Vol. X. No. 234. 



THE AGKICULTUKAL NEWS. 



123 



RUBBER NOTES. 



INTERNATIONAL RUBBER EXHIBITION, 



1911. 



A meeting of the General Purposes Committee of the 

 International Rubber and Allied Trades Exhibition was held 

 on February 13, at the London Chamber of Commerce. 



The President, Sir Henry A. Blake, G.C.M.G., presided, 

 and a large number of persons interested in the industry were 

 present. The following Committees, with power to add to 

 same, were appointed : Awards Committee, International 

 Congress Committee, Reception Committee, International 

 Banquet Committee; and as soon as they are completed the 

 names will be published. 



A recommendation was made to the Awards Committee 

 that a prize to the value of 50 guineas be offered for the 

 best suggestion for a foundation or bed best suited for the 

 laying of rubber blocks or sheets for road-paving. 



That manufacturers be approached with a view to 

 arranging for a few square feet of rubber road paving, to be 

 laid in one of the London streets, to test if in a few years, 

 when the production of rubber will be much greater than it 

 is to-day, it will be possible to pave the London streets with 

 a rubber composition. 



Sir Henry Blake stated that Mr. Manders had supplied 

 him with the information that the following countries were 

 exhibiting oiKcially; Straits Settlements, British Guiana, 

 Ceylon, Dominica, Uganda, German New Guinea, Dutch 

 East and West Indies, India, Madagascar, Indo-China, the 

 Hawaiian Islands, French Congo, State of Para (Brazil), 

 Federated Malay States, Queensland, Trinidad, the Gold 

 Coast, British East Africa, Kameruns and other German 

 Colonies, Federal Government of Brazil, Occidental Africa, 

 Equatorial Africa, Belgium, State of Manaos (Brazil). Other 

 countries were negotiating; also many private planters in 

 different parts of the world, and several of the largest manu- 

 facturers of England, Germany, France, America, Holland, 

 etc., were exhibiting. The Exhibition would be a very 

 complete one, and it was the duty of everyone interested in 

 the industry to give the undertaking all the support they 

 could. 



A vote of thanks to the Chairman concluded the busi- 

 ness. {Yiom the India-Rubber Journal, ¥ehTna.TY 18,1911.) 



THE WEST INDIA COMMITTEE AND 



THE INTERNATIONAL RUBBER 



EXHIBITION. 



The following particulars of a competition for West 

 Indian rubber, initiated by the West India Committee, 

 are given in the issue of the Circular published by the 

 Committee, dated March 14, 1911. 



In connexion with the forthcoming Rubber Exhibition, 

 to be held at the Royal Agricultural Hall from June 24 to 

 July 11, the West India Committee have decided to offer, 

 for competition by British West Indian exhibitors, two 

 silver cups, for: — 



(1) The finest prepared sample of plantation rubber of 

 any species, and 



(2) For the best specimens of balata. 



The specimens must in each case be sent over with the 

 exhibits of one of the Permanent Exhibition Committees. The 

 judging will be entrusted to rubber experts to be appointed 

 by the Committee. 



The West Indian colonies participating in the Exhibition 

 will be Trinidad and Tobago, for which a space of 33 feet by 

 16 feet has been taken; and British Guiana and Dominica, 

 whose exhibits will each occupy a space of 10 feet by 10 feet. 

 The Trinidad exhibits will include herbarium specimens, 

 living ruljber-producing plants, tapping instruments and 

 sections of trunks of rubber trees for demonstrating purposes, 

 together with diagrams, photographs, and literature for 

 distribution. Mr. Edgar Tripp, Secretary of the Permanent 

 Exhibition Committee, is leaving no stone unturned to make 

 the exhibit a success. British Guiana will show about 2 cwt. 

 of balata, 40 or 50 lb. of plantation Para rubber and biscuit, 

 and 20 lb. of scrap Sapium, which will be taken charge of by 

 Mr. F. A. Stockdale, with a Wardian case of growing ruliber 

 plants. A special rubber pamphlet has been prepared, giving 

 a concise account of the position of the local rubber industry. 

 Particulars regarding the Dominica exhibit have not yet been 

 received; but it is of interest to note that rubber-planting is 

 being rapidly extended in that island. 



THE POISONOUS PROPERTIES OF 



UNRIPE SORGHUM. 



The Bulletin of the Imperial Institute, Vol VIII, p. 384, 

 contains a continuation of an investigation, which was 

 partly described in Vol. IV, p. 333 of the .same journal, in 

 relation to the poisonous action of immature green .sorghum. 

 The article commences with the presentation of observations 

 that have been made in West Africa, where the natives give 

 a similar reason for the occasional acquisition of poisonous 

 properties by the plant to those put forward in India, namely 

 abnormal growth on account of drought or the attacks of 

 insects — a matter to which reference is made in the Diction- 

 ary of the Economic Products of India, Vol. VI, Part III. 



The work carried out at the Imperial Institute has 

 shown conclusively that the poisonous action of Egyptian and 

 Indian young green sorghum is due to the formation of 

 prussic acid, and this conclusion is supported by the results 

 obtained by other investigators. The reason for the occasion- 

 al occurrence of the acid in young plants, in poisonous quan- 

 tities, appears to arise from the fact that prussic acid is one of 

 the compounds formed in the process of building up more 

 complex substances. Therefore, if the growth of the plant 

 is interfered with in any way, it is likely that an excess of 

 the acid will be present in it, because it is unable to make 

 use of this in the normal manner. Such interference with 

 growth is most likely to occur through drought or insect 

 attack; thus support is given to the native opinion stated 

 above. 



Samples of Guinea corn and of millet (Pennisetnm 

 typhoideum) from Northern Nigeria have been examined 

 recently at the Imperial Institute; but as the plants were 

 nearly mature, it was not expected that prussic acid in any 

 quantity would be found, especially as the glucoside dhurrin, 

 which produces the prussic acid, disappears as the plant 

 ripens, in the case of sorghum at least. The millet was 

 found to contain a trace of prussic acid, but none was avail- 

 able from the sorghum. Further experiments are to be car- 

 ried out with younger material from Northern Nigeria. 



