THE TROPICAL 
AGIRCULTURIST. [July 1, 1901. 
CASTILLOA RUBBER IN MATALE. 
Major Gordon Reeves is good enough to 
answer our enquiry about this rubber as 
follows : — 
" About Castilloa Rubber, this tree grows 
luxuriantly on suitable land, not only two 
miles i'roni Mitale, but on clearings opened 
ten miles to the North. 
"Year-old plants are having a growth of 3 
to 4 feet. Our experiment in tapping at 
Wiharegama gave us a yield of about 2 lb. 
per tree good rubber ; valuation of which has 
already appeared, viz., 3s 6d per lb. 
"This was tapping from October to June. 
Latex does not flow in dry weather, 'fhese 
trees are about 10 to 12 years old and girth 
about 36 to 42 inches at 4 feet from ground." 
Well done! This beats the Straits— 7s per 
tree in 9 months is exceedingly good. What 
now about seed?— which from 10-12 yeai'S old 
trees ought to be very valuable. 
THE BAMBOO IN FLOWER. 
Has anything, we wonder, corresponding 
to this been observed in Ceylon?— 
" Mr. A. Smythies of the Forest Service writes to 
the Indian Forester on the extraordinary Aof/er- 
ing of the bamboo in the Central Provinces of India: 
A somewhat remarkable event is taking place in 
the Chanda district of the Central Provinces, and 
that is the flowering, on a large scale of the ordi- 
nary bamboo. The area over which the flowering 
extends is estimated at 1,200 square miles, and in 
this area, although a few clumps here and there 
have escaped, the phenomenon is universal. But 
the extraordinary point about it is that clumps ot 
all ages are flowering— not only mature clumps but 
Buite slender seedlings of six or seven years' growth 
or even less. Last year the droughts afl^ected the 
bamboos in the Dhaba Range of this district, and 
the bamhDo flowered over a small area, and pro- 
duced a kind of manna. Many thousands of people 
were kept alive for some weeks on the seed. This 
Year the area is infinitely larger, and the whole 
population will, in course of time, flock to the 
forests to gather the seed. The consequences to the 
people in the vicinity of this flowering and subse- 
quent death of the bamboo will be rather serious. 
It is probable that, in this district at least the bam- 
boo does flower gregariously over fairly large areas 
as three of the oldest inhabitants informed me that 
they had seen the bamboo flower twice." 
PRODUCE, PLANTING AND COMMER- 
CIAL NOTES. 
Discussing the new season for China teas, " The 
Grocer " points out that " statistics, if they mean 
anvthing, are unfavourable. Taking the ortieial 
fiaures for the first four months of the year only, 
we note that, while the importations of China tea 
into the United Kingdom were but 3,201,066 lb., 
acainst 4,376,970 lb. in 1900, the clearances for 
home use had shrunk to 3,970.377 lb., in contrast 
with 6,277,523 lb. in the same period last year ; and 
tiie auantitv exported diminished to 3,988,648 lb. 
instead of reaching 8,780,505 lb, as in the four 
mouths of 1900. In all these totals the compan- 
Hon for the year lyul is on the wrong side, and 
to this fact .nust be ad*led another of equal 
Bigaiacaace, viz., that a stock of over 30,«00 
half-chests of old season's teas are lying unsold or 
unshipped at Foochow Foo, at a time when the port 
there ought to be clear of such goods and waiting 
to receive arrivals ot tlie new crop directly tliey are 
sent up from the interior. One cause for the flat 
condition ot the market far China tea is that trie 
chief blenders mix them much less freely than they 
did a year or two afro, Then there was an appre- 
ciable dili'ereuce in the prices between China tea 
on the one hand and both Indian and Ceyloa 
growths on the other — which difference was entire- 
ly in favour of China. Now, however, market 
rates for Indian and Ceylon are as low as, if not 
lower than, those for China teas ; and consequently 
the former kinds claim more attention from the 
putters-up of packet teas than the latter. Asia 
well known, the big blenders, who once took the 
commoner class of China tea to increase the bulk 
of Indians and Ceylons, and so bring down the 
averages of value where quotations for a quick 
sale were thought to be too high, are now care- 
ful to keep strictly to British-grown sorts which 
are extremely cheap and much more suited to 
their purpose. "—i? <fe C Mail, May 17. 
SISAL HEMP. 
[From a letter of Dr. Montis, C. 31. G., Jan 1901.) 
As no doubt you are aware considerable sums have 
been lost in attempting to start a Sisal industry in 
the Bahamas, chiefly through want of knowledge of 
the requirements of the plant and the sudden rush of 
persons who took up perfectly useless land at ruinous 
prices, I have estimated that under favourable con- 
ditions the cost of cultivating and extracting the fibre 
should not exceed about £10 or £12 per ton. The 
market price, however, is very variable. It has been 
as low as alsout f 13 per ton ; on the other hand, it 
has, for one or two years continuously, been as high 
as £30 to £40 per ton, or even higher. The plant wiU 
undoubtedly grow in Trinidad and Tobago. There are 
already a large number of plants running wild in 
the latter Island. It is to be remembered that it 
is not a cultivation for small proprietors, it is carried 
on on very much the same lines as a cane cultivation. 
I estimate that it requires a capital of about ^£7,000 
to £10,000 to start and maintain a plantation of, say, 
1,000 acres in regular working. Anything less than 
the area above given would not keep the scutching 
machines in full working, and thus add to the cost of 
management and the up-keep of the plantations. As 
only about three per cent, of the weight of leaves is 
returned in fibre, there is a heavy cartage of leaves 
to the factory. On an estate turning out say 500 tons 
of fibre not less than about 15,000 tons of leaves have 
to be brought to the mill. This necessarily involves 
considerable expenditure in carts and stock, or in 
estate tramways. It is stated that in very rich soils 
the fibre is not so strong and abundant as in compa- 
ratively poor soils in dry climates. Again, in the 
Bahamas, it was found that absolutely barren land was 
quite useless and led to disappointment and loss. I 
would only add a word of caution that no one be ad- 
vised tj embark on the industry unless he has ample 
means and can afford to wait some years before the 
plantation begins to yield the first returns. — Trinidad 
Bulletin. 
Ceylon Hills Tea Estates Company.— 
We regret to see that it should be deemed 
necessary to wind up this Tea Plantations 
Company, but apparently there is no alter- 
native. The Company owns four plantations : 
Rowley in Balangoda, Agra-oya and 
Hardenhuish in Lower Dikoya, and Laxa- 
panagala in Maskeliya— altogether about 
1,314: acres of tea. 
