384 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
[Dec. 1, 1903. 
has been done over here. We cannot possibly speak 
with any authority on the snbjeot. There are men 
who prefer 10 ft. 'by 10 ft., and some again who 
think bO ft. by 30 ft., the better distance. Only 
the actual experience of comparative yields can 
definitely settle the question. As regards the " white 
ants," if these insects are more plentiful on laud 
which being flat, retains its decaying vegetable matter 
instead of having it a.11 washed away by the heavy 
rains, it is certain that the treatment of afifected 
trees is very mnch more easily carried out on the 
flat, as the tap roots do not go down below water 
level, say four feet, whilst on the hills it is often 
impossible to get down below the tap root, which 
is always attacked first. Reference is made to the 
heavy '' undrained " Klang land, which is said to 
grow good coffee, but to be. less suitable for Para 
rubber. In Ceylon the cultivation of coffee has not 
been forgotten, and your readers will appreciate 
that "undrained" land which is still well enough 
drained to grow good coffee hasn't much wrong with 
it in this respect. The drainage is all artificial, of 
course, and costs money, but the system is now well 
understood and Klang men think that they get 
more than their money back in the unquestionable 
richness of the soil. That trees are more liable to 
blow down where there is a heavy surface deposit 
of vegetable matter than on land devoid of humus 
goes without saying, but the percentage of loss 
from this cause is not alarmingly heavy ; and even 
on the hills the tops of trees often snap off in 
strong winds the development of stem being checked 
until the new shoot has replaced the old top. As 
regards Mr. Parry's dissertation on the question of 
freeing the latex of albumen, I can only say that 
wo are not all so advanced in our ideas, and are 
at present quite content, it we can, by following 
Ceylon methods, to turn out as good samples as 
yon do. However, it is, of course, possible that 
there may be something in the suggestion, and, if 
the Government analyst at Singapore will show ua 
how to get rid of albumen without incurring a pro- 
hibitive expenditure, we shall be very grateful to him. 
At present, however, we are scarcely prepared to pin 
our faith to a gospel, which we hear preached from 
Ceylon for the first time, by one of our own men 
as the result of an interview with an analytical 
chemist during a flying visit to Singapore. Mr. 
Tunniciffe claims that he was the first to send home 
a sample of biscuit Eambong rubber but has not 
yet received any valuation, and evidently created 
an impression by this and other statements ; but, 
as a matter of fact, many such samples have been 
sent home, a recent valuation by Messrs. Figgis & Co. 
being as high as 48. 9d. per lb. 
"With respect to the labour question and importation 
of Javanese coolies, Mr. Parry asserts that the Dutch 
are likely to put obstacles in the way, whereas it 
has been known for some time that Mr. Turner, 
a prominent sugar planter in Province Wellesley 
and Perak, has received every assistance from the 
Dutch Government in getting Javanese coolies over 
and it is more than probable that we shall be 
able in course of time to get as many of them as 
we want, the difficulties at present being the 
disinclination on the part of the Javanese to leave 
their own country, and their high cost landed here 
— neither of them insuperable obstacles, we hope, 
given the co-operation of the Dutch authorities. 
I will add no more now to an already over-long 
letter, beyond to express the hope that Ceylon men 
who are interested in rubber will come over and 
see this splendid rubber country fot themselves or 
if they cannot do that, that they will ascertain the 
views of the many leading Ceylon men who have 
been here, rather than allow themselves to be in- 
fluenced by the opinions of passers-by who under 
the seductive influence of the interviewer, are apt 
to lose sight of the possible importanoe of their 
ulterapcee. 
RUBBER PLANTING IN THE MALAY 
PENINSULA. 
Sir, — In your issue of the 29th October last appeared 
an article on the future of rubber planting in the 
Malay Peninsula, written as the outcome of an inter- 
view with Mr. M. S. Parry, the Hon. Secretary of the 
Federated Malay States U P A, and Mr. 11. Tanni- 
cliffe, on their way through Colombo to England. The 
two gentlemen referred to between them have handed 
down to posterity some useful information for budding 
investors in rubber cultivation in the F M S bnt the 
grounds npon which they have based their joint or 
several fixed opinion on the relative merits of "Klang 
land " and " npcountry land " for the purposes of 
rubber cultivation are conspicuous by their absence 
I would draw attention to the statement, which is the 
0 ily apparent attempt to explain why up-country land ia 
p eferable to "the Klang land." The statement reads. — 
" That Ficus Elastica does well at the Negri 
Sembilan and in the Klang land is far preferable to 
Para. The Klang is the heavy, undrained deep soil by 
the coast and is excellent for coffee but not so suitable 
for rubber as the up-country districts as the roots 
cannot get sufficient grip in the soft soil and the sea 
winds frequently blow down the trees, aho white ants 
are very troublesome there. " 
1. No mention is made that there are at least three 
if not four distinct kinds of soil in the Klang District, 
wWich is a very large one, and that what is a profitable 
and good cultivation in any one kind is not necessarily 
so in the other two or three. 
2. Heavy undrained deep soil is referred to. Neither 
-of the above gentlemen interviewed can have visited 
the estates in the Klang District very thoroughly if 
they call the soil undrained. You do not often happen 
to find drains in virgin jungle, and from my knowledge 
of the district the soil over the cultivated area is 
heavily and well drained. It can hardly be possible 
that the gentlemen meant undrainable, instead of 
undrained, if so it shows a lamentable ignorance on 
the subject. I may mention that on this estate alone 
1 have a fall of twelve feet, in under two miles, to high 
water level, and many other estates in the district have 
equally effectual drainage. 
3. It is also stated that the rubber planted in this 
heavy soil is not so good as that planted up-country on 
account of its not being able to get sufiioient grip in the 
soft soil. There is a charming simplicity about this 
reasonicg, 
4. It is also stated that white ants are very trouble- 
some there, that is in Klang. 
It is not stated that white ants are more troublesome 
in the Klang district than elsewhere but the statement 
leads the reader to suppose they are. As to this I may 
mention that while visiting Negri Sembilan the other 
day in the immediate vicinity of the estate especially 
named by the interviewed gentlemen, viz, Mr. Wiok- 
wai'a up-country estate, I was informed that a great 
deal of damage was always being done by white anta 
throughout Negri Sembilan and from what I saw on 
ray visit quite as mnch harm was done to rubber trees 
there by these pests as in the Klang Distrioi- Of 
necesity on any estate there will always be a certain 
percentage of loss of trees from pests, but that this 
percentage is larger in the Klang District than np- 
country it would be hard for either of the two gentle- 
men referred to prove. It is needless to add further 
comment as the proof of the pudding is in the eating, 
and a visit to estates in " the Klang land '■ and the 
'' up-country land" might possibly turn the scales in 
favour of the former. At all events a haphazard state- 
ment such as the two gentlemen interviewed ate 
reported to have made cannot be looTsed upon by any 
reasoning individual as anything but a puff advertise* 
ment. — I have etc. 
Edmund B. Pbiok, Klang Coffee Cultivation Co., Ltd. 
Golden Hope Estate, Klang, Selangor, F M S.— (To 
Ceylon paper re article in Ceylon Observer.) 
