528 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[January i, 1885. 



in, was " Establish an arecanut property, and it is ' a thing 

 for ever,' falling nuts keeping up an incessant relay of trees !" 

 Perhaps the new American dryer may be able to overcome 

 the difficulty of curing Liberian coffee without deterioration, 

 in the husk ? If it is true the Americans are willing to pay 

 a fancy price for the latter thus cured, it should be worth 

 while trying to meet them. The inventors might do worse, 

 on the strength of their professions, than test the machine 

 for avery product here that requires to be dried. — 0. R. 

 — Local " Times." 



THE COLLECTION AND PREPARATION OF INDIA- 

 RUBBER: NEGROHEAD. 



This Indiarubber may be looked upon as a variety of 

 the Para, rubber, being in fact a mollification in form only 

 of the same product. It offers, however, a tempting in- 

 ducement to the collector for adulteration, and although 

 in most cases it consists of the good, sound product of 

 the Siphonia elastlca, yet it is much to be feared that ex- 

 traneous water and other plant juices find their way into 

 the masses. Very frequently a mass of this rubber when 

 cut open gives uumistakeable evidence of being filled up 

 in its central portion with the liquid as collected from the 

 trees. The bad smell of this rubber is due to the decom- 

 position of the non-coagulable portion of the juice. 



Good negrohead-rubber, when well washed, is one of 

 the most useful kinds of rubber which we have ; its rank 

 smell being its only objection, exposure to the air removes 

 a great deal of its bad odour. Tts name has, no doubt, 

 been suggested by the resemblance of a mass of it to the 

 head of a negro. 



It differs from the well known Para bottle in not being 

 uniformly coagulated in layers, but by accident or care- 

 lessness has become coagulated in the vessels in which it 

 has been collected. It is a very common thing to find in 

 a mass of this rubber a great number of small round 

 flattened separate pieces about three-eighths of an inch 

 thick, these have been produced by coagulating in the 

 little clay cups used in collecting the juice from the trees. 



Generally this rubber is much darker thru Pari rubber, 

 which arises from oxidation due to prolonged exposure to 

 the air. There is no doubt that this oxidation tends to 

 deprive the rubber of a considerable amouut of its strength 

 when worked up. A very light kind of this rubber is 

 frequently met with, which is probably collected with much 

 less exposure. The large quantity of negrohead rubber at 

 present shipped from Brazil shows that it is now an in- 

 tentional rather than au accidental production, and as it 

 eommands a good price in comparison with the bottle rubber 

 and does not incur so much trouble and time in preparing, 

 we can hardly feel surprised at the large supplies which 

 are sent out. At one time it was suggested that the reason 

 for not giving it the bottle form was from a scarcity of 

 the palms yielding the nuts used in smoking the rubber. 

 This is evidently not the case, as it is a very common 

 thing to meet with Pani rubber in the bottle form dried 

 without the use of these nuts. 



The large quantities of negrohead-rubber at present offer- 

 ed would lead one to suspect that a reckless tapping of 

 these trees is taking place, we can hardly imagine a cul- 

 tivator whose interest is to preserve his trees so exhaust- 

 ing them as to be worth his while to convert the rubber 

 into the negrohead kind. 



If it should prove to be worth the cultivator's while to 

 produce thi< kind of rubber than the bottle form, it may 

 be of interest to see how far this mode of preparing may 

 be improved so as to saciifice the qualities of the rubber 

 as little as possible. 



Considering the facilities this kind of rubbe*" places at 

 the command of the dishonest collector and the compara- 

 tively small number of cases which are met with of fraud- 

 ulent packing, we are tempted to believe that the Brazilian 

 has not yet been educated in the vices of those countries 

 which claim a higher standard of refinement. 



"We have no authentic accounts of other kinds of rubber 

 being sent into this country from Para, although it i< well 

 known that for some distance along the Rio Negro and 

 the other northern tributaries of the Amazon, several trees 

 are found which yield lactescent juices, which, when coa- 

 gulated, have the appearance of good rubber. 



A few years ago I brought from Pari a quantity of the 

 juice of the cow-tree, which yielded a remarkably good rubber, 



quite equal in fact to the best kinds of Pari. I was told 

 that the tree was too valuable for its timber to allow of 

 its being tapped for rubber, whilst Mr. Green, H. B. M. 

 Consul at Para, told me that it had been collected and 

 shipped as Pari rubber. — Indfaruhber and Guttapercha 

 Journal. 



The receipts of rubber at Pari, in kilogrammes, for the 

 first six months ot 1884 were 4,914,516, against 3,926.000 

 in 1883, and 4,130,000 in 18S2.—Indi«rabl>er and Gutta- 

 percha Jourital. 



Sugau-Growing in Fiji. — The first parcel of sugar from 

 the little Pioneer mill, which was removed from the Rewa 

 to the Dreketi, has just been placed upon the local market, 

 and has found a ready sale at £22 per ton. Seven tons 

 were brought down. The quality was that known as "yellow 

 counter." The proprietors speak very hopefully of the 

 prospect. There is plenty of eane to 'keep the mill going 

 for six months; it is yielding 10| density, and as the pro- 

 duce is intended for local consumption, there is a good 

 market. One of the anomalies of Fiji is that, being a sugar- 

 producing country, sugar is here dearer than it is in Sydney 

 or Melbourne. The industry is protected by an import duty 

 of Id. per lb; the miller therefore calculates at what cost 

 the retailer can import, ami sells at that rate, so that 

 Fijian sugars have been selling to the local market at £42 

 per ton, which, when shipped to Melbourne, Sydney, or 

 Auckland, would not fetch more than £32. The Pioneer 

 produce is intended to bring this matter to its proper 

 bearings, and therefore the mill has general sympathy in 

 its favour, especially such as wells from the disinterested 

 bosom of the thrifty housewife.— Australasian. 



A Ceylon Planter's Life in Tasmania.— The first year, 



as you know, I worked forX , so I did nothing on my own 



account, but I left him last October at the end of the 

 month, and commenced " scrubbing " for myself. I took 

 down 12 acres in all, aud felled some 20 to 25 large gum 

 trees. Then I took ten acres to do for another man, and after- 

 wards did two for X . Not being flush of cash, I was 



obliged to get work, for I had but £30 when I started, 

 and I had to pay £8-2-6 for survey-fees. This work kept 

 me going until the time eame for a burn-off. After the 

 burn, I put up a loose box aud commenced " picking up," 

 which I finished in six weeks. Then I took work from 



X. at 6s. a day for 8 hours of it, and used to 



get back to my hut about 4 p.m. After a mouthful of 

 something to eat, I started sowirg my grass seed until 



dark. As X. had a house, I thought I ought to 



have one too, so I said to my other neighbour: "You waut 

 your land picked up now that the burn is finished ; you, 

 being a carpenter, help me to build a house, and I will 

 give you the return help in 'picking up.'" So he did, 

 and I am living in it now. I have two rooms 12 ft. x 12 

 ft., a kitchen 7 ft. x 12 ft., aud a verandah 6 ft. at front 

 and 7 ft. at back; also a small store-room. This winter 

 I have "grubbed" nearly an acre of all the stumps (of 

 course, not the large gum stumps, but all small ones), and 

 just put in thirty apple trees, besides a quantity of others 

 — cherry, currants, plum, gooseberry, &c. I have got in 

 early potatoes, peas, carrots, turnips, lettuce, cabbage, and 

 other English vegetable seeds. Before you get this I shall 

 have put in a small quantity of oats for fowls, and have 

 raised a large crop of potatoes to feed pigs upon and for 

 my own use. I am now ' scrubbing ' again. The grass I 

 have, not beiug much, I am keeping it for seed, but I 

 hope to be able to run a few cattle next year, if I can 

 raise the coin to buy them. It's rather a lonely life, even 

 after an Uva clearing. I generally spend Sundays with 

 the Unwius, but the other six days I see no one, so work 

 like a nigger to keep the blue-devils off. I do all my 

 own cooking, cake my own bread, and do all my own 

 washing, which is the roughest work of the lot. Few 

 Ceylon planters would care for this sort of thing, for it 

 is back-breaking work, and " grubbing " takes the softness 

 out of your fingers and the straightness out of your bark-. 

 But I like the life, and see a good good chance of making 

 a fair living after a year or so. It is not a life I should 

 recommend a Ceylon man to take. It is just the sort of 

 work a navvy has to do, but one has no V. A. flying around 

 to interfere, ami, if one works, one can always make a 

 living and an independence. — C. L. B. — Local " Times." ' 



