Nov. 1, 1901.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
343 
trees, threatened to smother the seedlings ; but 
even this work was not thorough, and for months 
at a time the young rubber trees were without 
any care. 
Work was resumed ou the company's plantations 
during the spring and early summer of the present 
year, and is now being regularly carried on. It 
was found on cleaning up the rubber plantation that, 
while losses had been heavy, there were thousands of 
" young rubber trees," and that some of them were 
doing remarkably well, showing the urst developments 
of that enormous length of trunk, found among trees 
of the forest which have grown upwards until the 
sunlight above the woodlands has been reached — a 
condition that produces a great length of trunk 
for breeding, promising pounds of rubber where less 
favourable trees would yield only ounces, Many 
varied conditions of development were found at the 
company's plantations, the most important being as 
follows : Trees on moist, but not wet land, where 
the sarrounding forest had been opened to allow a 
fair amount of sunlight, but not enough to burn 
the young trees, were the best. At such places many 
of the trees presented a growth sufficiently vigorous 
to promise the development of strong rabber pio- 
ducing trees without any further attention. After 
these the most favourable were those trees growing 
on moist land, but with the sunlight and free cir- 
culation of the air impeded by the surrounding 
forests these, however, were doing well, and 
while their growth was not phenomenal it 
was very satisfactory. Trees showing a rather 
unfavorable development were those on moist ground 
but too much in the open sun. Growth had been 
vigorous, but there were too many sunburned buds to 
give much promise of successful maturity. Of very 
poor development were trees growing in rather dry 
places in the hot sun. Many of these were dead the 
few that remained were very small, some being only 
two or three inches high. Of very bad appearance 
were those trees which were on rather dry land 
in the deep shade, almost entirely cut off from the 
sun. Nearly all of these were dead, among: the 
very few remaining alive none were vigorous many 
had not progressed beyond the first stages of grow th, 
though wood was forming where the tender shoot 
had been, they were simply dwarfed trees, that 
had never progressed after the cotyledons had been 
absorbed. ^ 
It appears from these results, that under ordinary 
circumstances, the Castilloa elastica 
REQUIRES FOR ITS BEST DEVELOPMFJNT 
damp soil, open shade, and some sunlight. The best 
trees on the plantations of the South American Land 
and Exploration Co., Limited, at their Sierra Nevada 
de Santa Marta properties, are on rather damp land, 
and have had about one hour's full sunlight each 
day. The very favourable results that have been 
obtained on these plantations, after subjecting them 
to nearly eighteen months' abandonment, is to my 
mind strong evidence that the best method for plant- 
ing Castilloa elastica is along open pathways through 
the forests which enable the planter to make an 
adjustment of shade and sunlight suitable to the 
special requirements of the locality selected for 
planting ; and further I am fully convinced that 
to clear all the land, and keep it clean is a useless 
expense, that a series of pathways intersecting at 
light angles will give quite as many trees to the 
acre as on cleared land and, that under some climatic 
conditions at least, too much sun will burn the 
tender buds of young rubber trees, and, influencing 
older trees, will harden the bark, thereby checking 
the flow of latex through the ducts, which in Cas- 
tilloa elastica are just under the bark, a condition 
which when the bark is too hard may impair the 
tree's capacity to produce rubber. 
While I advocate open pathways for Castilloa 
elastica, juctice to all conditions requires a brief 
notice of results obtained at 
PLANTATIONS IN JAMAICA, 
owned by the^same company. These plantations are 
in Portland parish, where rains are excessive, the 
ground usually saturated with water, and penetrating 
fogs are frequent. Here the most vigorous among 
the young rubber trees are those where there is an 
abundance of sunlight. At places where there is 
some shade, the trees are vigorous and healthy, 
but are not so large as those in the more open places, 
their leaves are a deeper green, and perhaps they 
are ratter more healthy than those grown in the sun. 
Trees which were planted where there is a very 
limited amount af sun, are straggling and unhealthy. 
In the few places where there is little, if any sun, 
the trees are nearly all dead. 
The advantages of open pathways were demonst- 
rated in Jamaica ; for, on my last annual inspection 
of the company's properties, it was a simple matter 
to order that overhanging branches should be cut 
away to provide sufficient sun to meet the require- 
ments of this region, and at present all the com- 
pany's trees in Jamaica are growing vigorously. 
These results furnish strong evidence that Castilloa 
elastica requires nn adjustment of sunlight and shade, 
varying with the climate, and the geological conditions 
of the region that has been selected for planting. 
Whethvir the best means of providing this adjustment 
is to be found in open pathways, is, perhaps, not fully 
proved ; but at any rate they have given good results 
at the plantations which are being developed under my 
direction. — India Butiber World, September 1st. 
SEED IMPORTATION FOR CENTRAL 
AFRICA. 
A special meeting of the BOA Chamber of Agri- 
culture and Commerce was held on Wednesday after- 
noon to consider a motion with reference to the 
importation of seed from countries prohibited under 
the present coffee leaf disease regulations. There were 
present : — Messrs. Beaton, Metcalfe, Hynde, Stark, 
Luke, Partridge, Lloyd, and MacMorland, Secretary. 
Being a special meeting the Chairman called upon Mr 
Hynde to make his motion. Mr Hynde moved the 
adoption of the scheme which we publish below and 
supported it for the following reasons ; — 
He stated that it was quite evident that there was 
a want of stamina in the coffee, and while he did 
not attribute the bad condition of many of the coffee 
plantations to this cause alone, but thought that the 
recent labour troubles, bug and borer, had a great 
deal to do with the weakening plants ; still there was 
no doubt that a large influx of new seed was neces- 
sary. He pointed out that hitherto seed had been 
only imported from Jamaica, and that many of their 
importations were failures. The Government scheme 
had not worked out, while valuable time was being 
lost. Importing seed from Jamaica meant that we 
were importing from one little island, and from one 
particular district of that island, v/hereas it was 
essential to get new seeds from widely different places. 
Especially was it necessary to get some of the seeds 
from the Indian coffee districts. It was also neces- 
sary to import shade seeds. Under the present re- 
gulations we had been compelled to make experiments 
with new seeds, and these experiments had been 
costly in the extreme, and in many cases had ended 
in failure. Such experiments were unnecessary when 
tested shade trees could be imported direct from the 
Indian coffee districts under proper safeguards. It 
was further absolutely necessary to import new econ- 
omic plants and many of these could only be got 
from prohibited countries. There would be, in many 
cases, no danger as they could be got from districts 
where no coffee had been grown, and where the dis- 
ease was not likely to be. It was a question, he 
thought, for the planters to decide whether they were 
willing to take the risk. He proposed a scheme in 
which every precaution which could be suggested by 
science and experience would be taken against the in. 
