Vol. X. No. 243. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



271 



GERMAN ASSISTANCE TO RUBBER 



GROWERS. 



In the India-Rubber Journal for May 20, 1911, there 

 is an account of the first Annual Report of the Kautschuk- 

 Centralstelle, which was inaugurated on April 1, 1910. 



The account shows that the KautschukCentralstelle lias 

 for its object the assistance of rubber-producing Colonies, 

 through the medium of scientific investigations for the 

 solving of problems with which these are confronted from 

 time to time. In pursuance of this, investigations have 

 been carried out in regard to coagulation, the effect of soils, 

 the thinning out of trees, tapping methods, and the chemical 

 and technical examination of raw products, which are also 

 manufactured into various goods in order to find out the 

 purpose for which they are most suitaljle. In reference 

 to the last part of the work, it has been proposed to create 

 standard brands for rubber and to draw up the necessary 

 regulations in connexion with these. 



Among the work during the year have been investiga- 

 tions into the distillation products of the Urucuri nut 

 {Atlalea excelsa) which is burned to provide the smoke 

 employed in the curing of Para rubber. Experiments are 

 also being carried out with Masserandulja wood {Miiniisops 

 etata), and there has been an enquirj- into the chemical com- 

 position of Funturaia latex and of the scrum which is yielded 

 by this. 



It is recommended that latex sieves should always be of 

 hair, or if metal sieves are used they should be well tinned and 

 of very fine mesh. Material is being sent for examination in 

 connexion with the rubber that is contained in the unripe 

 fruit of Castilloa. Several enquiries have Ijeen received con- 

 cerning the possible use of the banana plant for giving 

 rubber, and the reply was made that this matter did not 

 include any question of the collection of rubber. 



New designs of tapping knives for Funtumia and Hevea 

 have been made, and it is thought that the instruments 

 constructed according to these may, with modifications, be 

 used for the Manihots. It is interesting that the booming 

 of several so-called artificial rubbers, particularly of a sub- 

 stance obtained from soy bean oil, was emphatically de- 

 nounced by the Centralstelle. 



The phj-sical work has been connected mainly with the 

 testing of the viscosity of rubber. In the article from which 

 this information is taken, details of the scope of the work on 

 samples of rubber are given. Among the results of more 

 general interest that have been obtained are the following: 

 the use of Purub for coagulating C'eara latex has not shown 

 superiority to that of acetic acid; herring-bone tapping was 

 found best, in Togo, for Ceara rubber; in regard to this rubber 

 again, samples containing a high proportion of albuminous 

 substances were found to vulcanize very quickly; rubbers can 

 be obtained from Funtumia, in German plantations, which 

 compare in value to first class Para and Congo; Purub did not 

 show any superiority to guiacol as a coagulant for rubbers 

 received from West Africa; with boiled latex, the addition of 

 hydrochloric acid before heating gave the best results, while 

 those from tanning used in the same w^iiy were the worst; 

 coagulation of Hevea latex with acetic acid was found to be 

 better than that with Purub; many coagulants that are being 

 recommended from various sources were examined, and the 

 caution is given that care should be used as regards the indis- 

 criminate employment of such .substances, where there is no 

 knowledge of their composition; lastly, trials were made for 



the improvement of inferior rubbers, compensation for the 

 loss of material being obtained from the higher price of the 

 final product. 



THE SHOEING OF HORSES. 



A series of leaflets is being issued by the Animals' Friend 

 Society, York House, Portugal Street, Kingsway, London. 

 The first of these, among the Farmyard Series, deals with 

 errors in the .shoeing of horses, and has been prepared by the 

 editor of Farm and Home. 



It is pointed out, first of all, that there is no economy 

 in the use of heavy shoes, with the idea that they will last 

 a long time, chiefly because their weight causes inconvenience 

 to th<; animal, and a certain output of nonproductive energy, 

 which has to be supplied in the food. The general rule is 

 given: ' that no horse should be fitted with a shoe that will 

 last more than a month or five weeks, and that the shoes 

 should be replaced, as nearly as possible, every month.' 



Attention is drawn to the fact that the foot of the horse 

 is a living structure which is continually growing, and shed- 

 ding the worn-out parts which are replaced with new mater- 

 ial. The horn of the horse's foot is in the nature of a toe- 

 nail. It is kept in a pliable condition, and prevented from 

 cracking, by the moisture which it contains. In order to 

 prevent this moisture from escaping, the foot is provided with 

 a kind of varnish. The paring and rasping that are often done 

 by the smith in shoeing remove this varnish, so that the 

 horn of the foot dries up and such conditions as sand-crack 

 are produced. As a matter of fact, there is no need for par- 

 ing and scraping, because the horny fibres break off after they 

 have been growing for a time, to make room for the constantly 

 nevif .supply by which this part of the foot is preserved in 

 a moist and supple condition. 



The leaflet concludes with a description of errors that 

 are made in the treatment of the frog, and in the fitting on of 

 hot shoes. 



Cotton and Sugar in China. — The amount of 

 raw cotton annually imported from India varies with the 

 rate of exchange between silver and gold and with the price 

 of American cotton. The Chinese cotton is much whiter 

 and freer from seed and leaf than the Indian, but Indian 

 cotton is imported for the mills in China, when exchange is 

 sufficiently favourable, in order to get a better length of 

 staple. Indian cotton is also imported to make up for 

 scarcity of Chinese cotton when, on account of high prices 

 of American cotton, more Chinese cotton than usual is 

 shipped to Japan. It is to the latter cause that the increase 

 of 18,000 cwt. in the import of cotton in 1909 compared to 



1908 is to be attributed. The export of raw cotton increased 

 by 24,000 cwt. 



The import of foreign sugar is to some extent an index 

 of prosperit}', and from this point of view the increase in 



1909 is encouraging. To judge from the returns of New- 

 chwang, the only port of Manchuria of which the statistics 

 are as yet to hand, the increased import is, as might be 

 expected, especially noteworthy in the Manchurian provinces, 

 whose natural resources are being developed more rapidly 

 than those of any other part of the Empire. Ninety per 

 cent, of the actually foreign sugar imported in Newohwang 

 in 1909 was Hong Kong refined sugar, the balance being 

 .Japanese. The production of beet sugar in North Manchuria 

 has not yet affected the market. (From Di2:>loinatic and 

 Consular Reports, No. 4-5.56 Annual Series, pp. 12 and 1.5.) 



