660 
THB TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April" 3, 1900. 
was £5 4?. per ton in the field ; the price paid f or 
Btripping was £1 53. per ton, which inohuled cutting 
the trees down and packing them in heaps; the 
landowner receiving £i per ton clear, eqnal to £1G 
per acre. The land wa.s of poor quality, being very 
stony and sandy. During the past ten years he had 
experimented in wattle growing in this district, and 
prOTed that they can be grown on almost any land 
that is over 3 feet above the level of the winter 
flood waterp. A few months ago he stripped a 
watt'e seven years old that gave over 1 cwt. of bark 
fit for market. Trees of that size standing 20 feet 
s.nart each way would give ov»r 5 tons per acre. 
That trees was grown on a limestone ridge (red soil), 
aid he had them of nearly equal growth on the fern 
hills (white sand). As there are thousands of acres 
of open fern land in that district almost useless for 
grazing, and eminently suited for wattle-growing, he 
would strongly urge leaseholders to give that industry 
ft trial. Such land is leased at from Id. to 2d. an 
acre annually. About four years ago he planted I 
acre of forn land, and now estimates the wattles on 
it to be worth £8 to 10. Although the wattle has 
never been systematically cultiv»ted at Mount Ben- 
son, in the Kingston district, still it grows there 
over a considerable area, and last season no le»s 
than 1,200 tons of bark were stripped and send to 
market, the price received ranging from JI3 to 
£4 per ton; and as stripping oost« Jtl per ton, it 
means £1,2(10 bping distributed amongst the labour- 
ing classes of the district, and about £3, .'500 amongsk 
the landholders and teamsters. The bark grown at 
Mount Benson is deficient in tannic acid, consequently 
a lower price has to be taken. Where only a small 
ftrea is to ba planted, he found the following a good 
plan : —Commence at one side of the field, using a 
double-furrow plough, strike out the length of the 
piece to be planted, then mark out back again 
paralled with the first furrows and about 8 feet away 
from them, and so on through the field. Then take 
1 lb. of good seed for each acre, place in a vessel 
and cover with boiling water, and allow them to 
soak for twenty-four hours, then drop them regularly 
along the ploughed stripes and cover with a harrow. 
The next year it will be necessary to thin out the 
plants in the rows to the required distance. Where 
large areas are to be cultivated it would save time 
and labour to have a box fitted to the back of the 
E lough with a roller through it, and worked by a 
elt which the near wheel, and so mide to drop a 
seed or two at each revohition, and a small harrow 
attached would complete the planting in one oper- 
ation. One team should do 8 acres a day. About 
every 5 chains it is advisable to leave a strip 16 
feet 'wide unplanted for the purpose of drawing fur. 
rows in summer to check a possible fire, and later 
on as a roadway for carting out the bark. He could 
not recommend broadcast sowing, SB there is so 
much more labour in ploughing all the land, and 
the work of thinning out the young plants is very much 
greater. He would strongly advise that only seed 
of the true broad-leaf wattle should ba planted, as 
it is doubtful whether it will pay to grow any other 
variety, the bark of which will be worth quite 20 
per cent. less. Horses nTiy hi allowed the free ran 
of a wattle paddock, but cattle should be kept out 
altogether, and sheep should not be allow in until 
the tops of the plants are out of reach, as they 
are very fond of the young shoots. He felt certain 
that if the bark had no market value it would psy 
well to plough fern hills, and sow 3 or 4 lb. of seed per 
acre broadcftst, snd keep all stock out for three 
years, by which time the wattles would provide a 
very largo amount of feed for either cattle or sheep. 
DOBBIU'a WATTLE-BARKING MACHINE. 
This lutely invented machine readily stripes the 
trees close up to tire leaves far higher than could 
be stripped by hand. The speedy operation of the 
machine shows to special advantage on wattles from 
tha thickneHB of walking-stick* up to 3 inches in 
^iftweter, indicating that where the crops gf wftt^les 
were so abundant as to require thinning out, and 
were too small to strip by hand. It would piy to 
use the machine. It has been regarded aa tjeing 
quite evident that the machine wouid reduce t ie cost 
of stripping by at least 25 per cent. Moreover, by 
using the implement, stripping could b' commenced 
much eailie:' and carried on much la' er in the f e if oa 
than is pos.-3ib':o by hand. The niaihine itse'f has 
the appearance of a substantial roller mani;>, the 
rollers being either metal or coveied with metal. 
One mm can carry out the wh^jle of the operations ; 
but it would apparently be still greater economy for 
two or even four men or boys to operate in con- 
juction with one another. In using the machine the 
wattles pass between the revolving rol'ers, thus re- 
ceiving pressure upon two sides, which cuts top and 
bottom, and causes the bark to fpring from the 
complete circle of the stem in two halves. It would 
appear from this ih%- a very valuable addition has 
been made to the wattle-bark industry.— Qiiecndand 
Affiicullin-al Journal. 
INDIAKUBBER CULTIVATION. 
BY SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE. 
Malaya is the peculiir liome and habitat of the 
guttapercha tree, but of late the cultivation of the 
Indian rubber tree has been recommended, and in 
parts even taken up by cur planters. We need not 
go into the chemistry of the composition of the two 
substances, gutla and caoutchouc, but we may observe 
that the former tree i-i of slov.' growth and cannot 
be tapped in the way as riibber tree?, owing to 
their havir.g clo=ed sacs, and not communicating 
tubes, containing the Jatcx, and hence have to be 
almost destroyed or cut down to get at the commer- 
cial sap. Their natural order in liotany, too, is 
different from those trees which yield caoutchouc. 
Caoutchouc, or the true India rubber, is found in a 
number of orders, as the Moracete, Apocjnaceae, and 
EuphorbiaceJE. Some of these grow into magnificent 
trees, and others are mere climbers and vines. All 
these have the latex-holding tubis in the inner 
bark, some communicating with one e.nother more 
freely than others and some yielding more than 
others. Of those, however, which have hitherto 
mostly entered into commerce, or which have hitherto 
yielded the most caoutchouc, only four varieties may 
be noted : the Casfilioa, or panama rubber, the para 
rubber or Uevea hrasiliensis. the ceara rubber or 
Manihot qlci-dovie, and the Assam rubber or Ficut 
elastica. Of these four, the two last may be neg- 
lected by us, as the ceara rubber tree does not 
seem to thrive in Ceylon, nor produce much, and 
the other, or Assam rubber, though it thrives, gives 
only a small yield. At the same time, it ought to 
be mentioned for both that a machine lately invented 
by Mr. Biffen, of Cambridge University^ so does 
away with the labour and processes needful to se- 
parate and consolidate the rnbber from the latex as 
to obviate the defect of small yield to a consider- 
able degree; and it ought to be mentioned, for 
Assam rnbber, that it is — possibly only in shallow 
soils — a great surface feeder, with great roots run- 
ning in all directions for great distances half above- 
ground, and that all these roots, like some African 
varieties, yield the rubber. And for this reason, as 
well as that the tree thrives here, and we believe 
has already been begun to be cultivated, we may 
append two notes regarding it that may prove useful 
for planters. The first is that in congenial leaf- 
mould, shaded forest-.=oil in which there is a super- 
abundance of nroistnre, any branch or twig simply 
cut down and thrown about will take root. The other 
is that the seeds, which should be fresh, should be 
sown in sheltered boxes or pots during the wet 
weather, the soil being composed of one part of half- 
and-quarter-inch brick pieces, one part of half- 
inch charcoal, and one part leaf-mould with a little 
dry cow-dung well ground; this last for top-dreasing. 
The watering should be carefully managed, other- 
wise the seed and seedlings are rooted out and waehetl 
