Apbil 2, 1900.1 THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
661 
away. Hence the necessity of keeping them under 
Bhefter from heavy rains. Tlie boxes and pots should 
receive some lisht, and should nevai- be allowed to 
get quite dry; From the^e nurseries the plants should 
be potted out singly when sufficiently high. There 
remain, thus, only two varieties, the Castilloa or 
Paiiaiua rubber and the Uevea Brazilicusis or para 
rubber; to which we mp..y confine our remarks, And 
here it m?.y bs observed that only till within three 
or four months back the latter, or para rubber was 
supposed, from its furnishing quantity for quantity, 
more and purer caoutchouc, to be the best to plant ; 
whereas now, owing to Mr. Bilfen's invention and 
the -very much larger yield of latex — ten times aa 
much in Cevlon — as well as fever and more simple 
incisions being necessary — thus immensely reducing 
cost and labour— the former, or Castilloa (Panama 
rubber) has come to be more thoroughly recommended 
for planters. Hence it is we see that most of our 
planters who directed their attention to this rubber 
cultivation have gone in for the para rubber. These 
will now see that it is the Castilloa or panama rubber 
which should be cultivated by them. In fact, iu 
regard to this cultivation, which tree, which mode 
—as annual crops of seedling plants and twigs or 
as trees — and with machine and other inventions re- 
volutionising past ideas, all are in such an unfixed, 
at the same time, progressive state that one object 
of this paper is to set this fact before our planters 
not only to enable them to be on the qui vwe,hnt 
for them to adopt due caution and act calmly and 
not hastily. Of late years, there has been a great 
increase iu the demand for rubber, prices have gone 
up and the subject has gathered round it quite liter- 
ature of its own. Indeed, there is even a journal 
devoted to it, call the India liubber I'i orld. Chemistry 
and mechanical invention, too, here, as in other simi- 
lar products, have ccme in to aid in the manufacure, 
as we may term it, of the caoutchouc from the sap 
or latex, cheapening the production of the article, and 
taking up varieties of plants that were unprofitable 
before, or otherwise aiding in its production from 
twigs, Ac, Indeed, it may or may not be known that 
Singapore itself at the present moment has a manu- 
factory for expressing the juice or latex from leaves and 
twigs, which whether it be caoutchouc, or " viscin," 
to be further dealt vrith bv chemists in Europe — is 
exported to Germany. And if to be further dealt 
with by German chemists — or whether it be not 
" viscin " but the true latex — there is here, in our 
very midst perhaps, the actual solving of the most 
difficult and most nearly interesting point that re- 
mains yet unsolved in Ce.ylon. Iti any case we may 
proceed with our general preliminary observationd. 
As we have said above, things must be proceeded 
"with cautiously. As yet, the India rubber can only 
he recommended as a minor or by-product of a 
. plantation. The chemical quest that is proceeding 
may usher in a new erii of extracting the rubber 
';from annual crops instead of having to wait eight 
, to ten years for a tree to be sufficiently grown to 
'. be tapped. Experiments are now being carried on 
in London and Trinidad to secure rubbsr from year- 
old plants of the Castilloa clastica. (We may note 
here that this is not the same as Castilloa inark- 
hamiana which seems to be the kind in Ceylon.) 
To quote from an article in the India llubbtr y^orld : 
— "It has been found that seeds sown broadcast 
over a prepared field will yield an abundant crop of 
young trees, which, at about a year old, can be cut 
and sent to a factory where, with ordinary machinery, 
eight i-er cent, of fine rubber can be extracted from 
the young shoots. This young tree crop, at present 
prices, would return an estimated profit of $200 to 
$400 per acre." This extraction of the rubber from 
young shoots has been done in the chemical laboratory, 
and it only remains to apply to the chemical pro- 
duction of rubber on a large scale. Besides the 
Castilloa dastica there are also a number of other 
varieties that may be named as yielding latex from 
leaves and twigs, such as the Alsionia macropht/lla, 
which grows in Ceylon, and the Alstoniaplim'osa of Fiji. 
It has to be observed, too, that the rubber trees 
vary in their produce, just as most other plants, 
with change of habitat. These things will have to 
be observed and noted with respect to the Peninsula, 
and hence as well as for a variety of ether strong 
reasons, it is to be regretted there is no proper 
Agricultural Department or Royal Experimental Gar- 
dens iu a select locality, in the Federated States. 
Altogether, therefore, we may be sure that the culti- 
vation of the rubber tree will enter on new phases 
iu the near future. Eoot-tapping of some varieties 
may be more largely utilised ; there may be annual 
young crops, the preparation of rubber from leaves 
and twigs, and the utilisation of a number of at 
present neglected plants by chemistry — all these are 
not only possible but probable. It may also be 
observed that in the matter of rubber, too, as in that of 
coffee, Brazil may be said to be the principal de- 
termining factor. The annual output sf rubber all 
over the world, and which is all consumed, is put 
down at over 100,000,000 lb., and of this nearly half 
comes from Brazil, while most part of the rest also 
comes from Central America. Lagos, in Africa, has 
also lately taken a lead in the supply, while the 
great interior forests of the Dark continent, which 
have not yet been brought into the market, are also 
known to contain rubber trees of varieties. — British 
Xorth Borneo Herald. 
^ . 
COFFEE HYBRIDS. 
The Revue de Cultures Coloniales, in its last issue 
to hand, publishes an interesting note on '' The Steri- 
lity of Coffee Hybrids" from the proceedings of the 
Agricultural Society of Kediri (Java) with an anno- 
tation by M. Maxime Cornu. 
M. H. van Lennep, President of the Society, 
premising that it was desirable to discover whether 
by hybridisation it was not possible to obtain a race 
of eofiee ]3lants producing good fruit of superior 
quality, resisting hemiUia, prolific and easy of 
multiplication by grafting is reported to have said. 
" How often, in looking at a superb hybrid coflfee 
plant, have you not noticed, with regret, that a great 
part of the harries are empty and what few beans 
remain are altered and, by tbe fact, of inferior 
quality ? It follows that hybiids afflicted as they 
are with these two faults, form a disadvantageous 
and little remunerative cultivation. 
The bad quality of coffee gathered from these 
hybrids is above all attributable to insufficient 
fecundation. It is the more annoying as in general 
hybrids are distinguished by vigorous vegetation, a 
fine appearance, superb foliage on which hemileia 
does not seem to take hold, and a regular fiower- 
irg, after which the plant fruits abundantly. 
"It is thus with all the hybrids known, so far as 
I know," continues M. van Lennep, '• and for this 
reason none have yet taken a serious place in 
cultivation. The problem has become urgent since 
the extension of vermicular A\%e9,5e (jnaladie vtrmicu- 
laire) rendered impossible the replacement of indi- 
vidual Java plants dead of that disease by plants 
of the same species. The roots of the Liberian 
plant and certain hybrids alone resist ncmatodi 
(vermicular disease). 
Liberian coffee not being of easy sale, the idea 
arose of grafting Java coffee on the roots of 
Liberian, but the problem is not yet solved . in that 
manner. In practice," says M. van Lennep, " the 
operation of grafting is easy enough, the joining 
easily effected, the coffee is of good quality, but »t 
low elevations at least, the development of the young 
trees does not seem vigorous enough, the grafted 
plant becomes feeble, and subject to hemileia ' 
and taking everything into consideration, I hesitate 
yet to believe in the future of Java coffee grafted on 
Liberian roots. In elevated altitudes I cannot speak 
from experience. 
How different is the aspect of hybrida grafted on 
Liberia! From the beginning, the development is so 
