96 



be found in each of the receptacles, and on a large tree when 

 there are none of these devices — each with thirty cups — there will 

 be 270 lumps of coagulated rubber waiting for the gatherer. It 

 is stated that the same current that does the work on one tree 

 can do the work on 5000 trees by simply equipping that number 

 of trees and connecting l)y the insulated wire, so that the electric 

 current can be communicated. In an actual test already made, 

 between fifty and sixty trees have been tapped at one time from 

 the central station. 



According to Air. von Hassel, the advantages are as follows: 

 First, the enormous saving of labor, one man being able to do 

 the work of forty under the old system ; secondly, the power to 

 tap trees in the swamps which cannot often be approached by 

 the tapper; third, the fact that the trees can by this process be 

 tapped very early in the morning before the sun is up, when the 

 latex flows more freely ; and, fourth, the fact that the trees 

 cannot be injured by this process, as the punctures are very 

 small and heal rapidly.—//, and C. Mail. 



POPULARITY OF BANANA FOOD PRODUCTS. 



By O. W. Barrett, in Pliilipl'ijic Agricultural Rcviczv. 



After a decade or more of partially successful experiments in 

 the manufacture and popularization of banana products, a defi- 

 nite market is now assured, at least in Europe, and we may 

 expect to hear of numerous factories being established through- 

 out tropical America and, let us hope, even in the Philippines. 

 within the next few years. 



Jamaica, in the West Indies, has been the mother, so to speak, 

 of this industry and it is in that island where nearly all of the 

 reallv important factories for handling bananas are now to be 

 found. In the Alarch, 1912, number of The Philif^piiic Agriail- 

 tiira! Rci'ic-a' attention was called to the appearance on the market 

 of several varieties of banana products ; it seems, however, that 

 recently several additional companies have entered into the bus- 

 iness in Jamaica. From the Daily Consular and Trade Reports 

 we learn that at least six factories are now in operation and 

 two (jthcr comi),-uiics arc contem])lating tlic erection of large 

 plants. 



The following f|uotation taken from the above-mentioned pub- 

 lication indicates clearly the ])rcsent status of the business ; the 

 processes in use in the various concerns are, of course, more or 

 less private, though for that matter Philippine conditions would 

 necessitate the working out of sjX'cial methods for handling the 

 material here : 



"The original factory, which has been operating al)()Ut six years 

 at riayle, claims to have a secret i->roccss for making banana figs. 

 A large factory at Montcgo Bay had its machinery made after 



