May 2, 1904.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTUlilST. 
771 
cost of properties, inclnding depreciation of maohi- 
nery and bnildiuga £l,flOC, (3) In carrying forward to 
1904 the balance of £2,941 10s 5d.— Total £9,341 lOs 5d. 
The following are details of the acreage of the 
different properties as on 1st January 1904 : — 
Acreage under Tea. 
Partial Forest Total 
Estate. Bear- Bearing. Total. Resrves, Acr. 
ing. &c. 
Polatagama 791 50 841 201 1,042 
Weoya and New 
Polatagama 727 .. 727 315 1,072 
Walpola 871 .. 871 145 1,016 
Kondura 581 20 601 629 1,230 
2,970 70 3,040 1,320 4,360 
The Directors continue to receive satisfactory ac- 
counts as to the condition of the company's Estates and 
they again desire to express their appreciation of the 
careful attention devoted to the management of the 
properties. In terras of the Articles of Association, 
Mr J M Skinner retires from the Board, and being 
eligible, offers himself for re-election. Messrs. Cape 
and Dalgleish, C A offer themselves for re election as 
Auditors of the Company. — By Order of the Board, 
T A Williams*, — <Secy. 
27, Mincing Lane, London E 0, 26th;March 1904,' 
A BELGIAN RUBBER EXPERT IN CEYLON. 
We have to welcome on arrival from 
Belgium by the N. L. "Bayern " on a second 
tour of the East, M. Octave Collet, who passed 
thrtiugh (Jolombo in September last after 
a thorough study of Rubber in the Malay 
States, The result of his last tour in the 
East, which extended over several months, 
has appeared — in December last — in a volume, 
finely illustrated with first hand photographs, 
the work of the writer, entitled " Hevea 
Asiatique." It has been widely noticed : in 
the rubber periodicals and M. Vilbouchevitch's 
French journal. Immediately on its publica- 
publication in Belgium, the French Govern- 
ment ordered 1,000 copies— for distribution, 
no doubt, throughout the French Colonies. 
M. Collet, who hopes to spend a fortnight 
in Ceylon, visiting as much of our rubber 
districts as possible, will proceed from here 
to Deli, Sumatra ; thence to the Malay 
States again, and to Singapore— which 
will, in fact, be his headquarters for one 
year ; and from there to the Philippines 
where there is a large rubber plantation 
he is especially anxious to vi^it. After the 
tour a second volume of the work above 
referred to will be produced, which — re- 
ferring, as it will do, to Ceylon in some de- 
tail—will be of special interest to local 
readers. M. Collet, we may mention, has 
some experience of rubber in the Congo, 
and from him we learnt that there are no 
less than three leading places in Congo State 
where Rubber is growing under the auspices 
of Government and can be seen at its best ; 
at Buma, the cajjital, there are about 75 to 
80 trees, few in uumlier, but of magnificent 
girth. At Maiwamba, further inland, there 
are some 35,000 trees, and again further up 
the river, at an elevation of 2,000 feet, is 
another good-sized plantation ; the difference 
in extreme temperatures at this place, however, 
is as much as some 60 degrees Fahrenheit. 
"We trust M. Collet's visit to Ceylon will be 
an instructive one. He hopes to visit Kalutara 
district, where he looks forward to making 
experiments, if opportunity offers, with a new 
tapping knife which has been patented on 
the Continent, and of which he is the in- 
ventor, and also Matale and other districts 
We understand that agents for the knife 
will be appointed in Colombo, and as soon 
as results are available, our readers may 
count on seeing them in our pages. 
e . 
GUTTA RAMBONG IN CEYLON. 
Mr. H. W. Bailey informs us that on 
Moorock Estate, Kurunegala, he has 13 acres 
of " gutta ramhong" rubber. "I believe," 
he says, "this is the cnly estate in Ceylon 
with Gutta Rambong over 5 years old. In 
the Straits I hear they are now giving 
20 lb. each of dry rubber, and it has been 
valued at 4s 6d per lb. Do you know of 
any other estate in Ceylon?" We are not 
certain in what other districts there are old 
plantations of this Ficus, but think there may 
be some in Matale. Perhaps some Matale 
planter can give us further information on the 
subject ? 
THE GOVERNMENT STOCK GARDEN 
EXPERIMENTS. 
NEW COTTON SEED FROM THE SOUDAN. 
AND A NEW VARIETY " CAUAVONICA. " 
Experiments in cotton-growing have been 
going on in the Government Stock Garden 
under the supervision of Mr. C Drieberg 
(Superintendent, School Gardens) for the past 
two years. Among the first varieties tried 
(procured through the Madras Agri-Horti- 
cultural Society) were the Louisiana and 
Lousiana Prolific, New Orleans, Goro Hill and 
Nankin. Samples of the lint were forwarded 
to us and referred to in our columns, while 
we understand that, at the request of Mr. 
Willis, larger samples were sent to him to 
be submitted to the British Cotton Growers' 
Association for expert opinion. Though some 
of the varieties referred to did well, they are 
not considered (as was pointed out by a 
local expert in these columns) the best for 
cultivation here. Seeds were distributed to 
a large number of schools for growing in 
he Government School Gardens, which are 
now to be found in all but the Northern 
and Eastern Provinces, but favourable re- 
ports and good samples came only from the 
N.C.P. and N.W.P. Schools. 
The next lot of seed was from the stock 
procured from India by Mr. Willis. This is 
now being tried, and a good deal of it has 
gone to well-known land owners in the 
Western and N.-W. Province. 
With the object of securing a hardy 
perennial variety as most suitable to local 
conditions, Mr. Drieberg placed himself in 
communication with the most likely parties 
abroad, and not long ago secured a small 
quantity of a new variety, called Cnravonica, 
This is the " highly recommended cotton " 
referred to in the "Agricultural Magazine" 
for Feliruary last. It has been evolved by 
hybridisation from a Peruvian and Sea Island 
variety by Dr. Thomatis. Unfortunately the 
quantity of seed secured only suffices for 
trial in the Stock Garden and perhaps one 
or two of the most suitable schools, and not 
tor distribution. 
