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sysiem of tapping which he calls drastic and barbarous, in favour 
oF t!,e Brazilian system of single taps. He saw he says great V 
cuts leaving a huge wound in the bark in Singapore, and great 
knobs and warts on the bark. How can you tap over these he asks? 
Presumably he refers to the Botanic Gardens trees, the onlv ones 
tapped I think when he was here. There were I think two of three 
trees tapped once with the simple V as an experiment, but perhaps 
he refers to herring-bone tapping in this way. There are plenty of 
trees which have been tapped on and off for 12-15 years with the 
herring-bone method and there is no trace of the cuts on the bark 
Kven in later tappmgs there is as little roughness as could be 
expected from any kind of cut. There are a number of trees cer- 
tainly covered with knobs and warts and with very rough bark 
these are the trees tapped in the Amazonian method recommended 
by h,m. The .njury to the bark and the small amount of latex 
obtained by this process was the reason for abandoning this system 
which is perhaps suited to the ideas of the natives of the Amazons! 
but we have got beyond native methods a long time ago and need 
not return to them. 
His doubt as to the continuity of yield under the spiral system 
so much wanted in Ceylon is certainly verified. It is beino- civen 
up everywhere by the Malay planters who have tried it, and has 
been practically a failure here. Up to date no one has shown a 
better all round method than the herring-bone down to the wood, 
either tor yield or inflicting no permanent injury of any kind on 
the tree. J 
H. N. R. 
AGRICULTURE IN THE SEYCHELLES. 
An interesting Colonial report on the Seychelles with an account 
of the progress m Agriculture, by M. Dupont has just been pub- 
hshed. M. DUPONT was deputed in 1902 to make a tour in the 
Last to collect information on the Agriculture of the East. The 
Seychelles Government revenue depends apparently mainly on its 
Agriculture, and the fall in price of vanilla, its staple crop, and the 
unprecedented drought last year caused a shortage of 16 per cent 
on the estimate and a heavy retrenchment, which included apparent- 
ly the destruction of the experimental plantations at Capucin and 
retrenchment of the Botanic Station. The Botanic Station vote is 
6,000 rupees per annum or 1-5 per cent, of the expenditure of the 
Colony. This is by no means a large expenditure in proportion 
though very much higher than that of the Straits Settlements which 
is but £ per cent. Besides Cocoa, Coconuts oil and copra and soap 
made of coconut-oil and vanilla the exports of the islands are a little 
salt fish, tortoise shell and guano, so that practically the islands 
depend on coconuts and vanilla. 
It was high time that some development of agriculture should 
take place when M. Dupont was sent to the East to see what 
could be done. 
