Sept, 2, 1901.] THE T-ROPICAL ACtRICULTTTRIST. 
159 
The trees shown in figures 10 aud 11 are worked 
on orange stocks, as weie also the parent trees 
from which the buds were taken to work these 
trees, so that when they come into bearing it will 
give tia a good idea as to their suitability for this 
district. The object in importing these trees was to 
ascertain which were the best and most profitable 
varieties to grow in this State, as also to prove 
whether it is the true Washington or some other 
variety of navel which has proved such a shy bearer 
with us. 
As there are thousands of peach trees beai-ing 
poor fruit in the State, it will be of interest to 
many to have the reworking of such trees demon- 
strated. Fig. No. 12 shows a large peach-tree out 
back during winter's pruning. If the grower 
wishes, however, he may leave them until the 
latter part of August, when they can be cut back 
and grafts inserted, by splitting the bark down the 
side, then raising the bark and inserting a scion 
between the wood and bark. Bind firmly with 
waxed cloth, and cover the cut with a thin coating 
of grafting wax. Should any of the grafts miss, 
bads may be inserted the following February in 
the new growth. All surplus growth should be 
rubbed off, leaving young shoots in such positions 
as are most desirable to start main branches, the 
latter to have buds inserted in the exact places 
where main branches are required. It is generally 
found best to bud on the outside of the tree as 
that generally gives the tree a good crown, 
whereas, if the buds are put on the inner side of 
the branches, the limbs grow towards the centre 
of the tree, making a very close and undesirable 
crown. 
Pig. No. 13 is the same tree after it has made six 
months' growth. The buds will be inserted within a 
few inches of the base of the new growth. The top 
will be well out back in the winter at pruning time, 
and the growth forced into the buds so that they will 
form a good crown. 
Fig. No 14. A tree which has been cut back and 
budded — the buds showing the first summer's 
growth. 
Fig, No. 15. The same tree as in fig. 14, two 
years after budding. It will be seen that this tree 
had longer arms left on it at time of cutting back 
than fig. No. 12, and consequently the tree is not 
nearly so well shaped as it would have been had the 
main branches been well cut back in the first 
place. 
It will be seen thai in treating a tree intended for 
reworking to better varieties it' is best to cut it back 
to within 6 inches of the trunk rather than to leave 
arms 2 feet or more in length. — Agncultur-il Gazette 
of N, S, l^ales. 
CULTIVATION OP RUBBER TREES, 
Some people may be surprised to learn that there 
is still a raw product that man finds just as difficult 
to obtain as it was a hundred years ago, and that 
it is harder to obtain than ever. It is the milk of a 
very insignificant-looking tree, growing in great 
quantities over a large tract of territory. The tree 
itself is generous ; liquid follows the incision ; a 
wait of a few hours for the milk to harden and a 
man has the equivalent of a day's wages. This 
white liquid, after exposure to heat, and many 
species lo that of the sun alone, and without any 
further treatinent, gives thirty per cent of its bulk 
in pure rubber. Despite this, the world cannot 
obtain a tithe of the supply it needs. The simple 
reason for this state of affairs is that the tree, 
although generous itself, elects to grow in regions 
which for the mof-t part are death to white men, 
and are removed from civilization by thousands of 
miles of swamp and jungle. 
To alter this condition of this two sets of men 
are working on opposite lines. They are engaged in 
*. «ort of race for t, very high stake— an unasally 
high stake indeed, as the pure rubber is now 
selling for something more than §1 a pound. One 
set are chemists, who have been trying their best 
for the last twenty-five years to flud a substitute 
for rubber. So far there has not been an unquali- 
fied success among their attempts, and there are 
experts who go so far as to say that chemically it is 
impossible to combine for the market a substitute 
having the different properties of pure rubber. Be 
that as it may, hardly a day passes but the long- 
expected substitute is brought forwa,rd and the com- 
pany formed to exploit the pevfeot substitute of 
the year before goes into the hands of a receiver. 
The field of activity of the other set of men is 
very different. It is found in a few farms in Mexico 
and Central America, and in a few government 
stations, notably in Jamaica and Ceylon. There 
are a small number of farms where something like 
a systematic attempt is being made to farm rubber 
on a large scale ; some half Aoznn in the Isthmus 
to Tehuantepec and a very few more in Nicaragua, 
Costa Eioa and the rest of Central America. 
The difficulties which confront this handful of 
farmers are peculiar. In the first place, no one ever 
tried before to make rubber grow as a crop for 
the market. There are no data, no facts of even the 
sitrplest kind to tell these men whether their ideas 
are the right ones. The natives of the country take 
no interest in this outside their own particular 
business, and a man about to establish a plantation 
has had to start fresh, with his own ideas to guide 
him ! and these latter cannot be said as yet to 
have become authoritative", for none of the farms 
are more than six years old, and the trees must be 
np that time before the question of growing them 
can he settled. Eubber planting, then, is not only 
an absolutely untried undertaking, but there has 
been nothing of tradition or general knowledge of 
the subject with which to make a start. If rubber 
were a delicate tree, or difficult to cultivate, the 
outlook would be disheartening indeed. 
Second, the general conditions are against the 
planter. The nature of the country throws him 
entirely upon his own resources, and the climate is 
apt to be enervating, to say the least. Transpor- 
tation is a great problem. Labour is scarce and 
not easy to handle, the native peon of Central 
America being a mixture of childishness and indepen- 
dence, and a hard drinker to boot. Although strong 
and active as young men, excellent axemen and 
better with a spade than any other labourers in the 
world, they become debilitated very early in life. 
They have no constitution anil mnst be cared for 
like children. Furthermore, they look to the patron, 
or owner, for the settlement of every ill, spiritual 
or temporal. You must keep them sober, get them 
out of debt, make ipeace between them and their 
wives, arrange any infelicities that may occur between 
them and their neighbours' wives, doctor the whole 
family and educate the children, if you have time. 
For the peon is essentially a creature formed for 
the patriarchial system. With a chief or employer 
whom they know or respect the better class of peons 
become in many essentials ideal labourers — steady, 
careful, hard-working, quick to catch an idea, faith- 
ful to follow it out, entirely honest ; their employer's 
interests become their own. Bat in order to obtain 
this desirable state of things a farmer should be a 
first-rate judge of capacity and character, a fair 
lawyer, physician and man of business. 
A third problem before the farmer of rubber is 
where to plant. Castilloa elastica, for practical pur- 
poses the only rubber in Central America, has an 
extremely varied habitat, It it found at all eleva- 
tions up to 2,000 feet and in a great variety of 
soils and locations, with a consequent variation of 
rainfall. So, here, again, the farmer must make a 
choice, and one upon which his success will prob- 
ably depend, with nothing to guide him in the 
making. As regards location, it is conceded that 
Castilloa needs a tropical climate, a rainfall that 
