484 
THE TROPICAL A.GRICULTURIST. [Jan. 1, 1904. 
To the Editor. . 
TEA PRUNING IN INDIA AND CEYLON. 
Calcutta, Dec. 9. 
Sir, — In your last issue in commenting upon Mr 
Claud Bald's book on Indian Tea, you threaten us 
with a "new Asian mystery" apropos oi Mr 
Bald's dictum that the cuts made in pruning tea 
should face the North. Di meliora I— and, if I can 
avert the prospect, I expect your thanks. Mr 
Bald has stated an Indian belief. Beliefs, as some 
one slated of morality, are often questions of 
latitude. Don't you think the latitude contains 
the solution of the matter and gives a clue to the 
reason for the belief ? At the pruning season in 
India the sun is at the South and, consequently if 
the slanting cuts usual in pruning are made with 
a North aspect, they are protected from the direct 
rays of the sun. It appears probable that the 
belief that the direct rays are injurious in their 
effects on the fresh " wounds " lies at the bottom 
of the practice. I do not propose to enter into the 
merits of the question or to state that in my 
opinion it matters a brass button or not, but 
merely desire to clear up the " Asian mystery," 
Of course it was hard lines to ask you to believe 
right away without excuse assigned, as in Ceylon 
you are nearly in the case of the "naked Negro 
panting on the line" — ("do you boast of your golden 
store and palmy wine " ? Toddy, I suppose, — 
horrid stutl). Well, your sun does not go South 
very much and if it did with your practice of 
pruning at whatever time of the year you please 
(convenient, and no doubt accounts for some 
Ceylon teas I have seen) the position of the cuts 
is not even theoretically material to you. 
Hovever, in this case, the prophet has honour 
in his own country (and remember he is writing on 
Indian tea). In India we should be inclined to 
believe Mr Bald even where he assigns no reasons, 
for his reputation is a very solid one as an ex- 
perienced planter.— Yours faithfully. 
CHARLES JUDGE, 
IWe are quite willing to allow Mr Claud Bald's 
apologist to accept everything which his mentor 
may dictate regarding the cultivation of the tea 
bush with or without reason ; but an opinion on 
pruning which is only " probable," and the merits 
of which Mr Charles Judge wisely declines to 
discuss, does not appear to us to be worth much; 
nor is it likely to be adopted by the practical 
planter of Ceylon.— Ed. T.^.] 
RUBBER-GROWING IN CEYLON,-L 
(CASTILLO A.) 
Colombo, Dec. 12. 
Sir, — The very valuable circular of the Royal 
Botanic Gardens on " Panama Rubber " or "Cas- 
tilloa" is before me and as I read a friend calls my 
attention to a cutting from one of the Colombo 
dailies signed "WEG" which questions the sound- 
ness of the conclusions reached at Peradeniya and 
Heneratgoda. Personally they had appealed tq 
me as being very fair and not at all a condemnation 
of the Castilloa Elastica as a tree worthy of the 
Ceylon planters' attention. As I spent the better 
part of last winter in Mexico especially to visit 
and examine castilloa plantations, I feel that a 
word just here may not be out of season. 
In the first place while the rainfall and climate 
here are favourable to the quick and lusty growth 
of the tree, such soils, as I have seen, would not 
tempt me to try it, were the experiment to be 
mine. Its long tap root certainly demands a deep 
rich soil while the laterals do not compare with 
the Hevea for length or food-gathering ability. 
The Tierra Caliente — where my researches took 
place— has about 100 inches of rain, about the same 
climate as Kandy, and a dry season that is practi- 
cally the same. It is, however, only in the rich 
deep well-drained soils there that the Castilloa 
amounts to anything. In shallow gravelly soils, 
it does very well for a few years and then stands 
still. Several abandoned plantations, of which 
Filisola on the Coatzacoalcos river is a good 
example, testify to this. I agree with "WEG," 
that the Castilloa is a very hardy tree; that is, it will 
stand a lot of cutting, hacking etc., and recover 
— provided it is in a spot suited to its best develop- 
ment. Otherwise it is just the opposite and takes 
any sort of excuse to wither and die. I am also 
inclined to think that those who tap the Castilloa 
before the seventh or eighth year will fin'd much 
of the latex immature and of little use. It is 
possible, of course, to select trees that have matured 
earlier and get good latex, but the chances are 
that the labourers will mix good and bad and injure 
the resulting Caoutchouc. This is why most of the 
planters in Mexico do not figure on any profitable 
crop under seven years and some put it as high 
as ten. 
Of course in the Matale district which, I fear, I 
shall not be able to visit during my present stay 
in Ceylon, the soil may be all that is desired and 
the Castilloa do finely. 
I believe fully in "W E G's" conclusions as to 
planting cuttings, and even go further and hold 
that planting seed is best of all, and that in 
the open, and at the beginning of the rainy 
season. 
May I add that what the Ceylon planters are 
doing with India Rubber, their alertness and 
interest, as shown by such correspondence as that 
from which I have quoted, have astonished and 
delighted me, and I trust that the day is not many 
years distant when the Island's yearly out-put 
v/ill be millions of pounds instead of thousands. 
HENRY C. PEARSON. 
Editor of the " India RubberWorld." 
II. 
Dec. 12. 
Dear Sir,— The same fate that awaited 
Cinchona will happen to Rubber if this fool-hardy 
close planting is persisted in. As long as Cinchona 
was planted at large intervals, it did well and grew 
luxuriantly ; directly close planting was resorted to 
canker set in and killed it out by hundreds of acres 
at a time. Why not plant rubber alternately with 
coconuts, wide a-part, and ensure success instead 
of courting disaster ? I have been bitten by greed ; 
but not again, I hope.— Yours truly, 
- FACT. 
