242 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Oct. 1, 1901. 
Lutea, a large forest tree, approximately as big as an 
average English elm. These ti-ees are aelf-pUatei. 
They grow in clumps, of estralas, of tL-om 100 to 
150 together, aad these olumps ririe w.ll above ihe 
other forest trees, and can be seen from ;if ir, so th i,t 
the ricbnsss of aay area can b) jalged ijy a geuef-al 
oversight from a coram ijndi ig p isi .ion. 
"Tne catt of pi-odn; i "i, in B ilivia'i do'lari, of 
100 lb of M)llendo rub; er iii the Mapiri forest is 
as follows : 
Paid to coatriotor, par 100 lb ... ... 73.00 
L)-i3 in weght, 10 per cent .. ... 7.30 
Freight from the forest to Sorato Tovya .. 5 01 
Comjiissions and rof.d lolls ... ... .60 
Cost of administration .. .. lO.OU 
Sicking, packing, commission, and freight 
to Chililavii, on Lake Titioao > . . 3.20 
Freight, insurance, and all iucideatal ex- 
penses to London . . . . 12.00 
110.10 
•'Or, reckoning the Bolivian dol. eqaal to 183, the 
coit of a pound of M opiri rabber put down in London 
is 19 82d. 
" From the book? of two other forest owners in 
the same neighbourhood, I find a slightly higher cost, 
20.16d per lb. The present price of this rubber in 
London ia about 4s per lb. 
" Coming now to a consideration of the possible 
supply of rubber to be drawn from the MoUeudo 
forests, we enter a region of conjecture, for, of 
coarse, the trees have not been counted, not ev( u 
the number of eatradas. A part of one estate has 
been recently jjrovsn to contain 6,410 estradas 
(961,500 treee), when, according to the originsrol eEtimate, 
the whole estate contained only 500,000 trees. Twenty 
million trees may be taken as the lowest probable 
limit of the number of trees, while they may not 
improbably turn out to rea.h 50,000,'JOO, or even 
more. Now, ia the season 1897-S, the amount of 
MoUendo rubber exported was 491, OS? lb, which., at 
3 lb per tree, represents the yield of only 163,695 
trees, - nd the same number of days' labour at 3 Irt 
per man per day. If one Indian is taken as working 
for three weeks, it represents the labour of only 
7,795 Indians out of a population of 3l0,000 in the 
Department of La Paz. The possible increase of 
output is thus clearly enormous. How is it to be 
brought about ? 
Sir Martin's answer to this query is that the forest 
proprieiors must make roads for themselves, for ths 
Government is too poor yet ; the rubber-producing 
provinces must be governed wisely and well, with 
acientifio foresight. The query, we imagine, was half 
inswered before it was asked. — India-Bubber Trades' 
Journal, July 22. 
OOPTEE IMPORTS AND EXPORTS. 
We I'ecently showed tint, accorditii^ to 
the Customs Accounts for 1900, about aruillion 
lb. of coffee approximately, was imported 
into, and exported from, Ceylon last year. 
But we learn from a Colombo merchant 
that a certain quantitv of coffee from 
Southern Imlia is brought over in "parch- 
ment," to be "cured" and re exported home 
from Colombo, there being no import duty 
(as in the case of tea) to interfere with 
this trade coming to our port for the 
benefit of the men, women and children 
employed in local mills. 
Now, what we want to point out to the 
Chamber of Commerce and Planters' Asso- 
ciation is that no notice is taken of the 
coffee referred to as "reexported" in the 
Customs Accounts. On the contrary, all the 
imports are put down as for "home (local) 
consumption," and all the exports as the 
produce of Ceylon"! But it is evident 
tliat by whatever quantity came here from 
Southern India to be "cured," the figures 
tor local con^^a^nption and productirya are 
wrong for 190J. This is a matter of some 
iraportauc^i and should be looked into- for 
both the C.itmher aad Association publish 
the co.tde experts as indicating the local 
crop. Che fault may ,iot be with the 
Ciistom-i, bub ratlier with the owners or 
agents of the corf-e brought here to cure, 
in that they havre failed to declare to the 
Oustoms that the same was not for local 
consumptKm and ag lin. in exporting, that 
It was not the produce of Ceylon 
PLANTING NOTES. 
OOFFFF.— Dr. Davi.l B Re dei. of Chicaoo con- 
demn.s the habiiinl u-e of coffee as irarmful 
and Ins opinion is .supported by ihe Jojirnal of t/i'e 
American Medical Association, uoft'ee is said 
to produce serious nirrvcms! disorder.^, and is 
considered by some physicians to have a worse 
elfect tnan aliohol. It is urged that Americiaus 
consume too much cofiFee. — Rio Neivs. 
Customs Inspectfon of Tea.. —We remarked 
yesterday th.t what Ceylon chiefly wanted 
was a ' standard " below which no tea should 
be allowed to be exported ; hut the same 
s&and ird could, of course, be applied to im- 
ports when Ceyion is in.tde a ■• free port " 
in respect of tea, and then rapidly becomes 
the greatest Tea Port in Asia. 
Tea Company Meetings. -Two important 
Tea Company meetings were held in Colombo 
today, th';' H ipvig •ihI.i ade Company (of which 
M-ssrs.Lew,,-. J.-r ,■, ,>cUo. areagentsi declaring 
a dividend CO i.er cent, and the Wanaraiah 
Company (Messrs. Baker & Hall, agents ) 
paying 12 per cent for the half year 
or 17 per cent for the full period. This we 
consider a veiy splendid resuic indeed in these 
depressed times and reflecting the greatest 
credit upon Mr. Keith Rollo and the other 
members of the staff, as was duly recognised 
by the shareholders today. 
Coconut Oil— It is curious how reports seem 
to get about, that are so utterly unforanded, that 
the people concerned are often the most aston- 
ished at the news. The SeTetary of Central 
Trelawny '-iraneh reports an inie:view wiili the 
manager of the Kokil Company at Rio Bueno 
(Sf^e Branch Noc^-s.) It was currently reported 
and nieiti ined at iine of the meeinigs of ihe 
B rani of Muiagement of this Society" that the 
Kokai Coinpiny were going to siiut down ; 
thst thir'y coulii not get nuts enough, or that 
they could not get them cheap enough, or make 
enough oil from them to make them pay. But Mr 
Scott reports that the manager has said to him 
that anyone siying the Company was goincr to 
stop business is very far wrong, that they have 
contracts for two to three millions of iiu s, that 
they do not buy le -s than one ihousaml 'at a 
time, (which shows thit they can get plenty,) 
and that ibey pay thirty .sliillings per one 
th ousainl for nuts, and for hu-iked nuts 
forty shillings per one i;housand. We are glad 
that the enterpii-*e is prosjiering. — The Journal 
Of the Jamaica Agricultural Society, July 19iil. 
