Dec. 2, 1901.] 
tHE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTUEIST. 
TIPS FOR RUBBER GROWING. 
Mr. James Mannder wiites to ns from Sau Jutin 
EvaDgelista, Vera Cinz. Mexico, under da'.e 24lh 
June : — 
i will send rnbber seed to you and others dur- 
ing the next 10 or 15 days. Seed is now well 
ripened, tnd just begun to come in. Instead of 
writting another letter re Nurserj making, I send 
yon a copy of a letter I have just wiilten to the 
^resident of the Company I am working for. In 
it I have described the modus opeiandi. The Nur- 
sery described is, I think, the largest one ever 
made in this, or any other county. I am surprised 
that more attentim is not paid to lubber cultiva- 
tion all over India. In Travnncore sud Mysore 
there are thousands of acres of land adapted to 
the cultivation of lubber, from which (he respec- 
tive Governments only get a tittle money f ri. m 
grazeis of cattle. I remember many years ago, vhile 
on a shikar expedition out in the western pa't of 
Wiistara Taluq of Mysore, alone the liudra Kiver, 
near Bale) hunoor, also on the Toongabudra, I saw 
some cf the best kinds of rubber hinds. I shall 
send a ftw hundred seed to the Amildra of that 
Taluq, 88 well as to parties in Munzerabad, 
asking them to give ihem a fair trail. I will send 
you 21bs, of seed. Please make up your mind to 
whom you will give them, so that there will h'i no 
del»y in sending tbem out on arrival. The seed 
must be planted on arrival, as I em afraid that 
many will have lost their geiminating power on 
so long a jouiney. If the parties receiving the 
seed will follow the instructions as per letter heie- 
with, all good teed will Rerminate; the seeds are 
large and well packed in charcoBl as per instnctions 
received from the best experts in the seed business. 
If we can make rubber pay here in Maxico wheie 
we pay a little over Es. 2 per day, what could 
Eot your people do in India, where yon have the 
cheapest and best labour in the world? 
Following is the letter referred to above. 
The work been done this week on this place is 
the planting of rubber seed in the large nursery 
now being laid out near the banyan tree. We 
selected this place for the nuisery on account of 
its excellent soil, being near to our next year's 
location for planting, and because there were about 
15 acres of nearly level land, so necessary for making 
B good nursery. 
The forests having been cot down by the con- 
tractor, and burnt, we went to work, cut tip and 
burnt the remaining logs, then dug out all the 
small stumps, roots and creepers; after this stump 
pullers were set to woik, wilh a good pair of strong 
oxen, with the yoke tied to the horns, Mexican 
fashion, they did excellent work, in fact saved the 
Company hundreds of dollars, besides tearing up 
the ground so much there was no necessity of dig- 
ing it over. 
The earth having been dug out from among the 
roots of the stuinps, they weie piled in heaps and 
burnt. After this the grcnnd was levelled, raked 
over smooth, roads laid out; then the lines were 
laid cff at right angles to the reads 18 inches apart, 
and just one inch deep. Rubber seed sown about 
one inch apart in the lines, and covered as soon 
as possible after sowing. 
Any of the readers of the Planter having a fancy 
for figures they might find out the cumber of seed 
sown in this rnbber nursery. Here is the sum: — 
The nursery is 15 acres in extent. Deduct for a 
road 8 feet wide, and 900 feet long. The lines are 
18 inches apart, and seed sown one inch apart in 
the lines. xVTow, if one-third of the seed sown 
grows, how many plants will we have to plant out 
neit season ? 
We also had a gang of men planting corn, cf 
which we have about 160 acres planted, and seed 
corn enough to plant about 90 acres more. 
I will explain to you the Mexican method of 
com plantipg; the iomts baving been cnt down 
and burnt for plantirg rubber, the lines slaked 
out seven and a half by seven and a half feet ; two 
liues of corn are planted between the lines of stakes, 
each hill of corn teing three feet nine inches apart. 
Yesterday we had forty men planting. Eiicb man 
had a stick i.bout seven feet loi g shaipeiied to a 
point at eue end. This was siuik into the ground 
about four inthe?. Thiee or four giains ot corn 
were then put into each hole, and the corn pUmteci. 
Nothing more is done to ii till •' breaking down," 
the ear season conies. If. however, the weeGs become 
too high for the jcnng i ubber plants, they are cut 
down, thereby weedii^g com as well as rubber. 
Your farmers of the West will naturally ask '■ how 
many bushels of corn does such outlandish planting 
produce." I will answer the anticipated question, 
and say the average crop is about 40 to 45 bushels 
per acre. We will send to the < hiogo effice a 
lew ears from this crop, so tli t your people may 
see for themselve the kind of corn pioduced by 
this Maxican mode of phinting. It is all light fur 
this country. Coin planted 10 d«j3 ago is now lO 
lo 12 inches high. 
We are going to sew a large rattle pasture with 
Paral and other gr s-es as scon as we get through 
with our coffee and rubber nurseries. In my next 
letter 1 will give details of the 5 acre rubber nut- 
seiy we are going to plant out near the river, 
as well as the seven ceffee nurseries already cut 
down and burnt ; these have been selected near 
the land to be planted, as the pystem of " pilon " 
or ball planting is a very expensive mode oi plant- 
ing, seeing that 0 to 8 pounds of earth is carried 
with each plant from the nursery to the place of 
planting. 1 said abore that the pilou system is 
expensive ; it is, but it is tbe best in the long run. 
Last year's failures do not amount to over two per 
cent.; i. c, not over two per cent, of the plants 
planted last yor have died, we got no rain after 
the first Week in February till the second week iu 
June.— Madras 3Iai'. 
' ♦ 
BREEDING FOR BEEF IN TRINIDAD.* 
By C. W. Meaden, 
Manager of the Government Farm, Trinidad. 
It is a general belief in Trinidad that our native 
grasses are not sufficiently nutritious to enable the 
Colony to produce its own meet supply and parti- 
cularly of teef. A sum of £40.0uU is annually 
spent in the supply of meat, so that the question 
is one of sufficient interest to demiind thorough con- 
sideration. From a purely egiicultuial aspect the 
production of beef would foim an additional in- 
dustry, and bring into a healthy and remunerative 
condition land which is now waste and a burden to 
its owners. 
In order to biing our natural grasses into good 
grazing condition ajstematic treatment is required. 
8nb-divi8ion for the pui pose of rest and change, and, 
where the formation of the land peimits, the use 
of agricultural implements such as the hay-mower, 
horse-iake, and the hariow, should soon result in 
the foimation of sound feeding pastures. 
The present faj er deals only wilh tbe conditions 
ofTiinidad tor the production of beef; that is to say, 
whether there is suitable land and other facilities, 
and sufficient inducement in the wry of prefit to 
encouiage the industry. 
That there is land enough is evident from the 
areas lying idle on abandoned sugar estates, and 
the great Cnioni Savannah,— a menace to health 
• This subject has already been dealt with by 
the author in two communications presented to the 
Agricultural Society of Trinidad, which form papers 
Nos. 98 and 131, in Volume III, pp. 119 and 310 
respectively, of tbe Society's Proceedings. The 
information contained in the present paper sum- 
marizes and carries to a conclusion the history of 
these experimeata. {Ed. W. I, B.) 
