Sept, j, iS;;;.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
189 
THE PLANTING OF liUBBER : 
dr. morris on the adverse side. 
Some little time as'o, we ,t;ave advice to local 
planters in search of a neM' product for which 
the demand seemed likel.y to increase as years 
rolled on, out of proportion to the supply, to 
cultivate rubber, the Para variety for clioice. 
We cannot help still thinking that, large as is tlie 
supply of the raw product from the forests of 
West Africa and South America, an extending 
demand will do more than take it all off and 
that the cultivated article should meet with a 
remunerative market. But we are bound to show 
the argument on the other side, especially 
when stated by so good an authority as Dr. 
Morris. "We therefore give a recent strong 
utterance of his on the subject, as 
well as other e.xtracts referring to activity in 
Bolivia, Brazil, etc., and we ask our planting 
readers to give all that is stated, due consideration. 
There is just one remark we would make on 
Dr. Morris’s mention of cinchona, namely, that 
there is no risk of an.y ))lanting community 
rushing into “ rubber” as the Ceylon planters 
did, twenty years ago, into “cinchona.” Rubber 
is not so readily grown, or at any rate not so soon 
and easily cropped as cinchona bark — a very mate- 
lial difference which must weigh with intend- 
ing ])lanters. On the other hand, rubber is 
a product which, if added to an existing tea or 
coffee or cacao plantation, gives very liitle trouble 
after being planted along roads, boundaries, or 
in fields by itself, till the cropping time arrives 
— so that the total expenditure upon it should be 
very moderate indeed. 
Evidently recent words of warning as to 
abundant supplies of rubber must have told 
on the British capitalist ; for a scheme which 
opened with a glowing pros]tectus of a “ British 
India Rubber and Exploration Company, Limited,” 
£■200,001) capital, to acquire and develop 600 
square miles of rubber-growing country, 35 miles 
North of Cape Coast Castle, has fallen to the 
ground. The shares were not subscribed for, and 
yet the Reports of experts pointed to prolits of 
something like 30 to 50 per cent. Here are a few 
striking paragraphs from the [U’ospectus : — 
“ According to Her Majesty’s Foreign Office Reports, 
the consumption of india-rubber by six countries now 
exceeds one hundred millou pounds (!b.) per annum, 
worth in the market about ten million pounds sterling 
(.£10,000,000) ; within the past 18 inonths the. price of 
Rubber has risen enormously, as it is absohrtely indis- 
pensable for cycle tyres, motor cars, cabs, and various 
other industries, It is a well-known fact that the 
consumption of Rubherin the manufiiotnre of cycle tyres 
alonehas reached prodigious proportions; andaccording 
to many competent authorities the supply of the raw 
material does not equal the demand. It is estim- 
ated that there are in England over one thousand cycle 
factories today, working at full pressure, and last year 
there were registered in London alone cycleand motor 
corporations giving a total capital of £19,898,000. 
Messrs. Bagot and Anderson estimate that there are at 
least four himdred and fifty thousand (150,000) trees 
yielding Rubber on the property proposed to be acquired 
by this Company, and the Directors contemplate mak- 
ing arrangements to plant a largo number of addi- 
tional trees, thereby providing for a future ocntiuuous 
supply. A very large proportion of the Rubber, at 
present being shipped from West Africa, is taken frow 
the district in which this property is located. 
“ As it is estimated that there are some 450,000 
trees on the property at present bearing Rubber, and 
as an average rubber tree yields a minimum supply of 
three pounds of India-rubber annually, which, at the 
very low estimate of 2s per lb. (and marketable Rnb- 
bet is now selling at about 3a 6d per lb.), a gross lia- 
venue should be earned from India-rubber for the first 
year of the Company’s operations of .£133,000 {vide, re- 
port of George Bagot). The supply from an India- 
rubber tree is stated to increase 1 ib. per tree per annum 
for several years after the first ye.ir’s tapping. Conse- 
quently, from the 450,000 trees, the Revenue for 1898 
should be about £180,000 gross, again assuming that 
Rubber realises only -2s per lb. on the market in 1898. 
Marketable Rubber is now selling on an average at 
about 3s to 3s (id per lb., so that in quoting 2s per lb. 
the Directors are placing a very low estimate on the 
sale price. It is the general opinion that the price will 
still further advance, and the press quotations given 
hereafterconfirm this belief.” 
There can he little doubt that West Africa 
rivals tlie valley of the Amazon as a home for 
rubber ; but year by year, the goose that yields 
the golden liarvest is lieing u.-,cd up and i'f the 
demand as seems likely, goes on increasing, we 
do not see that j)lanters shoulrl be discouraged 
from putting in ruliber, more especially as a 
by-product where they have plantations already 
formed of tea, cofl'ee, or cacao, or even coconuts, 
as their stajde. 
COCONUT CROP8 IN RAJAKADALUWA, 
CEYLON. 
(From a Corresnondent-) 
I was amused at the criticism the remark about 
crop of nuts evoked. The reference to Kandaugo- 
muwa was, of course, not made with a view of in- 
stituting an invidious comparison between it and 
the Rajakadaiuwa place ; but, as you poi)ated out, 
the interest was the age at which coconut palms 
properly cared for come into bearing in the two 
districts of which these estates are typical. As to 
the inaccuracy of the estimate being tlie result of the 
estimator’s “ want of experience of the district” I 
would propound the following question to the “plan- 
ter ’ critic who I assume ha^ some experience of 
the coconut districts in the N.-W. Province: — guess 
the average number cf trees from which a crop of 
108,372 nuts was picked in the year on a plantations 
to 8-J years in the Rajakadaluwa district '? 
108,372 nuts were harvested for the (i pickings in 
the year of which number as much as 03,192 were 
got in the last two gatherings (Maroh-April and May- 
June.) The estimate was originally 05,000 (since 
raised to 95,000); but the forecast was made more 
than a twelve-mouth ago and the number ofj trees 
that came into bearing immediately aitei wards was 
larger than was calculated upon, while the crop bear- 
ing capabilities of the palms which were then al- 
ready in bearing also proved to be better than what 
was expected. Those who have had any experience 
in tlie matter know than an estimate of crop for a 
young coconut plantation jusl cuming into hearing is 
at best mere guesswork. There are no data to go 
upon. To begin with, in making an estimate for the 
following twelve-month, the number of trees that will 
be in bearing within the next 3 months has to be 
guessed and when the palms are not uniform, this is 
not an easy matter. 

MICA BOILER COVERINGS. 
The increased use of electric power during recent 
years has led to a largely increased demand for mica for 
insnlatiug purposes. But the producers of mica have 
not found in the electric demand any relief from the 
state of affairs which was a continual source of loss to 
them before it began. Large sizes and good shapes of 
mica, such as are required for insultation purposes, 
were always marketable, but the difficulty remained of 
disposing of the waste or scrap which forms so large a 
percentage of the output of mica mines and accumu- 
lates so rapidly at imoa-cuttiiig works. Through the 
iiT' 3uuity of BIr. II. O. Blitchell of Toronto, this waste 
k; ja has now a value though no doubt a small one as 
