340 
THE TROPICAL 
AaRICULTURIST. [NoVi 2, 19O3 
CASTILLOA RUBBEK FOE CEYLON. 
We are pleased to receive the letter from 
Mr. Pearson, given elsewhere, and to give it 
publication in our pages ; it not only clears 
Mr. Pearson (wbom at the time of publi- 
cation we could hardly credit with having 
written such " nonsense "), but it also sets 
Ceylon right, which is of more concern to 
us. We have gone througli the article in 
question again, transposing the tables given 
by Drs. Trimen and Webb, and it then 
reads, as Mr. Pearson remarks, consistently. 
Mr. Pearson has one of the largest and most 
advanced rubber plantations in Mexico, and 
kindly sends us a few interesting particulars. 
In the past six yearsj he states, L have raised 
and planted over 400,000 trees, all castilloa. 
Of these some 200,000 are four and five years 
old, their development up to the present 
being most satisfactory. Many have a girth 
of from 25 to 30 inches with a height of from 
28 to 30 feet, and hitherto all tapping has 
been merely experimental but the results 
obtained have been most encouraging both 
in yield and quality. Samples were sent to 
London at the beginning of the present year 
for which the puce quoted by Lewis and 
Peat was Sa id in February last. I enclose a 
smallj sample which it may interest you to 
see as being the product of a tree 4^ years 
old." The small piece of crude rubber sent 
by Mr. Pearson appears to be an excellent 
sample of good clean rubber, and very 
promising from a tree only years old. 
RUBBER-PLANTERS HOMEWARD- 
BOUND. 
Mr, Francis Pears, the well-known manager 
and proprietor of Lanadron Estate, Muar, 
Johore, which has an acreage of 3,000, 
800 acres being in Rubber and Coconuts, 
and Mr. J. A. Macgregor, proprietor and 
manager of Terentang and Oadut Estates, 
Seramban, Negri Sembilan (1,850 acres — of 
which 90 IS Liberian OofEee and a good deal 
more in Rubber) are homeward-bound on the 
Japanese liner " Kamakura Maru." They 
were anxious ,to visit Oeylon Rubuer 
Estates and had hoped to run down 
to Kalutara and back before the vessel 
left; but had not sufficient time at their 
disposal. Mr. Macgregor, who has some of 
the oldest rubber trees~2u years old, some 7 
feet in circumference — is a neighbour of Mr. 
V R Wickwar, now in Ceylon, wlao manages 
the Seremban, Ayer Angat and Ayer Silolo 
Estates in Seremban. Mr. Pears' Rubber is 
younger, about 4 years oid ; and he Wcis hoping 
to see some young Rubber trees in Ceylon for 
comparison, beside examining the tapping 
implements used. In the Straits a curved 
gouge is the most common instrument, per- 
mitting a thin strip of bark to be sliced and 
a regular incision made along any length 
required for tapping. This mode appears to 
be far more favoured now than the herring- 
bone incisions which, once made, and tapped 
from, leave that part of the bark surface 
finished for the time being ; whereas with 
the gouge a deeper incision and fresh tapping 
may be made over the same area after a 
short interval — according as the tree bears 
it. Our visitors intend to visit Oeylon rubber 
estates more fully on their way back. 
MAEINE LABORATORY AT GAL.LE, 
H, E. THE GOVERNOR'S VISIT. 
Galle, Oct. 15, — Yesterday morning His 
Excellency the Governor, attended by Sir 
Francis Burdett, extra A.D.C, paid a visit 
to the Marine Laboratory, where he was 
received by Mr James flornell, and spent 
some time looking over the specimans sub- 
mitted for examination. In addition to 
the various specimens of the pearl oyster 
at different stages of its growth, corals, 
star fishes, &c., seen by the flon. Mr. im 
Thurn some time ago, Mr flornell was able 
to show His Excellency a number of inter- 
esting specimens of the common bath 
sponge obtained from Trincomalee, and which 
had been prepared by the native method. 
Mr flornell explained that these sponges are 
of the ordinary commercial species, and as 
this kind occurs naturally in quantity at 
Trincomalee and in the shallows of the Jaffna 
peninsula, in his opinion, an investigation 
of the local characteristics of its life history 
would, there is every reason to believe, 
eventuate in the establishment of a flourish- 
ing and lucrative sponge fishery in tne north. 
What exists at preseYit is wholly unworthy 
to be termed an industry ; two or three 
men merely add a trifle to their living by 
occasionally gathering a few dozen sponges, 
Mr flornell further remarked thatj in detach- 
ing and curing, the methods employed are so 
crude and careless as to irretrievably impair 
the value of the article, judging by tHe 
market requirements of Europe and America. 
Once the life history of the sponge is made 
out, there should be little trouble is orga- 
nising sponge-fishing on a pt-oper basis — 
protecting tne sponges while immature, 
regulating the time and manner of fishing, 
OK rather cutting, and by instructing the 
fishermen in suitable methods of curing 
and bleaching. Mr flornell nas been aoing 
good work since Uis arrival in tne island 
vvitn Professor fldi-dman, and wo feel sure 
that Sir West Kidgeway was much cneeied by 
the success attending his researches and 
experiments which flis Excellency was instru- 
mental in promoting. 
MA.BINB INVESTIGATIONS IN THK NORTH, 
Mr flornell will not accompany Captain 
Legge on bis trip to the Pearl Banks this 
weeli., but he purposes shortly leaving Galle 
for Jatt'na and Mannar to carry out an 
important marine investigations in those 
seas, fle will make a stay of two months in 
the North, 
PLANTING NOTES. 
The use of Cinnamon as a Flavouk fob 
Tea — is uot UDCominou in Swiezerlaud accord- 
ing to ' some writers, the spice being added to 
the leaf belore brewing the te». — /. P. Gcusette^ 
Oct. 10. 
