July 1, 1901.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
23 
to be made as straight as possible, and about 16 feet 
wide by halt a mile in length. Of course, not a 
single tree should be sacrificed, only small branches 
beino; removed. Farther straight walks are made 
every 650 feet, measurins' 16 feet wide and 1600 
feet long. Thus are obtained plots of about 24 
square acres eash. It tiie forest is a very fine one, 
this area may be doubled. 
When seedling plants with eight leaves are 
ready for moving the men prepare a puvce in the 
forest with their hatchets, cutting down the un- 
dergrowth but leivviugall trees, old and young. 
They remove just enough brushwood to enaWe 
them to reach the foot ot the trees. Experience 
has shown that 100 men can in a day prepare 
twenty-four acres of standard forest (haute futafe) 
suitably for the reception of Lianas. The forest is 
well adopted to a nursery ground and is worked 
with a short-handled shovel, with which the Lianas 
can be transplanted without injury to the roots. 
The planters take with them vessels of water into 
which they trust the roots of the young plants. 
These pots, full of a certain number of specimens, 
are taken to one of the prepared squares and there, 
with a dibber or shovel, little holes are made round 
each tree for a specified number of tiie plants, 
which are set in up to their first leaves. The num- 
ber of each group varies from two to twenty ac- 
cording to the size and shape of the supporting 
trees. These trees are not so much to prop as to 
arrange the Lianas, which might otherwise choose 
a resting place more than 300 feet away. The 
plants are set some 12 to 20 inches from the foot 
of the trees, not in the fibrous earth generally 
found there to a certain extent but in the actual 
and firm natural subsoil. Thus there is a minimum 
of about 2500 Lianas for every 2 acres. After 
planting the ground is supervised for two months, 
and when the grower has replaced any dead 
plants and is certain that all are doing well, the 
forest is left to itself ; in this consists one secret 
of caoutchouc growing. The plants require stag- 
nant air saturated with damp and should be dis- 
turbed as little as possible. They should be allow- 
ed to ascend to the tops of the trees and after 
some years form a thicket impenetrable to the 
sunshine, thus destroying all the underwood. It 
is absolutely necessary to institute organised 
surveillance to guard against the depredations of 
natives and of animals who might destroy the 
trees and form new paths. No other precaution 
is necessary. 
There is much difference ot opinion as to when 
the caoutchouc may fitly be collected. I am dis- 
posed to say that the plants should not be dis- 
turbed before their tenth year. 
The question of the number of Lianas to be 
planted to every 2 acres has little importance; from 
2,500 to 5,000 is a fair estimate, Perhaps iu the 
course of a few years some improved method of 
extracting the caoutchouc will be discovered, for, 
if all the rubber could be drawn from the tissues 
ot the bark and leaves, the yield would be 
trebled. 
It is in the above-mentioned manner that we 
have, in equatorial AfricE)., established trial- 
grounds on the scale of 10,000 plants per 2 acres 
on 74 acres of the forest. Wherever this industry 
may be started, it will be found indispensable to 
keep strictly to a detailed plan on a scale of 1 to 
5,000, for instance, made of the ground under 
cultivation. Guide posts are also to be recom- 
mended for use in forests thus utilised. Louis 
Gentil, Inspecteur Forcsfier do VEtat Inde- 
pendant du Congo.— Gardeners' Chronicle,— 
April 27. 

SPORT IN DAYS OP OLD. 
AFTER ELEPH.\NT IN BALANGODA JUNGLES 
By H, B, 
Dunraven Estate, Mlanje, British Central Africa, 
It was in the year 18— when living at Ratna- 
pura, Ceylon (in the most relaxing, hot, wet, 
and steamy climate in the world) that I was pining 
for a change but did not know where to go. So 
a happy thought struck me, viz., " write to old J M 
—get up to an elevation of about 3,000 ft. above 
sea level, recruit my lost energy, and have 
some sport at the same time " ; for I heard there 
was a 
ROGUE ELEPHANT 
near J M's estate, which should afford good 
sport ; for the beast had the reputation ot having 
hunted many a Tamil cooly, and being account- 
able for the death of a few, on a lonely path 
which had to be traversed by the labourers on 
their way to Balangoda bazaars for their weekly 
supply of rice. 
This huge monster was said to be both deaf 
and blind, but his sense of smell was keen 
and he had hunted down his victims like a blood- 
hound : his age was guessed to be great by his 
enormous size and the fact of his having large 
wbite blotciies all over his body,— particularly 
about the head, ears, and neck. A reward of 
liSO was offered by the Government for the des- 
truction of this reputed rogue, said to be then 
in the neighbourhood ot Bambarabotuwa, not 
very far from Adam's PeaK. 
Although I was bent upon shooting a rogue 
elephant (for which no license was required) ; in 
case of meeting others during ray forest rambles 
I decided to obtain a license for one elephant, 
and also a license for shooting other game. So I 
proceeded to the Government Agent's Otiice, and 
obtained the documents necessary to save me 
from being run in by any officious village 
headmen, who are always ready to report any 
and every European shooting in their neighbour- 
hood, whether licensed or not, although those 
ofiicials always overlook and share in game 
shot without a license by natives in their district. 
Well, my horse-keeper had orders to get ready 
for the roal at 5 a.m. next morning, and my 
appu to have everything else prepared for a fort- 
night. By the appointed hour I was up and 
soon trotted along the road as far as Pelmadulla, 
where there is a Government Resthouse, 12 miles 
from Ratnipura. Here I intended to stop for 
only a fevv minutes to see an old acquain- 
tence and get the news. I was told by my 
friend tlia^ I must stay breakfast, as he had an 
elephant yarn to tell me ; of course, any- 
thing about such noble sport, especially as 
I was beat on shooting the notorious Bam'bara- 
botuwa rogue, was sufficient inducement for mejto 
stop, although I fully intended to get along 
another nine miles or more. 
Meantime my friend called for whisky and 
soda for two, by way of an appetiser to the yarn 
he had so often repeated to others before me, 
and which by the way I had, second-hand, heard 
myself. He began, " You know, B ~, the 
