( 21 8 ) 
Commersonta platyphylla, Forst ( Sterculiacece ). — A tree about 
15 to 20 feet tali, with corymbs of white flowers and bristly fruit 
known as Durian Tupai. Common in secondary jungle in 
Singapore and elsewhere. The bark is tough, and an almost, if 
not quite, identical-species in Australia gives a bast valued by the 
Aborigines as the best for making nets. It is a dark colored 
tough fibre, but it is not used by natives here. 
PROFITS ON A SMALL RUBBER ESTATE. 
The following paragraph was published in a local paper on 
April 19th under the title “ Where is it ? ” : — 
“ The ‘ Ceylon Observer ' publishes the following extract 
from a letter dated somewhere in Malaya — no need to 
specify — 7th February, 1905: ‘Unfortunately,’ writes the 
correspondent, ‘ I have only 5 acres of rubber yielding at 
present. I get about $100 per acre a month profit from 
them.’ One is inclined to think ‘ If these things be done 
in the green tree?’ But present prices remind one that 
there are places where angels fear to tread.” 
I visited at Easter the plantation probably' referred to in the 
above paragraph. I have known the place from its commence- 
ment. The seeds were procured from our Botanic Gardens at 
Tanglin, and the young plants planted early in 1898, among old 
Liberian coffee, 12 feet by 12 feet apart, making about 300 Para 
rubber trees per acre. The land is low lying but not wet, and 
has been under cultivation for many years, formerly with 
gambier and afterwards with coffee. The ' soil is somewhat 
sandy. The rubber trees are healthy, but not specially large 
in size, the girth at 3 feet from the ground varying from 20 to 36 
inches, the average being considerably under 30 inches. The 
larger trees were tapped at five years old and afterwards, but from 
July, 1904, onwards, the plantation has been regularly tapped 
at the rate of 150 trees per month. The average return to end of 
March has been 75 lbs. dried rubber per month, or say \ lb. per tree. 
The monthly expenditure is $50, including wages of 4 coolie s 
employed in, tapping, curing, weeding, etc., so that at last year’s 
prices the profit exceeded one hundred dollars per month. The 
owner expects that this year, with increasing yield from the 1,500 
trees and prices at $3 per lb., that the monthly profit will amount 
to two hundred dollars. 
There are no white ants, nor any trace of fungal or any' other 
disease on the trees. The figures speak Tor themselves. 
There have not been many cultivations which have returned 
so large a profit on so small an expenditure. 
H. N. RIDLEY. 
