March 2, 1903.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
591 
areas of these trees are prowiog on the Purus and 
Acre Rivers and other tributaries of the Upper Amazon 
Kiver. "The method of bleeding the balata tree is 
entirely different from that used to extract the gum 
of the rubber tree, and only experienced and expert 
bleeders can be employed. But on the other hand, 
these trees yield many times as much sap as the 
rubber trees, and one man can easily produce as 
many kilograms of gutta percha in a cay as 20 men 
can extract of rubber. The trees will aveiage 3k lb. 
gutta-pprcha each, and a competent bleeder can 
prepare -10 to 50 lb. per day. The gum is first fei" 
ireuted and then dried in the sun, after which it is 
ready for shipment. "I am surprised to find that 
this valuable gum, which is so easy of access and 
so cheaply prepared for maiket has never become 
known to the tra^le here. Many great fortunes have 
been made in Guiana from this trade, and I believe 
the time is now ripe for capital to develop the 
trade here. I found the Braziliiins cutting down these 
valuable trees for firewood and building material 
being ignorant of their true properties. " Conces- 
sions of balata fields of any extent can readily be 
secured from the Brazilian Government, and private 
balata lands can be purchased for a fair pric?. lb 
only requires some capital and practical knowledee 
of the business to develop one of the greatest industries 
in Brazil." — Board of Trade Journal. 
— « 
DIEBACK IN COCOA. 
It is a very general belief that the alluvial soils 
along river banks form the very finest areas for the 
cultivation of cocoa. This is as a rule true, but there 
may be certain exceptions not generally taken into 
ascnunt, and the rule that wherever bananas grow very 
easily the same soil is good fo"- cocoa is not an ab-olute 
rule at all. They require the same conditions of 
climate and soil, ijut cocoa requires more; it should 
have a deep soil. The banana is a surface feeder, and 
an alluvium three feet deep, provided there is gravel 
and free drainge below will suit excelltntly, whereas 
clay below does not suit it so well, necessitating 
elaborate drainage, while on the contrary cocoa does not 
so much mind a clay below so long as it is not sour 
but objects more to a gravel. There are some sub-soil 
to loamy alluvium that are clays ; the cocoa thrives 
there well; other subsoils are sand the cocoa does 
not obj-ct ; others are graveis but with plenty of 
ear th, that is a yravelly earth . the cocoa stands this 
but when thtve is a bed of pure gravel below, the 
taproot of the cocoa finds it objectionable, stops 
growing and dies back, when the top of the trees 
respond by dymg back too. On inspecting a place 
whereon to grow cocoa, the sub-soil should be a subject 
of close examination. Another cau?e of dieback besides 
the existence of a coarse gravel below, is the too close 
proximity of vigorous growing bananas. Deep shade 
is beneficial to young cocoa, but when the plants are 
well established which is at a year old, it does not do 
to have them surrounded by dense walls of bananas 
with the soilcrowded with their vigorous greedy roots. 
The young cocoa, with its taproot striking downward 
has not many superficial feeders like coffee or oranges, 
it cannot make a good fight for itself and is often 
starved. In old banana plantations where there is a 
la ge growili and cocoa is to be planted, it is a good 
plan to ijlant the cocoa in the line of tlie bananas 
and re plant the bananas between the old rows 
when ttie cocoa is two years old, At any rate the 
cocoa must have light and air, but not direct sunshine 
above, and plenty of room without severe com- 
petition to feed on thi^ soil brlow. When cocoa trees 
begin to die back, it often enables them to overcome 
their weakness by cutting back slightly, and fertilising. 
This encourages the making of mora lateral roots 
which thus give larger feeding powers. — Journal of 
the Jamaica AgriciiUtiral Society, 
THE GARDENERS WIL. 
Wauken, my muse ! yer loodest wail, 
Lend to proclaim the waefu' tale, 
O' a' the ills that do assail 
The gairdener's occupation. 
If ere by chance ye meet a chiel, 
Wi' careworn face an' een that reel, 
An' doonbent head, then mark him weel — 
His wark is cultivation. 
Auld Milton said — T have heard tell 
When Adam's curses caoi' pell mell, 
That maistly on the gi'ound they fell, 
Ai aff his head they glinted. 
I weel believe't ; the son o' toil, 
Wba's lot hae fa'en to till the soil, 
For want o' care will never spoil — 
His sorrow's never stinted, 
Lang syne, when Adam sawed his seeds, 
Ere he began his evil dt-eds, 
He ne'er was bathered pu'in' weeds — 
Sae says the auld narrator. 
But noo, as sune's we tak'a spade, 
An' get oor bit o' g^irden made, 
Gaints ns we quickly find arrayed 
The very pooers o' natar'. 
If even the seasons had the grace 
To come in turn an' keep their plac», 
We wadna' hae sae much to face, 
Nor view wi' consternation 
In summer, when we look for heat, 
We're cursed wi' shooers o' hail an sleet ; 
An' autumn's early frosts complete 
The work o' devastation. 
The rain has ruined oor crap o' Peas 
The blight has spoilt oor Aipple trees, 
Oor grozers covered wi' grem flees ; 
An' then the festive snailes 
Did quickly seal oor Cabbages doom , 
Sma' wonner iho' we fret an' fume 
To see oor best Chrysihan'mum bloom 
Nabbed by the forky-tailies.' 
Oor foes are mair than mind can grasp — 
The grub the weev'l, bug, an wasp, 
Worms for the Carrot an' the Rasp — 
In truth their name is legion. 
But, faith, I'll shak' the gairden mud 
Frae aff my feet afore I'm wud. 
An' quickly pack ilk stick an dud, 
An' try some ither region. 
Eorlus, in the " People's Journal" N.B, 
THE5 USEFUL TAMARISK: 
Our readers, who chiefly know Tamarisk as a 
valuable seaside plant, will be interested in the fol- 
lowing account, quoted in a recent number of the 
Afiricnllural Gazzette of New South Wales, of the 
usefulness of the Tamarisk as mentioned by Dr. 
Seven Hedin in his work Through Asia. The latter 
author says that in his journey across the terrible 
sandy desert of Takla-Makan, the last vegetation he 
saw — that is the plants which enroached the furthest 
into the desert— were the Tamarisk bushes ; and the 
first he met with again, after passing through the 
worst of the desert, were the 'I'amarisk bufhes. 
" We were now " he writes, " entirely amongst the 
sand. The last of the Tamarisks which still defied the 
visitation of death was left behind. There was not a 
blade, not a leaf to be seen, nothing but sand, sand, 
satid — fine yellow sand, whole mountains of it stretching 
over boundless spaces as far aa the eye, with the field- 
• Earwigs. 
