June 2, 1902.] THE TROPICAL AGHlCULTURiST. 
803 
if possible somewhere near to the centre of the land 
to be planted, as rubber plants, if well grown, are 
very bulky. 
The selection having been made, begin by gather- 
ing up all the unburnt logs, place into piles and 
burn. Then dig the whole location over with 
mattocks or pickaxes, about one foot deep, taking 
out all small trees less than 6 inches thick ; pile 
all this on one side of the nursery, as it will be too 
green to burn. Now go to woik with a good stump 
puller, and pull out all the stumps that the machine 
can handle without breaking it, or the wire cable. 
Very often it will be well to help the puller by 
cutting the roots of some of the largest of the stumps 
As soon as they are pulled out, all the earth between 
the roots should be dug out with mattocks, so as to 
allow the stumps to dry as soon as possible, when 
they can be burnt or removed to one side. 
As Boon as the stumps are all removed, go to work 
and rake up all the chips, clean, carry them away, 
then level ofi the ground, because pulling the stumps 
make very large holes ; now plough the ground 
about 6 inches deep, then harrow with a good 
heavy harrow and cross harrow, and if the clods 
are rather large go over the ground with a roller. 
Now the land is in good shape to begin work in a 
workmanlike manner. First lay out two roads, one 
across the centre, the other at right angles ; now the 
nursery is in four parts, and ready for the seed. 
It is of the greatest importance that the seed is of 
the very best. Last year we purchased seed from 
an American, as well as from some native planters. 
Of course, we marked the different seed, or rather 
the location, but, to our sorrow, that was not at all 
necessary, as the seed from the American planter 
germinated at least 95 per cent., while the other 
germinated about 25 per cent., and very poor plants 
at that. So the first thing to do is to be certain that 
the seed is from a reliable person, then go ahead, 
Get good hard wood pegs 2 feet long, pointed at 
one end ; now stretch your line across the upper end 
of one of the quarters, close to the road, which 
should be 4 feet wide ; now with a rule measure 2 
feet from the starting point, drive your peg, and so 
on at every 2 feet, until the whole is marked out ; 
then go the opposite Bide and do the same, begin- 
ning near the centre line and running full across the 
same piece of the nursery, and, of course, exactly 
opposite to the first line of pegs. All the rest of the 
nursery is to be done in the same manner. Now 
run lines of very stout cord from peg to peg across 
the quarter to be planted. Open out the lines with 
a rake and just 1 inch deep, drop in the seed as 
soon after the lines are opened as it is possible, so 
as to save the moisture ; drop in the seed just 2 
inches apart, and cover at once, using the back of 
the rake for this operation. 1 have been particular 
in describing the work in the nursery because the 
nursery is the foundation of the plantation. Any 
slip-shod methods tolerated in the nursery will for 
ever show in the plantation. 
I prefer to make the lines 2 feet apart for the 
reason that a small cultivator can be used between 
the lines for keeping the weeds down while the 
plants are very young, after they have grown 1 foot 
high one hand weeding will be all that is necessary. 
Some planters may think that 2 feet apart is not 
enough, but they should remember that we are 
not after primary branches, or secondary ones, all 
we want in the young rubber plant is a good straight 
stem. In coffee, for instance, we take the crop 
from the branches, but rubber is taken from the 
trunk of the tree; besides, all branches of the 
rubber fall off until the tree is at least 12 or more 
feet high. 
_ The nursery, as I bave said above, is the most 
irnportant part of the pl?ntation ; so I will close 
with the promise that in my next letter 1 will 
treat on "pitting digging the plants trimming 
carrying to the field, distributing and planting. 
This latter requires great attention. For instance, 
we are to plant out 1,5CO,000 rubber plants in the 
coming season in a given number of days ; so we 
have to find out how many holes a man can make 
m a day, how many plants a man can dig and 
trim in a day, how 3nany he can carry out to 
the field, how many boys will be required to 
distribute the plants in front of the planters, and 
how many plants a man can properly plant in one 
day; this being done, the question of getting the 
men to do this amount of work in a given number 
of days has to be thought out. 
Eubber planted out quick after the beginning of 
the rams shows up the best, and with fewer 
vacancies than those planted later. Of our laft 
season's planting, those plants put out at the 
beginning of the rains show up very much better 
than those planted last, although we were only 28 
days planting 340,000 plants.- Yours truly. 
Jas. Maundick, 
THREE WAYS OF FEEDING MILK 
TO CALVES. 
Twenty head of grade Shorthorn and Hereford 
calves were purchased by the Kansas Eiperiment 
Station in the spring of 1900 and divided into two 
lots. One lot was fed on sterilized creamery skim- 
milk, with a grain ration composed of equal 
parts of corn and Kafir-corn meal, with all the alfalfa 
hay they would eat. The second lot was fed the 
same as the first, except that fresh whole milk 
was used instead of skim-milk. In addition to 
these two lots the station secured the privilege of 
weighing 22 head of high-grade Hereford calves 
which were running with their dams in a pasture 
near the Experiment Station. 
RiisuLTs WITH Skim-milk.- For the 22 weekg 
under experiment the 10 calves consumed" 24,736 
pouads of skisQ-milk, 1,430 pounds of corn chop, 
1 ,430 pounds of Kafir-corn meal, and 641 pounds of 
alfalfa hay. The total gain was 2,331 pounds, orn, 
daily average of 1.51 pounds per head. Figuring 
skim milk at 15 cents fV^d.) per 100, grain at 50 
cents (2s. Id) per 100 pounds, and hay at H (16s. 
8d.) per ton, the total feed cost of raising these calves 
was «62,68 (flO 198. 6d.), or f5.27 (flls. IPd.) 
per head. The feed cost for each 10© pounds of 
gain was $2.26 9s. 5d.) 
Cows that are milked will produce larger yields 
than when suckling calves. According to the 
average yield at this station, 10 cows (one for each 
calf) produced 55,540 pounds of milk, testing 3-93 
per cent, butter fat. With butter fat at 15^ cents, 
(7|d.) per pound, this weuld amount to f3.S8 62 
(£70 10s. 6d.) The value of the skim-milk not 
needed by the calves would raise this to ?374.24 
(£72. 19s. Ad.) Deduct from this the value of the 
feed consumed by the calves, and there remains 
$321.66 (£C6 19s. lOd.), or #32.15 (£6 13s. Hid. 
per calf to pay for the expense of milking, feedin 
the calves, and hauling the milk to the creamery 
At 12^ cents (ejd.) per hour this expense need not 
be one-half of the nbove Bum, leaving U5 {£3 2^ 
