July 1, 1898.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTTJFJST. 51 
able to buy his clothiug at the then necessarily 
enhanced cost than he is now. Any measure designed 
to improve the condition of the Indian agriculturist 
ought to meet with the hearty support of Lancashire, 
Upon the other items of my estimate it secma 
scarcely necessary to comment. An Excise duty on 
Indian-made cotton goods is already a recognised 
necessity. A similar, although rather smaller, duty 
on Indian spun yarns seems also equitable. The 
other items speak for themselves. 
" H.F.B. " is quite aware tliat the re-opening of 
the Indian Mints will have to be accomplished, 
{gradually, and without sudden convul.sion to trade. 
This lie tliinks might be best effected by pre- 
liminary coining to a sutticient extent on Govem- 
iiient account. As to Uteping up silver, he thinks 
it possible t'lat Ciiina may erelons? have a silver 
currency of her own with open mints, for 
tlie varions schemes to keep up the lupee and in- 
troduce gold, " H.F.B." considers that these 
schemes resemble the atten.pt to produce sun- 
shine out of cucumbers, which has never yet 
been accomplished ! 
^ 
THE OLDEST INDIA-RUBBER PLAN- 
TATION IN THE WORLD. 
For the following translation of a Dutch Report 
on a Java Rubber plantation, we are indebted 
to 2 he Indian Forester for May. Its contents are 
special'y interesting to Ceylon planters at this 
time : — 
The oldest Caoutchouc plantation in the world is 
perhaps one existing in the west of Java, in the pro- 
vince of Kvanong. A former proprietor of the Pama- 
nockan Tjiassan Esta'e which is the biggest private 
property in Java, containing 540,000 Dutch acres, had 
most of bis land under coffee until 1872. Finding the 
cultivation of this plant was no loKger lucrative, he 
planted some of the land up with Ficus elastica. The 
coffee plantations had already been more or less 
cleared of forest growth, so that the planting of 
Ficus elastica cost less than thirty shillings per acre. 
The soil of these coffee t'ardens had become useless 
for other agricultural purposes; and had not hims 
elastica (Raret) been planted in time, would only have 
become covered with poor forest growth. The trees 
were planted 8J yards apart, or 72 trees to the acre. 
The area planted was 724 acres, containing 5,200 stems. 
The trees were first tapped when the plantation was 
14 years old, and 
the yield 
for that and the six 
lowing years was ; 
Average-oz 
Value. 
Year. 
lb. 
per stem. 
f. 
1886 
5,512 
17 
600 
1887 
4,954 
15 
540 
1888 
1,514 
4 
165 
1890 
3,.S07 
10 
*360 
1891 
6,113 
18 
387 
1892 
5,992 
18 
256 
1895 
3,197 
10 
411 
Total . . 
30,589 
Average per 
2,719 
year per stem 
6 oz. 
72^ acres thus, it is said, yielded in 7 years a surplus 
of £2,719, or per acre per annum £5-8 0. The yield 
was 71 lb. per acre per annum during this i^eiiod. 
During the 28 years from the establishment of the 
plantation in 1872 till 1875 the net yield per acre per 
annum amouted to £1-1210. A. H. Beekhout, late 
Consr. of Java Forests. 
Wageningen, Holland, 6th Jan., 1898, 
• This note is taken from a report of the Netherland 
Indian Commercial Bai k, iu which the money results 
are called " net income," presumably alter deducting 
the original cost o£ the planting operaliious.— ZVctn6?«(w, 
"We cannot regard the above as a favourable 
yield from trees 14 years old: closer planting 
would probably give a, belter return per acre7 
It !s noteworthy that the harvest fell oil" rather 
than increased during the 7 years recorded above. 
Far better and earlier returns can be got from 
Para rubber trees in Ceylon. 
HOW TO PLANT TDE NUTS 
OF THE C0C0-P>4LM. 
A question has been raised in far Fiji as to the 
best mode of planting coconuts. Hitherto the recoo. 
nised mode has been by htyiug the nuts on then- 
side or with the eye unwards ; but an ex-Ceylon 
planter IVIr. Griffiths (?)' has turned up in Fiji who 
declares that the proper way is with the eye 
down and that the tree conies into baaiing in half 
the time if the nuts are put in that way ! We 
never heard of this practice and should like to know 
what Messrs W. H. ^^'right and W. Jardine have 
to say to it? We suspect tuey will agree witii 
the experienced and shrewd coconut planter who 
writes :— 
I always prefer laying the coconut cu its side in 
the nursery, horizontally; and should say it is the 
best method for any district. The water in the nut 
keeps the eye moist, and facilitates the development 
of the germ; while if it is placed vertica,lly, eye up, 
the eye dries and the germ may be sooner scorched 
in droughty weather. Besides, the nut may have to 
be planted out, too, erect, and then the base to 
resist wind &a. is less. Eye down is a system I 
never heard of, and to which there are obvious objec- 
tions. The shoot has an unnatural twist, is more 
liable to submersion (and rot) in wet weather, and 
to attacks of rats, wliite ants and porcupines 'from 
immediate contact with the soil. I don't believe in 
it. I am quite content with - the proportions of 
plants obtained by the horizontal system which 
further follows nature. The dropped nut lies on its 
side. 
^ 
EXCHANGE AND TEA. 
We diieco attention to Mr. Leake's latest letter 
from the Economist given on page 54. 
While thanking our old friend for his cordial 
praise of our work as statist, we regret that 
he did not observe that cur " Hand-book and 
Directory ' of 1896-7 was, so far as the Agricul- 
tural Review, which he quotes is concerned, only a 
reproduction of the edition of 1895-6. In other 
words, the passage he quotes : — " 310,000 lisincf 
eventually to 350,000 acres " ot tea for Ceylon 
was written in September 1895 and he will find 
it on page 168 of the 1895-6 edition. Our 
present statistical review of the situation will 
show that including native gardens and the 
clearings to be planted during this monsoon 
season, there are not fewer— probably more— 
than 370,000 acres of tea in Ceylon. 
Mr. Leake is, however, quite right in his 
reply to the "Kast India Merchant" about Java 
and its coti'ee crops. Java sufVered severely from 
coflee leaf disease and its crops tumbled down 
very seriously, although latterly there has been 
a revival due partly to the planting of the 
Liberian variety. 
We need scarcely say how strongly we 
approve of the latter part of I\Ir. Lcakes letter 
and appreciate his cogent demonstrations of the 
erroneous character of the arguments used by 
Us opponents in ?7tc Economist, 
