V.>L. IX. No. 214. 



TllfJ AGJ;1CULTU11AL XEW! 



215 



guarantee, adulterate the meal wiili CMtion seed linli.-;. The 

 analysis is kept up to the mininuuii called fori i the contract 

 of sale, but the lint on the hulls tliat are jitlt into the meal 

 gives it oftentiine a fuzzy appearance, winch affects its feeding 

 qualities, and is objectiouable to tiie tr.-lfle. There are 

 numerous instances on record in which buyers have asked 

 a rebate for the lint in the meal. Arbitration committees 

 have sometimes awarded the buyer an allowance on account 

 of this excess of lint, although the meal was up to the contract 

 quality in every other respect. 



Some of the Minck and de Segundo nrwhines were seen 

 in an oil mill at Marseilles, but the manager,^considering the 

 matter quite a secret. Avould give the writer r.o detailed 

 infoimation about them. He admitted, however, that the 

 machine was a new invention, and that it was a great success. 



T 



a report whiili lecouimeiids, chiefly, that there should be 

 greater care on the part of growers to keep up the high 

 quality of Cuban tobacco, and to maintain uniformity in the 

 product. 



TRADE AND COMMERCE OF CUBA, 1909. 



It is .stated in Xo. -1,427, Annual Series of the Diplo- 

 matic and Consular Iteports, which has just been issued, that, 

 from such data as are at present available, it appears that the 

 trade of Cuba in 1 909 showed si>;ns of steady improve- 

 ment. 



The e.xport of .sugar from Cuba in 1909 was 1,431,5.3S 

 tons of the value of £16,48.5.440, which is greater than that 

 of the previous year by nearly £6,000,000, or rather more 

 than .50 per cent. As is usually the ca.sc, neatly llie whole 

 of this sugar went to the United States; only 10, .309 tons 

 was sent to other countries. This large crop was due to the 

 excelknce of the harvest of 19C8 9. 



The crop of 1909-10 also promises to be very satisfactory, 

 and reliable estimates place the yield at 1,700,000 tons; i)rices 

 for the earlier part of 1910 are 2.5 per cent, higher than those 

 at the same time in 1909. It is stated that Euro])ean bujeis 

 are trying to secure Cuban sugars, and it is a fact that several 

 caraoes have been sent already to Europe. This is a new 

 development, and, while it has a favourable effect on prices, 

 it puts Cuban manufacturers in posses.sion of an additional 

 market. 



In regard to fruits, the pine-apple croj) of 1909 formed 

 a record, but remunerative prices were not obtained, in 

 general. This was partly because the L'nited States is the 

 only accessible market at present, and partly because supplies 

 reached the market on many occasions when it was already 

 glutted, owing to the want of organization among fruit 

 growers in Cuba. The export of pineapples during 1909 was 

 1,280,000 crates of 80 lb.; this exceeded that of the previous 

 year by nearly 2-50,000 crates. 



Little profit was attached to the export of oranges and 

 other citrus fruits. The reasons for this are supplied by the 

 fact that the growers are only small producers with little 

 capital, for the greater part, and that railway and steam- 

 ship charges are high. In addition, orange-growing in Cuba 

 is still in the experimental stage, and many errors will have 

 to be rectified before it can become a profitable industry. 



The amount of tobacco produced in 1909 was 494,358 

 bales of about 120 ft., having an estimated value of 

 £9,000,000. That produced in 1908 reached 563,059 bales, 

 so that there is a decrease of 68,701 bales. The value of all 

 the tobacco exported during 1909 was £6,545,054, as 

 compared with £0,7:'.5,212, in 1908. The state of the 

 tobacco industry in Cuba has caused much anxiety to planters 

 and merchants for some years, and a Commission was 

 appointed in 1909 to inquire into it. This has issued 



THE PREPARATION OF RUBBER FOR 

 MANUFACTURE. 



One of the Circulars and Ai/rinilfural Journal 

 of the Riii/al Botanic Gardens, Ceylon (Vol. V, No. 4), 

 describes .-i visit of Dr. J. C. Willis.'jJirector of the Gar- 

 Hens, to the woiks of the Continental Rubber Company, 

 of Hanover. Fait of the information given is repro- 

 duced here: — 



The first stage was the cutting up of the rubber, as 

 received from the market, and in the room where this was 

 going on many plantation marks were recognized. And here, 

 l>r. Prinzhorn [the Director] made his first complaint against 

 plantation rubber, that when it was in blocks, the blocks were 

 too thick, and had to be cut up. He stated that the blocks 

 OMght not to be more than 1 inch thick. This is only a small 

 point, but it is worthy of attention, none the less. 



Cut into slices not over an inch thick, the rubber next 

 went into the large washing and rolling room, which employed 

 an engine of 1,000 horsepower. Along one side of this room, 

 were about ten rolling machine.?, composed each of a large 

 piir of cylinders, rotating at dirtercnt speeds in opposite direc- 

 tions. At the near end of the room, these cylinders were 

 strongly grooved, and as one went down the room the grooves 

 became le.ss and less marked, till finally one cylinder, and 

 then both cylinders, were quite smooth. The rubber began 

 at the coarsely-grooved cylinders and finished at the smooth 

 ones, going through each pair in turn. By the crushing and 

 tearing action of these rollers, which are kept warm, and 

 between which a stream of water plays, the rubber is com- 

 pletely worked over, and all impurities are washed away, 

 while the rubber is rolled into an irregular sheet, full of small 

 openings, and becoming thinner and finer and more regular 

 as the material goes through the smoother rollers at the far 

 end of the room, which, besides being smoother, are also 

 closer together. 



The softer rubbers are wa.shed with cold instead of hot 

 water; and for the African rubbers, which are almost incred- 

 ibly dirty, a special machine is used for the first part of the 

 washing. This is known as the Hollander (Dutchman), and 

 is in fact the machine used in paper mills to make the pulp. 

 It tears the rubber into fine shreds, and passes it along 

 through a considerable stream of water, the sand and other 

 iiupurities falling to the bottom. From the Hollander, the 

 rubber goes to the later, and smoother, rolling machines, 

 omitting the passage through the coarser. This cleansing 

 process, through which all rubbers must go. Dr. Prinzhorn 

 did not think could be properly carried out upon an estate. 



From the last of the washing and rolling machines, the 

 rubber comes in thin irregular sheets, with numerous small 

 holes in them. These are carried upstairs to a room not 

 unlike a tea-withering loft, where they are hung for two or 

 three days, or until thoroughly dry, in a temperature of about 

 40°C. or a little less (104°F.), over wires arranged in light 

 wooden frames, like those of the tea witherers. The poorer 

 African rubbers were not dried in this room, but in a cooler 

 room above. Both rooms were fitted with red blinds, to 

 provide a non-actinic light for the rubber, which is injured 

 by exposure to bright light — just like a photographic plate, 

 but in a less marked degree. 



