776 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [MaV 1, 1%2. 
ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, 
REPORT FOR 1901. 
We are enabled, thiough the courtesy of 
the Acting Government Printer, to give 
the greater part of tlie Report of the 
Director and of his Assistants as a tiwpple- 
mcnt, and we need here only call 
attention to a few salient points. It 
is satisfactory to learn that last year, so 
depressing in respect of the price of onr staple, 
was free from any serious epidemic of 
plant diseases. The success of " camphor " 
as a minor product, — we hear of di-tiiling 
being successfully carried on by private 
parties, notably on a Kotmale estate, — and 
the discovery that we have iu'ligenous 
guttapercha trees, which yield a gutta in 
fair quantity by simple tapping, which, 
though not of good quality, may prove 
comniercially valuable, are two very inter- 
esting facts, tndiarubber being now an 
established planting industry within the 
certain limited area adapted to its culti- 
vation, the export of appreciable quantities, 
much valued in the London market, has 
begun and may be expected to increase very 
steadily. There is also much to encourage 
the extension of Cinchona planting— which, 
by the way, nuist be in districts too high 
for Rubber— and there is room jirohably 
with judicious selection of the land, to add 
to the area under Cacao ; while most cer- 
tainly more should be done in Pepper. Mr. 
Carruthers' Report has already been the 
subject of notice. From the Mycologist's 
Report, we are glad to see that there is some 
hope of successfully introducing Hericultuie 
—so frequently the subject of spasmodic 
experiments in Ceylon— and of getting the 
Sinhalese to take it up in certain rural 
districts. And why not also Apiculture? — we 
would ask Mr. Green, this being another 
industry well within his province. He will 
know that we have two honey -making bees 
peculiar to Ceylon; but we are unaware of any 
local attempt to domesticate them, though 
an American Apicnlturist (now Professor 
in the Agricultural Department at Washing 
ton) took away colonies of these bees to 
try in Cyprus and Michigan, with what 
result we have never definitely heard. Mr. 
Green's Report shows that he has had a 
thoroughly busy and useful year. In the 
opinion of many ))lauters Mr. Herbert 
Wright, "the Scientific Assistant" is "the 
coming man," and on the Experimental 
Station at (-jr.ingaroowa, he ought to have 
abundant scope for useful work that may 
have important results. His investigations 
into gutta-yielding trees are likely to add 
a new export erelong. His Re[)ort as Acting 
Curator also shows much useful woik. Mr. 
Nock has, as usual, a very interesting 
Report to furnish of the Hakgala Gardens 
and connected work : 2,000 camphtu' plants 
liHve been distributed and 4,0lO more were 
being got ready to send out. An experi- 
m( nt in growing Mango trees (seeds got 
fiiiin Irees growing at 4,200 feet above 
seilevrdin Mad.igascir) at this high el(!va- 
Viition will Ik; watched with interest. We 
iiK! not told nnicl) of the subordinate 
Gardens at Henaratgoda, Anuradhapura and 
Badulla— save that the latter is now a great 
ornament to the town .and that Pimento 
has there fruited well and should be worth 
a trial as a minor product throughout Uva ; 
while a new Australian fodder grass is also 
growing well. 
» 
THE COST OP PLANTING RUBBER. 
Many inquiries are made as to the cost per acre 
of planting rubber trees, which w-irli, to the unini- 
tiated, doubtless seema a very simple matter. But 
it is evident, from the printed reports of some of 
the large i)lant..ii a co.i;p.;nies, that the mere set- 
ting out of the you,..s; must represent but 
a small part of the work nec ;aary in forming a 
plantation on land just reclai.ard from the native 
forest. Before there can be K.ny plantin<j, must 
come the establishment of a community of laborers 
— which does not, of course, exist in a forest- 
covered region. The work of clearing is no small 
matter, and this is followed by the planting, con- 
tinued probably through several years, with simul- 
taneous care of the trees already set out. It seems 
to be the part of economy to produce on the plan- 
tation, as far as possible, crops necessary for the 
subsistence of the men and animals employed, and 
not a few companies are engaged also in the culti- 
vation of " side crops " for market, such as will yield 
an income while the rubber trees are reaching a 
productive age. 
On one plantation in Mexico, a report of which 
has reached ns, although the greater part of the 
projected rubber planting reniiius to be done, a 
village has grown up, with a population varying from 
250 to 500, a municipality has been organized and 
a post office established. There is a company store, 
carrying a stock of goods valued at 103,000 Mexican : 
a meal market, blacksmith's shop, laundry, saw mill, 
brick-making plant, and lime kiln ; and also a school 
for the children cu the plantation and a salaried 
plantation physician. There is even a police force — 
paid for, like everythiog else mentioned above, by the 
company. It is only by making an outlay for th-rse 
various purposes that a supply of labor can be in- 
sured for the coming years of development which 
must precede the first yield of cultivated rubber 
from this plantation. There must bs labor for con- 
structing buildings, laying out roads, building 
numerous small bridges, and for planting the various 
quick -producing crops — all of which work is carried 
oa while other laborers are clearing laud, making 
rubber nurseries, and transplanting rubber seedlings 
and caring for them for the first few years. More- 
over, some outlay is often necessary for creating 
means of transportation to the nearest railway or 
seaport. 
Of course the plantation referred to is one of the 
larger enterprises of this class in Jlexico ; but even 
on the small private pla^ntatious the owner does not 
calculate to plant or live by rubber alone. There 
are, on the small as well as the large estates, many 
items of outlay beyond the mere setting out of 
rubber trees, so that the prospective planter who 
confines his estimates to this one feature alone is 
likely to be doomed to early disappointment. All of 
which would indicate that the question so often 
heard, as to the cost per acre of " planting rubber,'' 
is much easier asked than answered. — India lliO^her 
World, March 1. 
^ 
TWO DISEASES OF CACAO TREES. 
The occurrence of the disease known as ' thrips ' on the 
cacao trees of Guadeloupe has been reported upon by 
M Aug. Eiot, who states ihat the ii-.scots c.iusiiig the 
disease is widely distributed ainont; the cacao planta- 
tions. The pest was the subject of an article in the 
/Fcsi hidiaa Bulletin, Vol. ii. pp. Ylo 190, where its 
ooouneuce in Grenada, St. Vincsut, St- Lucia and 
