an acre, equal to 
100 per cent! Credat Judasus ! Leases of 
land are to be had at 2s to 3s per acre per 
annum in Samoa, Powell Bros, of Fiji, criti- 
cise Mr. Harman's figures ; but with still more 
surprising statements. Sainoan land they say 
is rugged with heavy timber and exceedingly 
difficult to work; labour will be an in- 
creasing difficulty ; no crop can be grown 
between the young cacao ; and the £20 to 
£25 outlay is contrasted with £12 to £15 in 
Trinidad ; while in Fiji ci'ops worth £30 an 
acre are groivn between ana, before the cacao 
bears ! Powell Bros, do not go further to 
tell us what the Fiji cacao crops and net 
returns are ; but tney leave us to infer 
they are quite as good as those of Samoa. 
Why, oh why then, did Ceylon planters ever 
give up Fiji — some alter many years of a 
trial ? ! Nothing is said about hurricanes or 
other possible drawbacks. 
TREE AND LEAF GROWTH IN CEYLON 
The following is an abstract of the paper 
read at the British Association, Belfast, on 
Foliar Periodicity in Ceylon, by Mr. Herbert 
Wright of the Gangaruwa Experimental 
(rarden :— 
The high temperature and humidity of the air ia 
most pares of Ceylon allow almost continuous 
gcowth of the arborescent vegetation. There are, 
however, nearly two hundred species which become 
leafless at different times of the year, 
External and interaal factors aflect t!ie pheno- 
mena of defoliation and foliar r^uewal. Tlie climatic 
effect is obviou'3 from the fact Chat the nnjority 
