may  I,  1896.]  THE  TROPICAL  AGRK  U1  TUR]ST.  789 
the  TRINIDAD  GOVERNMENT 
STOCK  FARM. 
The  annual  report  on  this  institution  for  the  year 
1895  has  reached  our  hands,  and  indicates  that  it 
is  in  a flourishing  condition.  Unlike  our  own  Govern- 
ment establishment,  not  only  cattle,  but  also  horses 
and  poultry  are  kept  on  the  farm.  The  daily  stock 
consisted  at  the  end  of  the  year  of  258  animals ; 133,308 
quarts  of  milk  were  supplied  to  the  hospitals  and  jail ; 
the  daily  average  of  cows  milked  was  73  ; andthe  daily 
yield  per  cow  throughout  the  year  was  just  5 quarts. 
The  health  of  the  stock,  says  the  report,  was  perfect 
during  the  year.  The  stud  at  the  end  of  1895  con- 
sisted of  a stallion,  16  mares  in  foal,  7 colts  and 
fillies.  3 foals.  Says  the  report  “ During  the  yi  ar 
8 foals  were  born,  three  of  which  died  from  scrofulous 
anthritis.  The  foals  which  died  were  born 
in  May  and  June,  most  rainy  months,  when  it 
is  very  difficult  to  obtain  bedding  and  secure  the 
cleanliness  and  comfort  so  necessary  to  foals  in  thrir 
early  days.  This  points  out  that  a close  season  is 
essential,  the  period  to  cover  say  May  to  the  end 
of  October.  There  has  been  no  loss  when  births 
take  place  outside  these  mouths.  No  cure  is  known 
for  the  above  disease  or  the  exact  cause  of  it.”  This 
information  is  important  as  the  outcome  of 
practical  experience,  and  should  be  noted  by  intending 
breeders  in  Ceylon.  But  as  regards  the  stud  we  are 
told  that  the  interest  in  horsedrreeding  in  Trinidad 
is  not  keen  and  is  apparently  declining  so  far  as  the 
breeding  of  useful  animals  is  concerned ; and  this  is 
shown  by  the  fees  for  stud  purposes  only  aggregating 
i‘2'i  for  the  year.  In  connection  with  the  poultry 
department  we  read  that  17,735  lb.  of  poultry  and 
6,798  dozen  eggs  were  purchased  for  the  hospitals 
Here  also  there  was  apparently  perfect  health,  and 
it  would  appear  that  Trinidad  enjoys  special  advan 
tages  in  the  suitability  of  its  conditions  for  suc- 
cessful stock  and  poultry  farming.  The  net  profit  on 
the  entire  transactions  of  the  Farm  for  the  year  under 
review  was  £1,146  or  10  per  cent  of  the  capital  cost. 
PARA  RUBBER  IN  THE  KALUTARA 
DISTRICT. 
An  interesting  experiment  in  the  cultivation  of 
Para  rubber  is  Being  made  on  Halwatura  estate 
in  the  K.alutara  district.  About  a year  ago 
Messrs.  Finlay,  Muir  & Co.  purchased  some 
50,000  plants  which  were  planted  on  Halwatura 
by  Mr.  Hendry.  The  trees,  we  are  informed, 
show  <a  surprising  growth  and  like  those  on  the 
Government  experimental  plantation  in  the  same 
district  promise  well. 
^ 
THE  TEA  MARKET. 
In  the  tea  market  business  is  but  partially 
resumed  at  firm  prices.  The  extraordinary  plethora 
of  money  (almost  unUndable)  and  the  diminution  in 
the  import  of  staple  products  at  this  period  of  the 
year  should  keep  market  firm,  as,  indeed,  is  now 
the  case.  Export  business  is  more  extended  to 
Russia,  doubtless  in  view  of  the  Coronation  festivities. 
—L.  & C.  Express,  April  10th. 
« 
MARKET  FOR  TEA  SHARES. 
Thursday  EviiuiNO,  April  9. 
The  Easter  holidays  have  considerably  curtailed 
business  in  these  shares  during  the  past  week,  which 
has  been  really  limited  to  three  working  days  only. 
The  demand  especially  for  preference  shares,  still 
continues,  and  the  prices  of  this  class  of  share 
seem  likely  to  go  even  higher. 
Mincing  Lane  market  has  not  yet  opened  after 
the  Easter  holidays.  „ - 
Ceylon  Sii.yues.— 0.  T.  P.  Co.  Ordinary,  after- 
changing  hands  at  28,  are  now  reported  buyers  at 
282.  Business  is  said  to  have  been  done  in  the  Prefs. 
at  17i. 
99 
Lanka  Plantations  have  been  put  up  in  the  official  list 
to  t‘5  6s,  thus  bringing  them  however,  into  line  only  with 
their  actual  value. — Home  and  Colonial  Mail,  April  10. 
LANTANA  SCANDENS. 
Lantana  Scandens,  or  the  scandalous  lantana,  as 
as  one  may  fairly  be  permitted  to  translate  it, 
forms  the  subject  of  Commercial  Circular  No.  4 of 
1895,  issued  by  the  Reporter  on  Economic  Products 
to  the  Government  of  India.  It  appears  that  lantana 
spread  so  rapidly  in  Berar  as  to  threaten  the  very 
existence  of  the  forests.  In  the  Annual  Progress 
Report  of  the  Forest  Department,  Hyderabad  Assigned 
Districts,  for  1893-94  the  following  remarks  appear  ; 
— “ This  shrub  will  grow  and  rapidly  spread 
at  almost  any  elevation  in  Berar  and  in  almost  any 
soil.  It  covers  the  ground  in  dense  masses, 
climbs  trees  to  a height  of  twenty  feet,  and 
though  it  kills  all  grass,  it  thoroughly 
prevents  the  production  of  any  tree  growth. 
Lantana  does  not  act  as  a bar  to  fire if  burns 
freely  in  the  hot  weather  and  shoots  up  vigorously 
from  the  roots  after  being  burnt  over.”  People  who 
have  witnessed  lantana  on  the  Western  Ghauts  will 
hardly  need  to  be  told  this,  nor  yet  to  learn  that  it 
grows  so  densely  as  to  become  perfectly  impenetr- 
able by  men  and  cattle  / antana  scandens  or  caniara 
is  one  of  40  species,  chiefly  natives  of  tropical  and 
sub-tropical  America,  comprised  in  a gerus  of  rambl 
ing  shrubs  belonging  to  the  natural  order  Verbenacca 
The  history  or  its  introduction  into  India  is  curious. 
Mr.  McKee,  now  a Convervator  of  Forests  in  the 
Central  Provinces,  but  at  one  time  in  Coorg,  states 
that  some  thirty  years  ago  it  was  brought  to  that 
Province  in  a flower-pot  by  a Missionary,  and  used 
as  a hedge  plant.  But,  he  adds,  “ it  soon  advanced 
from  the  hedges  to  the  fields  and  hill  sides  and 
is  now  so  fully  established  in  the  province  of 
Coorg  tnat  it  would  be  quite  impossible  even  by 
spending  lakhs  of  rupees  to  eradicate  it.”  Mr. 
Prevost,  a Forest  Officer  in  Coorg,  observes 
“ Hundreds  of  coffee  estates  have  been  abandoned 
owing  to  lantana.”  Surely  he  is  confusing  cause  and 
effect.  We  are  under  the  idea  that  the  estates  -svere 
abandoned  before  lantana  came  in.  While  it  is  very 
clear  from  the  correspondence  published  in  this  Cir- 
cular that  the  Forest  Officer  must  always  regard  the 
shrub  as  an  enemy,  the  evil  it  does  so  far  outweigh- 
ing any  good  it  may  effect,  the  planter,  on  the  other 
hand  may  under  certain  circumstances  look  up  on 
it  as  a friend.  The  fact  is  nowhere  dispnited  that 
lantana  is  a wonderful  soil-improver.  Owing  to  its 
shade-giving  properties  and  density  it  exercises  a 
markedly  renovating  effect  on  the  land,  and  by 
rapidly  overgrowing  deforested  tracts,  such  as  aban- 
doned coffee  estates,  it  serves  to  retain  the  humus 
in  the  soil.  The  belief  was  at  one  time  preva- 
lent that  once  an  estate  had  been  overgrown  by 
lantana,  it  was  thenceforth  worthless  for  cultivation, 
and  surprise  was  expressed  at  the  way  in  which  tea 
or  coffee  throve  on  land  which  had  been  reclaimed 
from  this  shrub-  We  have  it  on  the  authority  of 
experts  that  this  success  was  not  fortuitous,  but  that 
Lnd  becomes  valuable  from  being  under  lantana  for 
a certain  number  of  years.  However  there  is  one 
bad  result  alluded  to  by  Mr  Dickinson,  formerly 
Conservator  of  Forests  in  Coorg  but  now  in  Berar, 
who  writes:— “In  Coorg,  wnere  the  plant  has  spread, 
the  natives  say  that  the  country  is  turning  unhealthy 
and  the  water  is  spioiled  by  it.  I myself  felly  be- 
lieve this  to  be  the  case.”  His  opinion  is  supported 
by  successive  analyses  of  water  taken  in  Berar  when 
a collecting  basin  was  covered  by  lantana  and  at 
different  periods  after  clearance.  IJnfortunately,  we 
are  not  told  in  what  way  the  growth  is  detrimental 
to  water,  whether  by  its  density  encouraging  the 
breeding  of  the  malarial  microbe,  or  in  acting 
directly  on  the  water  supply  in  some  manner  pecu- 
liar to  itself.  Lantana  may  be  placed  in  the  same 
class  of  pests  as  the  pirickly  pear  of  the  plains, 
the  Australian  rabbit  and  the  West  Indian  mun 
goose,  though  it  has  not  yet  attained  the  same 
proportion  of  unrestrained  evil  as  any  of  these,  and 
further  it  possesses  one  rnarkeJly  good  point,  its 
power  to  renovate  the  soil.— Madras  Mail,  April  22. 
