April i; 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



767 



COJOIEROIAX, MUSEUMS. 

 The above subject has been recently discussed in the 

 Deutsches Handdsblatt, in connection with the progress 

 made in the direction indicated by England as well as by 

 other European countries. In France the idea has found 

 an energetic defender in M. Felix Faure, who advocated 

 it in his proposal for the budget of 1884. According to 

 the project of a so-called Miisie Commerciale Comulaiye, it 

 would contain — 1. A collection of raw material from foreign 

 countries. 2. A collection of objects which are required 

 in various foreign markets, accompanied liy details as to 

 prices, duties. &c. M. F.mre's opinion is that private enter- 

 prise coidd not successfully carry out such an idea, aiid he 

 therefore proposes a museum of this kind to be established 

 at the Ministrj' of Commerce, and for a committee of 

 manufactui-ers, exporters, and commission merchants to be 

 formed under the presidency of the Minister. The estab- 

 lishment of such a museum in Paris would be followed by 

 similar museums in other business centres. 



In Germany, the formation of a museum of commercial 

 geography was proposed in December, 1881, when (with 

 promises of support from the German Foreign-ofittce and 

 Admiralty), the Central Association for Commercial Geo- 

 graphy of Berlin sent out a formal request for co-operation 

 to persons likely to promote the idea either by subscriptions 

 or by exhibits. The responses to this appeal have been 

 numerous and valuable as to the latter portion of the subject, 

 but the fmids available are not sufficient to cover the ex- 

 pense of arraugins the collections. In AVm'temburg, how- 

 ever, the efforts made have been much more successful, 

 private enterprise having established at Stuttgart a so-called 

 " depot of export, ' samples in which every branch of 'Wur- 

 tembiu-g industry is represented in a systematic manner. 

 A catalogue has been printed, 4,000 copies of which have 

 been distributed amongst various consulates, hotels, &c., in 

 different parts of the world. It is printed in German. 

 French, English, and Spanish. About 430 firms have joined 

 iu this enterprise. 



The idea thus successfully carried out at Stuttgart has 

 been partially adopted at Vienna, where the Oriental 

 Museum deals with Eastern trade. 



Belgium inaugurated a Commercial Museum at Brussels 

 in April, 1883. This is not only a collection of Belgian 

 industrial products, but much care has been taken in suit- 

 ably classifying the samples, forwarded by Belgian consuls 

 in aU parts of the world, for the purpose of illustrating 

 the articles capable of being imported by Belgium from 

 various countries. The Belgian Parliament supplied the 

 necessary funds for this undertaking. 



Although not having maile such an advance as Belgium 

 in the solution of the question at issue, Italy has made pro- 

 gress of a satisfactory character, the Government having 

 decided to open such institutions at Milan and Turin. The 

 first contributions towards the Musco Commerciale Consolave 

 were exhibited by the Minister of Agi-iculture at the Mil g 

 Exhibition, and at its conclusion, the claims of both Milan 

 and Turin were brought forward in such a pi eminent man- 

 ner that the collections were divided. Since then, the 

 various Italian consulates have been invited to furnish artr 

 icles for exhibition. — Jovrnal of the Society of Arts. 



ing proofs were brought forward, that the greater demand 

 had resulted in the destruction of the trees on a great scale 

 from tapping them being proceeded with recklessly. Im- 

 mediate gain was the only guiding principle in the collect- 

 in" operations. No heed whatever was paid to the future, 

 60° hat export from the ijroducing countries (Central America, 

 Brazil, and India) to Europe fell off greatly. The export from 

 Java has wholly ceased for instance. At the Electricians' 

 Congress held at Paris in 1881, it was determined to draw 

 the attention of the Governments concerned to this subject. 

 Mr. Ten Brunimeler, Head of the Postal and Telegraph 

 department in Netherlands India, meritoriously exerted him- 

 self by forming a collection of samples of the different in- 

 digenous kinds of rubber and guttapercha; and forwarding it 

 to exhibitions at Amsterdam and Buitenzorg. On the recom- . 

 meudation of the Director of the Government botanical 

 garden, inquiries were conducted regarding the A'ar«* .Uun- 

 diiuj and Karet Anjinc/, two guttapercha yielding trees 

 found in .Java. Dr. Burck, the Assistant Dnector of the 

 Government botanical garden, made a journey to the West 

 Coast of Sumatra to conduct researches on the spot respect- 

 ing the guttapercha trees to be found there. Mr. Berk- 

 hout, a forester, has set forth in a planting newspaper the 

 great importance of growing caoutchouc trees in order to 

 draw a larger revenue from the Government forests. He 

 also dealt with the appearance, the cultivation, and the 

 yield of the principal caoutchouc trees. Hence no one can 

 complain of want of interest in the two new cultures on 

 the part of Government officials. AMiat should be done 

 now is for the Government to take action in experimenting 

 with rubber and guttapercha cultivation. It has readily 

 available the funds and means needed to make head suffici- 

 ently against the difficulties likely to be met mth at the 

 outset. "We note with pleasure that the Government has 

 taken the first step in this, by directing a search for land 

 in the Preanger Kegencies suitable for puantiug young trees 

 of the kinds brought under notice. But we hope that 

 private planters will support the Government in its under- 

 taking, that the example set by several of them, including 

 the manager of the Chikandie "Udik estate inB.antam, will 

 be followed, and that by united efforts success will attend 

 the endeavour to call rubber and guttapercha culture into 

 being, alongside the tea. coffee, tobacco, and cinchona cult- 

 ure now carried on. — Batavia Dayblad, 23rd February. 



INDIAKUEBEE AND GUTTAPERCHA. 



Hardly has the cinchona culture gained a footing in Java, 

 when two new produce articles for the European market 

 begin to attract attention. These are Indiarubber and gutta« 

 percha. Both, almost unknown a century ago, play now an 

 important part in industrial enterprise. The former product 

 is the coagulated milky juice of a great number of trees be- 

 longing to different botanical families {Artocai'pace(F, Apo- 

 cifnciP and E>'phorhiac''c). The second, on the other hand, is 

 chiefly obtained from plants classified among the family of 

 the 8apotare(f. Both rubber and guttapercha are iu j^-reat 

 demand among traders, they being indispensable materials 

 for submarine telegraph lines, the number of which is steadily 

 growing. In these days of electro-magnetic motors rapidly 

 coming into use, substitutes for them are hard to find. Many 

 of the instruments used in medicine which are made of these 

 vegetable gums, arc besides turned to account for uunjerous 

 other purposes. It is hence no wonder that botanists have 

 been making inquiries as to the sources of supply yielding 

 these products so greatly in demand. Very soon convinc- 



EtJKOPE.iN Plants in the Tropics. — In spite of the wejilth 

 of floral beauty which lies ready to the hand of the gardener 

 in tropical countries, the resources of temperate climates 

 are largely drawn upon for the decoration of tiie flower 

 garden in strictly tropical climates. In his report on the 

 Trinidad Botanic Gardens, Mi'. Prestoe says that for some 

 years more attention has been paid to the importation of 

 such English spring and summer flowering plants as Gladioli, 

 Dahlias, Phloxes, &c., with results that have much improved 

 the display and resources of the flower garden. It has 

 been found that though these plants are so little tropical, 

 and bear tropical conditions so indifferently that they either 

 revert to the original species type, as in the case of the 

 Dahlia, or in two or three years die out — they grow and 

 flower for a single season in a manner that is little inferior 

 to the productions in Europe. — Gardeners' Ohronicle. 



New Textile Plants. — In the French journal Zn -Rnwii'*, 

 M. Padleux calls attention to a Japanese plant named Kvsu 

 (Pueraria 'Iliuiiberi/eana), the roots of which contain starch, 

 while the leaves and .shoots are used as food. Its fibrous 

 portions are adapted for use in the manufactvu-e of cord- 

 age. It is a lofty and hardy plant, attaining within a year 

 a height of from 12 to 25 feet. It yields fruit, and grows 

 upon the most unfruitful dry ground where nothing else 

 would thrive, provided there" is a sufficiency of warmth. 

 It requires no care, and can be propagated by seeds or by 

 plautmg. A plant named Ktippe was .shewn at last year's 

 Amsterdam Exhibition. It is indigenous to Java, and when 

 its fibres are carefully prepared they resemble wool, .and 

 when curled, at a moderate cost, can be used for stuffing 

 mattresses. It can also be spun and dyed, but the fibrous 

 appearance it retains shows that a radical improvement in 

 tli>- method of treating it has still to be discoveivd. All 

 who examined the fibre at Amsterdam were satisfie.l ol its 

 contingent importance as a textile material.— /f(')'«"t o/ 

 the Societi/ of Arts. 



