Feb. I, 1&02.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICUiiTURIST. 
525 
will find a ready market at a good price, but it is 
not the eqnal of either tiue or coarae Para. Wo 
thinli this is another proof that rubber will be cul- 
tivated mo3t successfully in the regions whers it 
grows wild. 
KAMERU.V (GERMAN WEST AFKIG.V). 
The Molivve Pflanzungs Gesellschaft, of Hamburg, 
(Jermany, at the end of their second business year 
of July lit 1900 -June 30, 1901), reported that 42 acres 
of their estate at Moliwe in this colony had been 
planted in rubber, 32J acres being devoted to Kiel da 
elastica, the tree which yields the Lagos rubber. The 
number of trees was 3,960 which gave 300 to the 
hectare, or 121 to the acre. Dr. Paul Preuss, director 
of the botanical gardens at Victoria (Kamerun), writ- 
ing to the editor of J>er TropenpAanzcr, makes au un- 
favavorable report on the growth of these plants, 
while the Castilloa elastica has done well. The late 
Herr Stammler, head planter of the Moliwe company, 
riported favorably on the Castilloa ela,tica, and the 
company, on the advice of Dr. Otto VVarburg, of Ber- 
lin, and with the aid of Herr Th. P Koschny, of San 
Carlos Costa Rica, obtained from the latter country this 
year 400,000 seeds of the Castilloa. Although the 
larger part of these seeds, by reason of the long voy- 
age, were found to be spoiled on reaching Hamouig, 
it was hoped that at least 100,000 Caniilloa pbmts 
could be grown for Kiraerun from the lot. The 
Moliwe company are experimenting with various other 
rubber specie3.=0f the rubber under cultivation in 
the gardens at Victoria, Director Preuss reports that 
the seedlings of Kickxia elastica, from seeds planted 
in November, 1898, had, in two years and a half, 
reached a height of 3 meters, and were flowering. Be- 
sides, the bark was found to contain latex. The Ficus 
Vofjelii, another African tree under cultivation, yields 
rubber liberally and of good quality. Sapium utile and 
Ilevea Brasiliensis {P»ra, vabbsv) are each repreiented 
in the gardens by a few good specimens, the young 
trees of the latter species having begun to bear seeds. 
— India Rubber WorM, Dec. 1. 
PLANTING. 
ILLUSTRATED LECTURES AT THE 
IMPERIAL INSTITUTE. 
(From a corresjtondait.) 
la case you have not received particular.? 
of the last two lectures at the luipei'ial la- 
stitute, I am sending you a few notes 
herewith :— 
On December 2t>d a lecture entitled 
PLANTERS AND PLANTING IN TROPICAL 
GREATER BRTAiN 
was given by Mr R Hedger Wallace, 
Sir hdward Noel Walker being in the 
chair. The gist of the lecture, which could 
not be said to hare done justice to the subject, 
was (1) the definition of a Planter, and (2) the 
necessary qualifications of a Planter. The 
duties of a planter, said the lecturer, vary 
in different colonie.s, as, for example, in 
Tropical Africa he has to teach fue natives 
how to work, whilst in India he has only 
to see that the work is done by them in 
accordance with certain methods. The best 
planters were obtainedfroin the middle classes, 
and men who have not had a sound education 
were generally failures as planters. Young 
men intending to try planting, in India es- 
pecially, should have a good training in 
agriculture and book-keeping, and also have 
a knowledge of engineering and dome.stic 
medicines. He should also be naturally of 
a sociable chctracter in order to meet certain 
social demands on his time. The first (and 
best) of the lantern slides sliown was a group 
of coconut palms on the sea-coast in Ceylon, 
yet (-eylon was not referred to in the 
lecture ; but, perhaps, India was meant to 
inclu'le the little island. 
Last Monday ev-ening,fthe 16th instant, Mr- 
Ridley, Director of Botanic Gardens, Singa. 
pore, gave an interesting lecture on 
••THE ECONOMIC RESOURCES OF THE STRAITS 
SETTLEMKNTS .\ND M.4.LAY PENINSULA," 
tlie chair being taken by Sir Cecil Cleraenti 
Smith, formerly Governor of the Straits 
Settlements. 
Being favoured with a precis of the lecture 
I send it to you, adding slightly to it : 
Probably, said Mr. Ridley, no portion of 
the Empire was so little known to the English 
public as that of the Straits Settlements and 
the attached Federated States. It was, how- 
ever, one of the most thriving of the smaller 
colonies, and possessed, in Singapore, the 
most important port in Eastern Asia. Its 
heavy rainfall, of over 100 inches annually, 
was evenly distributed throughout the year ; 
so, unlike other tropical regions, there were 
no seasons. The trees, which were ever- 
green and for the most part bore flowers 
and fruits irregularly all the year round, 
grew with great rapidity ; consequently it 
had been found more suitable to cultivate 
plants whose produce was derived fr-^ra the 
vegetative portion rather than from the 
fructificative. The climate though hot was 
neither unpleasant nor unhealthy, and 
cases of sun-stroke were almost unknown, 
coolie labour on the estates was sup- 
plied by Javanese and Tamils ; the 
Chinese, though very industrious and invalu- 
able when working for themselves in agri- 
culture, commerce, or mining, had not been 
found amenable to European methods and 
discipline. The forests, which originally 
covered the whole peninsula, contained many 
valuable products, such as timbers, wood-oil, 
benzoin, guttapercha, and rattans. Owing 
to the felling of the trees by the Malays, in 
order to extract it, guttapercha, so indispens- 
able for electric work, had been nearly exter- 
minated Fortunately, however, the product 
could now be extracted from the leaves and 
twigs without injury to the trees, which were 
iiosv being planted by the Government. A 
very large area ot the Federated States was 
under coffee, but on account of the present 
glut of the market and the consequent low 
prices, most of the planters were adding 
para-rubber to their estates —a tree which 
throve marvellously well and produced a 
very satisfactory amount of rubber of the 
first quality. In the Straits this tree grows 
to a height of 30 feet in five years, giving 
a yield of rubber at this age ; even a tree 
three years old has given a yield of 3 lb. of 
marketable rubber. I'his I am afraid puts 
Ceylon entirely in the shade, unless new 
data are forthcoming. India-rubber from the 
ficns elastica also promised well, but, 
although it was being planted, its product 
was less highly valued. The coconuts grown 
in the colony were in large demand, both 
for copra and as food. The adage that the 
