JAMAICA. 



i-iBRARY 



BULIjETIlSr sg^tInicIl 



OF THE GARDEN. 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 



Vol. III. DECEMBER, 1905. Part 12. 



RUBBER. 



His Excellency the Governor at a meeting of the Jamaica 

 Agricultural Society a short time ago, introduced the subject of 

 rubber, and commended it to the attention of planters. Members 

 present declared themselves willing to undertake the cultivation, 

 and the Director of Public Gardens and Plantations was instructed 

 to procure seed. About 6,500 Para rubber plants (out of 10,000 

 seeds of Para from Singapore) and 4,500 Castilloa plants have 

 now been raised. They have all been bespoken, but applications 

 will be booked by the Director, and a further supply of seed, 

 both of Para and Castilloa, will be obtained next year. Applica- 

 tions should be sent in at once, as the demand for seed is very 

 great, and soon there will be none available, even at a year's notice. 



The Tropical Agriculturist* is tiow the Magazine of the Ceylon 

 Agricultural Society. It is edited by members of the staff of the 

 Royal Botanic Gardens, and the first two numbers (July and 

 August) contain a great deal of information about rubber, some of 

 which is given below. 



THE RUBBER INDUSTRY IN CEYLON. 



By Richard HoFFMAN.t 

 Since the discovery of the vulcanisation of rubber the demand 

 has gone up by leaps and bounds. Before that date rubber could 

 only be used for very few purposes ; in fact, only where the 

 finished article was subjected to an even temperature, could rubber 

 be employed, as for instance, for elastic-side boots, where the 

 warmth of the foot kept the rubber in good condition. Rubber 

 tyres would have been impossible without vulcanisation, as they 

 would have cracked in frosty weather. Rubber hot-water bottles 

 were impossible, as they would have melted. Vulcanised rubber, 

 however, which is rubber chemically combined with sulphur, has 

 made the article available for the thousand and one uses to which 

 CO it is put to-day. 



' — ♦ The Tropical Agriculturist nnd Magnzinc of the Ceylon Agrf-ultural Society. New 

 I SerieB romaiinced in .July. Published once a month. Rate of subscription, including 

 postage, in advance, to nny part of the world, yearly £1, half-yearly, 12/. Apply to A. 

 "^^ M. and J. Ferguson, 19 Baillie St., Colombo, Ceylon. 



^2! j- Extracts from Financial News in I^ropical Agricultvrist, July, 1905. 



