April 1, 1904.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST^. 
673 
CASTILLOA EUBBER IN THE STRAITS. 
We publish elsewhere a brief but in- 
forming letter, dealing with Castilloa 
Kubber and its success in the JStraits, which 
will interest Para growers, as well as their 
less numerous brethi en in Ceylon who favour 
Castilloa. As he is one of the best autho- 
rities on the subject in Ceylon, we referred 
the matter to "VV.E.G., and he favours 
us with the following which gives the 
information that " L D." asks for and which 
other rubber planters will be glad of :— " It 
is rather curious your letter and the enclo- 
sure coming today just as I was reading a 
letter from the Director of the Buitenzorg 
Gardens in Java to a local planter, giving 
their experience of Castilloa in that Island. 
It may bo summed up as most unsatisfactory, 
and assuming they have got hold of the 
right variety of Castilloa "—it is evident 
that this species will not grow there. 
T have also understood that the tree never 
did well in the Straits, and I can only say 
as a grower in this island that I am glad 
to hear of it. It will do very well indeed 
hex'e and you may assure your correspondent 
that there has never been a case of cutting 
out castilloa in this island where it is 
planted in suitable soil at the right eleva- 
tion. This i* an easy assertion to make, for 
there is so little of it that detailed data are 
easy of collection. I wish your correspon- 
dent (whose initials I recognise) had had the 
chance of seeing the growth in the Matale 
district and the way the latex runs. He 
would not then have had any doubt on the 
subject of the success of the species here, 
whatever it may do farther East. I may 
say my own idea is that they have got hold 
of the wrong species there, and that local 
planters who are getting their seed from 
the Straits are making a mistake. Have it 
from local trees of Mexican stock. There 
is much available in Matale. Your cor- 
respondent mentions one or two trees as 
giving large yields ; this is nothing. I have 
knowledge of two in Ceylon, one in Kalu- 
tara and one in Lower Matale which gave 
23 and 27 lb. in one year. They prove noth- 
ing, however. Samples of Castilloa (Matale) 
roughly cured were valued the other day 
at within 2d of Ceylon Para if the dirt 
were eliminated which, of course, proper 
curing would do." 
^ 
COTTON-GROWING IN CEYLON. 
THE VALUE OP THE GOVERNMENT'S 
EXPERIMENTAL POLICY. 
The interest that is being shown in Cotton 
as a new industry in Ceylon, through the 
frequent references to it in the Press, and 
through experiments in different parts of the 
Island, is a hopeful sign. Though we call it 
a new industry, we are not unaware of the 
fact that the plant has been grown in the 
Island from time immemorial, in chenas 
both in the Sinhalese and in the Tamil 
districts. And more, that sufficient of the 
lint was produced to give employment to 
colonies of weavers in places so far apart 
as Chilaw, Puttalam, Batticaloa and Jaffna, 
where hand-looms turned out cloths which 
85 
had a special value, though not for elegance 
and fineness, at any rate for hard wearing. 
Nor is the local race of weavers still extinct. 
What we mean by a new industry is the 
revival of the old industry on entirely new 
lines; and that makes it practically a new 
industry. In that view, we feel bound to 
record our dissent from a contemporary's 
adverse criticism of the action of the Gov- 
ernment in carrying out the experiments 
it has now on hand, and will shortly be 
developing, in the North-Central and Northern 
Province.^. So far from thinking that the 
Government is " wasting time" in seeking to 
" ascertain the best variety to grow in 
Ceylon,'' we are strongly of opinion, that its 
procedure is calculated to place the industry 
on a safe and permanent footing. We do 
not believe that the outcome of the experi- 
ments will be a declaration in favour of the 
growth of any one variety. The best 
varieties to grow will be decided by soil and 
climate, a,nd by the demand — local and foreign; 
and it is for this reason that the experi- 
ments are to be welcomed, which have been 
undertaken, and which are to be furthered 
by the appointment of a special Assistant 
(Mr. C. J. C. Mee), to help the Director of 
the Botanic Gardens in his investigations, 
by the immediate oversight of the plant- 
ations, and (when the time arrives) of the 
ginning and transport of the crops. To say 
that the best variety to grow has been 
"settled for all time" by experiments with 
many varieties in several different localities, 
is to show a marvellous ignorance of what 
has been attempted or accomplished in the 
past, and also of the teachings of science 
and agriculture. 
It is a truism that there is no finality in 
agricultural knowledge. We have already 
recognised it here— thanks to the progres- 
siveness of Sir West Ridgeway's Government 
— by the establishment of what may be 
called a Department of Agricnlture as an 
appendage of the Koyal Botanic Gardens, 
and this great benefit to the Island has 
been secured by the strenuous efforts of the 
upcountry planting community. Educated 
men, engaged in the growth and manufacture 
of products which Europeans, here and 
elsewhere, had been investing in for years, 
if not generations, found their efforts baffled 
by causes which they felt themselves help- 
less to overcome. They called science to 
their aid. Yet our cock-sure contemporary 
feels that he knows all about cotton; he answers 
for the Island, that experiments have settled 
for all time what is the best variety to 
grow. The audacity of this statement can 
best be realised when we remember that 
there has been no regular plantation of cotton 
ever maintained in the Island, of which there 
is any record. We know that cotton has been 
grown in chenas with other catch crops like 
maniocs, chillies, plantains, gourds and yams ; 
but the goiya can no more tell you of its yield 
per acre, its price and its remunerativeness, 
than he can distinguish between South Sea 
Island Cotton and Egyptian. It has also been 
grown in native gardens with similar lack of 
useful and accurate observation. About the 
time the Spinning and Weaving Company was 
