April 1, 1902.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
683 
To the Editor. 
RUBBER PLANTING IN MBXICO-AJND 
DEVASTATION OP ORIGINAL TREES 
IN SOUTH AND CENTRAL 
AMERICA, &c. 
Vera Cruz, Mexico, 20th Jan., 1902. 
Sir,— I receive the Tropical Ac/riculturist 
regularly from our home office in Chicago ; 
and although I take all Tropical Agricultural 
papers that I can get hold of, there is none 
I prize more than yours. 
I noticed a short article about Castilloa 
Elastica, growing from cuttings, &c. Here 
we have not found that mode of planting 
answer as well as by plants. The trunk of 
the tree does not appear to grow as healthy 
and robust as from seed. 
. I think the Castilloa Elastica one of the 
easiest of propagating plants ever grown in 
the tropics. Here we plant from the nur- 
series, as well as planting seed at stake ; 
last season we planted about 160 acres at 
stake, and I do not think there are 5 per cent 
of failures. 
Great care must he taken that the rains 
are ivell on before planting at stake is under- 
taken, or it may have to be done over again. 
We have orders to plant 1,500 acres in the 
coming season, of which 500 acres will be 
planted at stake. Last season we put two 
seeds at stake, one on each side ; this season 
we will plant four seeds in each place, then 
we will not have any loss at all ; in fact, we 
expect to have several thousands to transplant. 
In the past season we got between eight and 
ten thousand bushels of corn from our 
rubber fields, and the second crop is now in 
tassel. I can't say how much we will get, but 
there is every chance of getting 4,500 bushels 
at least. We have also the 160 acres, we 
planted at stake planted in beans, from 
which we expect, several hundred bags ; 
these catch-crops are very valuable to us, 
as our people eat nothing but corn, beans 
and beef. 
Rubber is having a great boom here on 
the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, but the area is 
not very large where rubber can be grown 
profitably. I do not think there are as 
many trees planted, as are destroyed yearly, 
in tapping. The present rate of destruc- 
tion is terrible, both In South and Centx'al 
America, as well as in East and South- 
East Africa. 
JAS. MAUNDER. 
PEARL OYSTERS AT TRINCOMALEE. 
Harbour Road, Jan. 27. 
Dear Sir,— Since my last communication 
to you re Pearl Oysters at Trincomalee, I 
have been endeavouring to gain as much in- 
formation about their appearance as I possibly 
could, particularly among the fishers of the 
sea, whose avocation takes them to the 
numerous fishing grounds, bays and creeks 
of our coast ; and I learn from some old 
hands that Dr. Kelaart, while in military 
charge here in the early part of the fifties, 
introduced some fresh spawn of the pearl- 
yielding mollusc from Aripu, and deposited 
them at different points in Trincomalee, near 
"Powder Island," by the dockyard, "Crow 
Island" by Orr's Hill, atKoddiyar bar, and near 
Kurritivu, between Foul Point and Koddi- 
yar, and that the oysters now found are their 
yield. That during the months of February 
and March, when the S W and sea breeze blow 
alternatively in a day, and during lull, large 
beds of pear) oysters can be observed at Sami 
Rock point off Forb Frederick, in six fathoms 
of clear water. 
The natives say that hitherto there have 
been no pearls found ; but when oyster beds 
are torn and carried away by strong cur- 
rents and cast ashore, the oysters, both 
small and mature, are collected by ignorant 
women searching for cockles and mussels, 
who use I the fleshy body as food, a good 
many pearls are perhaps thrown away with 
the careless washing before the cooking. The 
fishery in Kinniyai Bay, formerly rented out 
by Government, has been abandoned for 
many years. — Yours faithfully, 
J. B. COLOMB. 
[We have handed to Professor Herdman 
the oyster shell and pearl Mr. Colomb sent 
with his last letter. Trincomalee, as already 
mentioned, will be visited in due course and 
a careful investigation made of all that con- 
cerns local fisheries and oyster deposits.— Ed. 
"A BUCHAN FARMER " 
SCRUTINEERED. 
[There never was a press writer who was 
not subject to criticism and correction, and 
" Cosmopolite" is far too genial an old Colo- 
nist not to be willing that his readers should 
hear " the other side " as it is given by another 
old Ceylon planter and Aberdeenshire farmer 
in the Buchau Observer.— Ed. T.A.I 
Sir, — In your issue of last Tuesday I read with 
some little interest 'Cosmopolite's' letter to you 
and copy intended for North British Agriculturist. 
I have also been put in po.ssession of the Tropical 
Agriculturist of Ceylon, where the letters ap- 
peared, and I am quite sure your numerous readers 
in Buchan and elsewhere would be gratified if you 
would reprint them without garbling. In that case, 
the prayer of Robbie Burns would be in a measure 
answered — 
' O wad some power the giftie gie's, 
To see ourselves as ithers see's,' &c. 
As ' Cosmopolite ' says, ' all know perfectly well 
his real name;' indeed who does not know the author 
of ' Netherton ' in the ' wilds of Buchan.' 
I cannotadmitthatMr. Duncan's grieve is a quite 
competent judge (although he has been an eye- 
witness of the ' Everyday Life of a Farmer ') to say 
that the statements therein made are all ' strictly 
correct and not exaggerated in the very least,' 
Two years ago, February, 1900, he wrote as fol- 
lows :— ' Our little Agricultural Society held its 
seed show (at Mintlaw, I suppose) in spite of the 
distressing weather, and was remarkable on ac- 
count of the indifierent judging and the fact that 
the members of committee took all the prizes. It 
is a truism in rural circles that it is better to be a 
friend of the judges, or a member of committee, 
than to owa the best stock at th^show and this rule 
