Oct. 1, 1902.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
249 
the Para Rubber of South America reaches the 
rulins? price of £100 a ton. About two years ap;o 
the Governmeut of India, obviously foreseeing the 
advantages accruinf; from tlie phmtatiou and 
production of rubber, started the cultivation of 
Para rubber in the Southern extremity of Lower 
Burma known as Mergui and also on the ad- 
jacent King Island. A year prior to the action 
of Government, however, private enterprise had 
also launched into the trade. In 1899 a Yorkshire- 
man (VIr. VV S I'od l) living at Amherst near 
Moulmein starred a planta ion of Para rubber and 
has now fifty acres fully planted with 14,00^ trees 
which even at this early stagfe have developed 
splendidly and give great promise of b inging Mr 
Todd, in another five years, a very ampls return. 
So that it is estimated that when all cIip plants 
in Burma begin to yield Europe will receive a 
good supply of nearly pure rubber which will 
only lose about one per cent, in the waslung. 
This has been proved by samples recently sent 
home of cultivated rubber both from Ceylon and 
the Straits Settlements. 
The Hevea Brasiliensis, however, is not the 
only variety of rubber, that lias been introduced 
into Burma. The seeds of the Castilloa 
Elastica, the variety now planted on a 
large scale in Mexico have been successfully in- 
troduced into Burma liy Mr. Todd who imported 
the seed direct from San Salvador and Mexico. 
Some of these seeds were afterwards forwarded 
by this gentleman to Samoa in the South Seas 
and are reported to have arrived there in good 
condition. This latter fact is all the move impor- 
tanc considering that this seed loses its vitality 
very quickly. Its transmission, therefore, from 
one place to another must; be accomplished as 
rapidly as possible, though if carefully packed it 
is possible tor ic to travel in good condition for 
a period of three months. This year there is a 
considerable demand for this seed in Ceylon as it 
has been found that it thrives oa a wider range 
of country and climate than the Para plant. These 
latter considerations naturally make for the popu- 
larity of this seed in India where conditions and 
country are so varying. That there is money in 
rubber planting there can be no doubt and we 
are so far informed that the country in North 
Bengal appears to be specially adapted for rubber 
cultivation so that private enterprise if not Govern- 
ment interest should at least be aroused and that 
the results will be satisfactory will be the hope of 
India's well wishers since India as a country and 
not merely private enterprise will benefit by this 
industry. — Englishman. 
COCOA PROSPECTS AND EESOURCES OF 
ECUADOR. 
Mr. Harold Hamel Smith, writing from 
112, FeucLiurch-sireet, on July 14, sends 
us the following extracts from letters 
written to him by an American engineer 
resident in Erjuador with regard to the develop- 
ment of that Kepublic. He says : — " Writing 
in Moy, 1902, my American friend says : 'lam 
still en;,'aged wiih the Guayaquil-Quito Railroad, 
but my friend has taken a irip to Esmeraldas, 
one of I he I idlest provinces in this country in 
natural resources, but as yet very little developed. 
The richness of the soil there can be imagined 
when he says he has seen cacao trees not more 
than four years old bearing several pounds of 
cocoaj My time is spent almost entirely on the 
mountain operations ; ab present T am on a sec- 
tion considerably in the interior. There are many 
line opportunities in this country for investing 
capital in several different line-i of business. The 
interior has never had any communication witlr 
the coast excepting by mule transport, so that the 
building of this road, which used to be considered 
impossible, will develop a section that has hitherto 
been i^tolated from the rest of the world. Modern 
Hour mills will be built, hotels for the accommo- 
dation of tourists will be erected, and many 
other modes of opening up and developing the 
resources of the districts will take place.' Writing 
on May 4 of this year my correspondent says : — 
' In January last I resigned my position with the 
railroad, and am now in charge of the building 
of a wagon road from this town (Latacunga) to 
a tov/n called Napo, in the oriental regions at the 
headquarters of the Aniffzon. It will be a road 
five metres wide, and, if completed, will certainly 
open up a very rich region. It will take at least 
two years to build it, if not more ; but once 
finished, there are sure to be great opportunities 
for development opened out especially in the 
bringing in of rubber, also gold, which the Indians 
wash from any point along the banks of the Napo 
river, and I have no doubt but that once the wagon 
road is complete machinery will be carried up 
here on a very large scale to be used instead of the 
pan and hatea. — London Times. 

A TOURIST ON JAVA. 
Mr. Donald Mackay, a well-known Ceylon 
planter, who lately paid a visit to Java, has just 
published an account of his tour in which he thus 
sums up his impressions :— 
WONDERFUL RESULTS. 
The wonders of Java are numerous, and the 
increase of population is as wonderful as any. 
From the five millions at which it stood when the 
British occupation ceased in 1816, it has risen to 
considerably over 26 millions. It was anticipated 
that the population would double itself in a 
century, but the increase has been four-fold in 
little more than eighty years. This is a striking 
result of the improved condition of the people 
effected by benehcent legislation. In the olden 
days forced services of all kinds, excessive taxa- 
tion, internal disorders, misrule and oppression, 
operated to prevent anything like the extraordin- 
ary increase referred to. In Java it does not 
appear as if this unprecedented increase in the 
population had produced congestion anything like 
that obtained in Bengal. Owing to the climate, 
comparatively healthy, the soil, which is extremely 
fertile ; the rainfall, which is full, averaging over 
70 inches ; the irrigation, which is general and 
effective — the land has supported the burden of 
increased population without) much, if any, 
congestion. 
MEAT AND DRINS. 
The food of the masses consists of rice and 
maize, tlie former grown in the lower, and the 
latter in the middle zone of elevation. Javans 
abstain from pork, and, as a rule, from intoxicat- 
ing drinks ; those who can afford it indulge in 
fish, flesh, and fowl. The flesh of the buff ilo, ox, 
deer, and goat is for daily sale in the markets or 
bazaars, and that of the horse would be, but for 
an order preventing it. Milk is not in general use 
it is usually left wholly for the calf. From this 
