766 IHE TROPICAL AaKICULTURIST. [May % 1904. 
PLANTING AND OTHER NOTES. 
KUBBER IN Mysore,— It appears that the offer 
of the Mysore Durbar to grant 50 acre jjlots free 
of assessment for five years for the purpose of 
rubber cultivation, has been responded to in a re- 
markable manner. Planters liave applied for 1,000 
acre plots. 
Canker in Government Para Rubber 
Plantations. — The letter of the Goverumeut 
Mycologist, Mr. J. B Carruthers, elsewhere 
regarding the steps taken to eradicate the 
rubber canker at the Government plantations 
is eminently satisfactory. We trust early 
success will attend his endeavours. 
KuBBKR Planting in the Stbaito,— Mr. 
Parry's letter, quoted on page 758, adds further 
to our information on this topic. As regards 
Ceylon, we have been able to supplement Mr. 
11. W, Harrison's interesting results, which 
have already atti acted wide attention— by 
personal refererce to him on one or tv»'0 
points, as shown elsewhere. 
"Food for the Tropics."— In this useful little 
book, Mr. T. M. Macknight explains ihe various 
food products of different tropical countries with 
Cheir local names and special properties, and the 
best ways for preparing tlievii for food. The book 
should prove of great use to, those who have to 
arrange the daily meals for a family or otherwise 
ia the tropica, for numerous ways of cooking 
foods not generally known ^are given. Messrs. 
W. Thacker & Co , publish the book at Zs %d net. 
The Straits and Ceylon Compared.— 
In spite of what " Cautious " says, in his 
letter elsewhere, we contend that the 
Ceylon Government has only to become 
alive to the necessity for enterprise on 
their part for this colony in many parts 
of the low country to offer vg^y fair 
competition for its size witli other lands 
where the facilities for extensive planting, 
especially of rubber,are so much more inviting. 
The minern] wealth of the Straits is certainly 
a tremendous support to all success in the 
development of the country — success like 
which nothing succeeds so well, in attrach 
ting fuither (including planting) capital to 
itself. 
Our 1904 Coconut Yield : and Export 
of " Desiccated."— The letter we publish 
elsewhere, signed "Miller" should be of 
great interest to all coconut-growers and 
traders in copra. The writer amplifies dur 
reference to the matter last night and shows 
how the recent phenomenal rise in the 
price of copra, up to Pi63, followed by the 
sudden and serious drop, has done no 
lasting good to any one. It is satisfactory 
however, to learn that exports this year are 
not likely to sliow any extraordinary 
increase and that business is hoped to be 
put on a sounder footing. Prices have been 
— and still are— miserable ; but our corre- 
spondent only 'had to shut down one month, 
starting work early in February. Thousands 
of cases of copra were refused in his case 
as buyers seemed to expect the "millers" 
to work at a loss. The demand this year 
has been good, but the prices offered were 
quite xuiworkable as a rule so far. Even 
now large contracts are offered at low rates 
for forward delivery ; but forward contracts 
these days .are highly dangerous and all that 
is vauted is a fair price for a good article. 
Assam Rubber— Govern3ient Plantation 
AT Charduar — An interesting special article, 
which we take over from the EnglisJiman 
elsewhere, gives full particulars regarding the 
establishment of this plantation by the Assam 
Government. We reproduce it in full be- 
cause, we believe a knowledge of the methods 
employed and the results obtained by this 
Assam estate, if not a source of profit, will 
at least be of interest to Ceylon cultivators. 
The Assam Forest Department has planted 
out several thousand acres of indigenous 
trees, Ficus elastica. Experiments were also 
made in para and ceara, but both proved a 
complete failure, t-'everal lakhs of rupees were 
expended on the work. 
Cacao in Mexico.— Cacao-tree cultivation ia 
now leceiving more than ordinary attention at the 
hands of the Mexican plantation-owner. On the 
isthmus of Tehuantepec and in the States of 
Tabasco and Chiapas the tree grows wild in the 
forests, and produces even in its wild state large 
pods filled with a fine quality of bean. Cultivation, 
while it does not improve the quality greatly 
increases the yield of the tree. The Aztecs, long 
before the discovery of j'merica, devoted them 
selves to its cultivation, and among them it had 
such a stable value that the beans were used as a 
medium of exchange. The exportation to the 
United States has grown from 9,000,000 lb in 1883 
to 62,000,000 lb in 1903. The greatest producing 
section is the Soconusco district, in the State of 
Chiapas. — Chemist and Lmggist. 
Fresh Water Pearls in Scotland.— 
An interesting article on " Our Native Pearl 
Fisheries " appears in a recent number of the 
Scotsman. 'The pearl seekers of the north 
are as a rule of the gypsy class or ne'er- 
do-weels who have no liking for game-keepers 
and bailiffs. The pearl bearing mussel is 
found in all the rivers of the North of Scotland 
where the bottom provides suitable har- 
bourage; and streams flowing out of a loch, 
or from one loch to another, are the most 
favoured. Evidently the Scottish pearl has 
no need of a " Platyhelmenthian parasite' 
or a " Tetrarhynchus unionifactor" for its 
formation, for certainly in these Highland 
burns are no file-fishes, Trygons or Rays ; 
can it be that minnows, trout and salmon 
take their place ? The writer in the Scotsman 
suggests an investigation of the Scottish 
fisheries as a new remedy for the crofter 
occupations difficulty— a new field, possibly, 
for Professor Herdman to win fresh laurels ! 
The writer made friends with one, Sandy, 
a pearl fisher and invested his finds — "most 
of the contents of his bottles were pearlets 
of the size of large millet seed, with a few 
as large as swan shot. The most valuable 
of his iJi'izes he kept to the last, and, un- 
rolling one of his paper wads, produced a 
really beautiful gem, about the size of a 
large marrow-fat pea, perfectly round, and 
of a lustre quite unusual for a Scottish 
native pearl. This he expected to sell for at 
!east £i. In a good season Sandy expected 
to make as much as £4 to £5 per week by 
the united labours of himself and his wife, 
whose duty it was to open the mussels," 
(Unselfish Sandy !). 
