740 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[May  I,  1896. 
forests  there  ten  times  as  much  rubber  every  year 
as  the  whole  world  now  requires.  It  would  be  a 
strange  thing,  indeed,  if  the  narrow  strip  of  land 
embraced  in  the  Guianas  should  become  of  greater 
value  as  source  of  rubber  than  the  valleys  fringing 
the  50,000  miles  of  waterways  in  the  Amazon  system 
and  an  equal  area  of  rubber  forests  in  Africa. 
If  such  a thing  were  really  possible  as  the  ex- 
haustion of  the  natural  rubber  supply  in  the  next 
century,  there  is  ample  reason  for  believing  (1)  that 
rubber-trees  will  grow  as  well  from  seeds  planted 
by  hand  ns  from  seeds  scattered  by  the  winds  ; (2) 
that  rubber  cultivation  is  practahle  wherever  the 
trees  now  grow  native ; and  (3)  that  the  rubber  zone 
embraces  millions  square  miles.  The  cultivation  of 
rubber — whoi  the  time  comes — is  as  practicable  as 
that  of  oranges,  olives,  tea,  coffee,  cloves,  orcinchone. 
We  hope,  therefore,  that  fuither  prediciions  of  a 
rubber  famine  v\ill  be  left  for  those  who  think  that  the 
planting  of  o'd  shoes  is  the  surest  way  of  starting 
a rubber  plantation. — Iiuiinrubher  World 
RUBBER  CULTURE  IN  FLORIDA. 
A writer  in  the  New  Orleans  7'iiaes- Democrat 
revives  the  idea  of  planting  rubber  trees  in  Florida, 
and  states  that  it  is  moist  and  hot  enough  there 
to  raise  rubber  of  an  excellent  quality.  It  seems 
that  one  generation  speedily  forgets  the  experience 
of  a preceding  one.  About  forty  years  ago  the 
United  States  Government  planted  rubber  trees  in 
Florida,  and  they  may  be  there  jet.  Some  were 
cared  for  also  at  the  Centennial  Exposition,  and 
some  are  found  in  botanical  gardens  elsewhere. 
The  trouble  is  they  don’t  produce  rubber.  Florida 
is  outside  of  the  Tropics ; Para  is  on  the  Equator. 
It  rains  every  day  at  Para  or  else  there  is  fear 
of  a drought ; Florida  gets  its  quota  of  rain  a good 
deal  in  the  winter  and  not  so  much  in  the  summer. 
Bain,  coiuinual  hot  weather,  monkeys,  and  rubber 
go  together  ; and  rubber  is  the  first  to  drop  out 
of  the  combination.  The  Netv  Orleans  writer 
states  that  Da  Silva  planted  20,000  rubber  trees  near 
Para,  on  Bom  lutento,  in  1865,  at  a cost  of  3,200, 
dollars.  Of  these,  only  1,000  remain  ; the  Amazon  which 
revels  in  nature  and  cares  little  for  art,  washed  19,000 
away  in  one  of  its  annual  tears.”  These  trees  yield 
a small  profit  now;  but  the  practical  mind  asks,  what 
is  the  use  of  spending  3,200  dollars,  which  in  twenty- 
five  years  amount,  with  compound  intere-t,  to  50,000 
dollars,  to  obtain  something  that  is  so  free  that  what 
would  be  called  good-sized  countries  in  Europe  are 
lying  idle  in  a virt,in  forest  that  will  not  be  reached 
before  the  shoddy  man  has  found  a way  to  pay  a little 
something  to  the  importer  to  go  out  of  the  business 
altogether  ? — Imliarubber  1 Tori cl. 
— ♦ 
TOBACCO  CULTURE  IN  THE  EAST. 
Mr.  Tripp  read  a paper  at  the  Imperial  Insti- 
tute, on  “ The  Tobacco  Industry  of  India  and 
the  Far  East,”  the  meeting  (over  wdiich  Lord 
Harris  presided,  in  the  absence  of  Lord  Lome,  M.P., 
who  is  on  the  Continent)  being  held  in  connection 
with  the  Indian  Section  of  the  Society  of  Arts. 
Mr.  Tripp’s  experience  has  been  dei'ived  in  Sumatra, 
and  be  spoke  in  high  terms  of  t^e  suitability  of  its 
climate  and  soil  for  the  cultivation  of  the  tobacco  plant 
But  there  is  a third  factor  of  great  importance — 
labour.  For  the  higher  or  skilled  labour  a European  is 
apparently  needed,  and  he  must  be  a man  of  strong 
common-sense  and  posses  qualities — so  the  lecturer 
hinted — other  than  those  that  go  to  make  a brilliant 
statesman  or  journalist.  For  the  manual  and  me- 
chanical work  the  Chinese  are  found  best  qualified. 
Javanese  labour  is  cheaper,  but  piactically  of  no 
use  at  all.  Europeans,  by  adopting  scientific  methods, 
have  converted  a trade  which,  thirty  years  ago, 
was  measured  by  a few  hundreds  sterling,  into  one 
culculated  by  millions:  yet  the  natives,  blind  to 
facts,  deaf  to  advice,  and  doggedly  conservative, 
go  on  growing  tobacci  in  t’leir  own  way,  insisting 
that  they  are  light  and  that  the  white  man  is 
wrong.  This  consideration  was  vital  to  the  main 
-rgument  of  the  paper,  for  Mr.  Tripp  is  anxious 
that  the  quality  of  Indian  tobacco  should  le  im- 
proved. He  cannot  bring  himself  to  believe  that 
the  soil  of  India  can  “ aspire  to  the  perfection  of 
Sumatra,”  but  the  climate  is  all  that  can  be  desired. 
Therefore,  why  does  India  produce  that  “coarse, 
thick-ribbed  pungent  tobacco”  that  is  “quite  unsale- 
able in  Europe  ? ” Mr.  Tripp  suspects  that  inferior 
culture  has  a great  deal  to  do  with  it.  Nay,  he 
went  so  far  yesterday  afternoon  as  to  indicate  where 
the  Indian  growers  and  curers  are  at  fault.  The 
plants  are  “ topped”  too  soon,  the  rewly-reaped 
tobacco  is  exposed  too  long  to  sun  and  light,  and 
the  fermentation  is  not  properly  understood.  There 
are  also,  he  thinks,  important  undeveloped  possi- 
bilities in  connection  with  Borneo,  though,  it  should 
be  pointed  out,  his  modest  estimate  of  results  al- 
ready produced  there  was  taken  exception  to,  in  the 
subsequent  discussion,  by  Mr.  Strutt,  M.P.  Mr. 
Tripp  concluded  his  paper  by  indicating  the  new 
field  for  English  labour  that  would  be  opened  up 
by  the  development  of  tobacco  cultivation  in  the 
directions  he  had  indicated.  He  looks  forward  to 
the  time  when  the  British  smoker  will  consume 
cigars  pioduced  from  British  soil,  with  British 
capital,  and  made  by  British  hands.  For  why  do 
we  import  80,000,000  cigars  from  the  Continent 
every  year  ? i\Ir,  Tripp  answers  that  question  in 
one  w'ord — prejudice. — Overland  Mail. 
PLANTS  FOR  GREEN  MANURING. 
With  a view  to  determining  the  amount  of  nitro- 
gen by  which  various  leguminous  plants  enrich 
the  soi',  some  interesting  and  valuable  experiments 
were  made  last  year  on  the  experimental  fields  at 
Holienheim,  Wurtemburg.  The  soil  was  a heavy 
loam,  on  wtiich  rye  and  winter  peas  had  been  grown 
in  the  third  year  previous,  rape  manured  with  super- 
phosphate and  nitrate  of  soda  in  the  second  year 
previous,  and  winter  barley  in  the  previous  year. 
After  the  barley  was  harxested,  17  different  kinds 
of  leguminous  and  other  plants  were  sown  for  green- 
manuring  on  17  pb'ts,  each  containing  about  50 
square  yards  separated  by  uncultivated  strips.  In 
September  following  the  crop  on  each  plot  was 
dug  ui  der,  and  Sheriff  wheat  dril'ed  on  all  tue 
plots.  The  yield  of  wheat  where  different  legumi- 
nous plants  had  been  used  as  green  inanurL-s  (lupines, 
clovers,  field  beans,  peas,  vetch,  and  serradella), 
ranged  from  15  lb.  to  221b.  averaging  about  20  1b. 
It  was  lowest  with  serradella  and  highest  with  red 
clover  and  while  and  yellow  lupine  Second  to  the 
latter  were  field  peas  and  beans  and  scarlet  clover. 
The  yield  with  kohl  was  16  lb.,  with  white  mustard 
15i  lb.,  and  with  three  varieties  of  buckwheat  the 
average  yield  was  13  lb.  per  plot.  It  was  noticed 
that  on  the  plots,  especially  those  with  lupines, 
many  head?  of  grain  were  backward  in  ripening. 
On  examination  the  roots  of  such  p'ants  were  found 
to  be  covered  with  a white  fu'  gus.  No  such  fun- 
gus was  found  on  the  roots  where  iiou-leguminous 
plants  were  used  for  green  manure.  In  how  far 
this  occurred  was  due  to  the  green-nninuring  with 
leguminous  plants  was  not  determined.  In  anotlier 
series  of  experiments,  the  object  was  to  compare 
the  total  amounts  of  nitrogen  contained  in  crops 
of  different  leguminous  plants,  and  in  the  leaves, 
stems,  and  roots  of  the  same  separately.  The  soil 
on  tvhich  this  trial  was  made  had  been  in  grain 
for  three  years  previous.  Whether  or  not  it  was 
manured  in  any  way  for  the  present  crop  is  not 
stated  in  the  abstract.  The  seed  was  bro.adcasted 
on  the  different  plots.  It  was  found  that  the  large 
field  beai  s gave  the  largest  yield  of  nitrogen  per 
squaie  yard  of  land;  but  considering  the  cost  of 
s eding  this  crop,  it  is  believed  that,  from  a finan- 
cial point  of  view,  it  does  not  exceed  the  lupines 
in  value.  The  difference  in  the  nitrogen  in  the 
white  and  blue  lupines  raised  from  native  and 
from  foreign  seed  is  verj'  marked,  the  foi'eign  seed 
yielding  over  a third  more.  It  is  seen  that  an 
acre  crop  of  large  field  beans  is  able  to  take  from 
the  air  and  so  give  to  the  soil  more  than  225  lb. 
of  nitrogen,  while  the  same  crop  of  lupines  yields 
some  165  lb.  To  supply  these  amounts  of  nitrogen 
in  the  form  of  nitrate  of  soda,  would  require  from 
a 1,000  Ib.  to  1,6001b.  of  that  material. — Agricidtwal 
Journal,  Cape  Colony. 
