Vol. XVIII. No. 444. 



THE AGRICULTUKAL NEWS, 



131 



point can "go" exactly as one or many of the growing 

 points of a dicotyledonous tree may, and for the same 

 reasons. The essential remedy is proper cultivation, 

 growing the palms in the proper place, on a proper 

 soil, in the proper way, with plenty of light and air. 

 People have been so obsessed with the maritime habitat 

 legend that they fail to see that the palm does well 

 there because there are few competitors, and it can get 

 abundance of light to seaward, and plenty of breeze.' 



that men who are responsible for giving advice ia 

 technical matters relating to agriculture should have, ia 

 addition to the highest possible training in technology, a 

 very wide understanding of the general conditions under 

 which plants grow, and a practical acquaintance with 

 agricultural details. Absence of this knowledge ia 

 scientific mdn often leads the general public to regard 

 them as devoid of common understanding, and evea. 

 at times as subjects of unseemly jests. 



Mr. Farquharson evidently agrees with the views 

 of most scientific observers of the cacao industry, namely 

 that the only way in which good results can be obtained 

 in this direction is by striving for improvement both in 

 methods of cultivation and of preparation of the 

 product. He states:^ 



'I hold strong views on cacao disease out here. The 

 pest of cacao is the native. He doesn't "cultivate" cacao. 

 He exploits a "weed" that yields a product closely allied 

 to cacao. I told the Government here that cacao grew 

 like a weed, that in fact it had to grow like a weed in 

 order to survive. I illustrated this by reminding them 

 how difficult it is to keep a prize vegetable (raised by 

 long and intelligent selection) up to the prize standard. 

 If it is put on poor land, and is untended and generally 

 neglected, it will have to revert to "weed-dom" if it is 

 to survi\e at all and if it does, it will be no sweet and 

 tender vegetable, but a hard-bitten, fibrous, just edible 

 weed. 



'People talk at length about.the phenomenal pro- 

 gress of cacao on the Gold Coast.^^ I took it on myself 

 (when acting Director of Agriculture) to tell the 

 Government that it would have been better for the 

 cacao kad the rate of increased production (which is 

 not progress if the product is the worst that comes 

 into the world's market), been very much slower.' 



The much higher price which is fetched by Trinidad 

 and Grenada cacao on the London market, as compared 

 with thnt of cacao from the Gold Coalt and Nigeria, is 

 due to the fact not that any superii>r variety is culti- 

 vated in those islands, for it would appear that the 

 ■bulk of the cacao cultivated there is of the same variety 

 as that grown in West Afi'ica, but because the cacao 

 planters in Grenada and Trinid^id take pains in keeping 

 their trees in good health, and in preparing the beans 

 as carefully as possible. 



It has seemed worth while to quote in extenso from 

 Mr. Faniuharson's interesting letter, seeing that the 

 ■whole trend of that letter is to point out the necessity 



CHRYSOTHAMNUS OR SIERRA RUBBER. 



Shortly after the United States entered the war an 

 investigation was undertaken by experts of the University of 

 California, as to the possibility of obtaining rubber commer- 

 cially from various wild plants which grow abundantly on the 

 Sierra?, and in other parts of the Western States. An article 

 in the India Ruhbtr World, April 1, 1919, draws attention 

 to these investigations, which were under the charge of 

 Prof- H. M. Hall, of the University of California. 



Professor Hall is quite certain that rubber cannot at 

 present be obtained commercially from the wild plants, at 

 least at the present price of rubber. The most interesting 

 and promising plant for the purpose appears to be, in his 

 opinion, Chrysothaninus nauseosin, known in California as- 

 'common green.' Like the 'guayule' it belongs to the 

 natural order Compositae. 



For two months the Professor carried on field surveys in 

 eight of the Western States, in order to make estimates of the 

 tonnage and distribution of rubber-carrying shrubs, and to 

 gather samples for chemical analysis. 



In order to give an idea of the numerous kinds of rubber- 

 producing plants in the Californian Sierras, it may be stated 

 that there are, according to Prof. Marcus E. Jones, who is 

 Professor Hall's assistant in his research work, no less than 

 seventy species of them in that region, containing from 1 ta- 

 10 per lent, of rubber. 



Chrysothamniis iiauseosus, which, as is stated abovCf^ 

 appears to be most interesting in this connexion, is a shrub 

 growing 7 feet high, but the precentage of rubber contained 

 averages only about 3 per cent., although individual plants, 

 and some of them very large ones, contain as much as 6 per 

 cent. This percentaj^e is of absolutely pure rubber, and 

 calculated on dry weight. The rubber is said to be somewhat 

 better than that from 'guayule', the production of which ha» 

 been noticed in former issues of this Journal. 



This investigation into the possible domestic production 

 of rubber from indigenous plants in the United States may 

 perhaps lead to the utilization of the great waste lands of 

 parts of the West in the cultivation of rubber producing 

 plants. These lands are valuable and cheap, and the*rubber- 

 producing plants need no irrigation. 



DEPARTMENT NEWS. 



Mr. W. Nowell, D.I.C., Mycologist on the staff of ,. 

 thelmperial Department of Agriculture, left Barbados 

 for England, on leavi' of absence, on April 29. 



