338 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[August i, 1907. 



THE EDITOR'S BOOK TABLE. 



RUBBER IN THE EAST. BEING THE OFFICIAL ACCOUNT OF 

 the Ceylon Rubber Exhibition held in the Royal Botanic Gardens, 

 Peradeniya, in September, igo6. Edited by J. C. Willis, M. Kclway 

 Bamber, E. B. Denham. (Peradeniya Manuals, No. i.) Colombo: 

 Government Printer. 1906. [Cloth. 8vo. Pp vili +2694-maps and 

 plates.] 



'T'lIE authorities of the Ceylon botanic department have 

 •^ launched a long projected series of manuals of tropical 

 botany, entomology, agriculture, and horticulture, by putting 

 forth under their editorship a carefully prepared report of the 

 Percadeniya rubber exhibition — the first of its kind ever held — 

 including the lectures and discussions which gave the occasion 

 the character of a rubber congress as well. The narrative ac- 

 count is well arranged, including descriptions of the exhibits 

 and lists of the awards, besides which the lectures as given have 

 had the benefit of revision by their authors. A good idea of 

 the appearance of the exhibits is given by the numerous illustra- 

 tions in the volume, and there are several maps of the rubber 

 planting districts. As may be inferred from the title, this is not 

 a Ceylon rubber book alone ; the planting interests in Malaya 

 are equally well represented. The contents of this volume, while 

 of the same general character as the report of the rubber exhibi- 

 tion produced by the enterprise of the Ceylon Observer and 

 already noticed in these pages, make of it, on the whole, a 

 really different work. It is to be hoped that the editors of the 

 "Peradeniya Manuals" will feel encouraged by the success of 

 their first essay to make frequent addition to the series. We 

 are not advised as to the price of this volume. 



JAPANESE RULE IN FORMOSA. BY YOSABURO TAKEKOSHI, 

 member of the Japanese Diet. Translated by George Braithwaite. 

 London and New York; Longmans, Green & Co. 1907. [Cloth. 8vo. 

 Pp xv-i-342-J-27 plates and map. Price, $3.] 



For one who wishes to read a well written book by an intelli- 

 gent observer, about a country which one perhaps has never 

 seen described in a book before, though it is rich in history of 

 a certain sort and full of strange people and things, Mr. 

 Takekoshi's work can hardly fail to be of interest. Moreover, it 

 helps give an insight into Japanese public policy, seeing that 

 Formosa affords the first important illustration of how the 

 Japanese work at colonization. We take it that much is bound 

 to be heard of Formosa under Japanese rule, and the book be- 

 fore us will serve as an excellent first course in reading in re- 

 gard to that island and its resources. Rubber is not treated by 

 the author, but we have shown [see The India Rubber World, 

 December i, 1906 — page 73] that Formosa has rubber resources 

 of importance. But a chapter is devoted to caniphor, of which 

 the island is the world's chief supplier, and the conditions under 

 wliich this gum is obtained doubtless are similar to what will 

 prevail in forest rubber gathering when that becomes more gen- 

 eral in Formosa. 



AN INDUSTRLAL ACHIEVEMENT. POPE MANUFACTURING CO.. 

 Hartford, Connecticut. 1877-1907. [Cloth. 410. Pp. 85.] 



This is no mere advertising book, though it must be admitted 

 that "trade publications," so called, constitute an important part 

 of technical and industrial literature. Whoever has ridden a 

 bicycle is familiar with the name of Colonel Albert A. Pope, 

 and when the history of good roads in America comes to be 

 written no small share of the credit for the new era in high- 

 ways will be given ungrudgingly to this enterprising New Eng- 

 lander who, while learning to ride an old-fashioned high wheel, 

 first appreciated how very bad were the roads of this country. 

 Times change, and businesses with them. Having placed him- 

 self at the head of the bicycle industry, at the time when that 

 was of really commanding importance. Colonel Pope was in 

 readiness, with the development of the automobile, to devote 

 to the new vehicle the same measure of enterprise and energy 

 that the bicycle had claimed from him in earlier days. The 

 company of which he is the head to-day, while not dropping 

 the bicycle, are most largely producers of motor cars, of many 

 types, in a chain of factories stretching across the country. 



It is recalled in The India Rubber World office that for some 

 time after the vehicles now called automobiles began to be seen 

 their development was still regarded as experimental, and it is 

 just ten years since a leading article appeared in these pages, 

 headed "Practical Introduction of the Horseless Carriage," 

 pointing to a new and important demand for rubber tires, and 

 in this article prominent mention was made of the Pope Manu- 

 facturing Co. From that time the automobile interest and the 

 Pope company have grown apace, and this book : ".An Industrial 

 .•\chicvement," is a welcome addition to the printed history of a 

 remarkable development. The book is advertising matter, of 

 course, but of such a high class, in every respect, that we shall 

 be pleased to admit to review in this column any like publication 

 that may be issued by any other house. 



NOTES. 



The issue for February-March, 1907, of the Annates de I'ln- 

 stitut Colonial de Bordeaux is devoted to a report of a mission 

 sent out from the institute to French West Africa to study the 

 value of the rubber yielded by the "gohine" vine and the best 

 means for collecting it. The gohine plant (native name) has 

 been described as the Landolphia Hendelottii and also as L. Sene- 

 galensis. The mission reports favorably on the quality of the 

 rubber, and its recommendations with regard to its treatment 

 are likely to prove of value. 



"La Culture Industrielle du Ficus ehslica" has been reprinted 

 in pamphlet form from the Bulletin de TOffice du Gouvernement 

 General de I'Algerie (Paris). It is a general account of this 

 species, with special reference to the experiments with it by 

 Professor Borzi at Palermo, Sicily. 



"On a New- Rubber Vine" is a report (in Japanese) by Takiya 

 Kawakami, government e.xpert in the bureau of productive in- 

 dustries in Formosa. It is printed, half-tone pictures and all, 

 at Taihoku, Formosa. The plant is the Ecdysanthera utilis, 

 named by B. Hayata, in the Tokio Botanical Magazine. The 

 plant was described in The India Rubber World, December i, 

 1906 (page 73)- 



AMERICANS IN THE CONGO. 



THE mission of the Societe Internationale Forestiere et 

 Miniere du Congo, referred to already in these pages, left 

 .Antwerp on May 30 by the steamer Brtixellesvillc. The party 

 included R. Dorsey Mohun, chief; S. H. Ball, of the United 

 States Geological Survey, chief geologist and second in command 

 of the expedition ; Messrs. Shaler, Olivier and Smith, also on 

 leave from the geological survey; A. Reid and B. Reid, brothers, 

 prospectors ; Dr. HoUebeke, physician ; Messrs. Corde and 

 Reniers, agents. Mr. Mohun was United States commercial 

 agent at Boma, on the Congo, in 1892-95, and United States 

 consul at Zanzibar in 1895-97, after which he w-as in the service 

 of the Congo Free State as a district commissaire of the first 

 class. Dr. Hollebeke goes prepared to continue his experiments 

 in the treatment of the sleeping sickness. The Bruxellcsville 

 also carried to the Congo four agents of the American Congo Co. 

 The Mohun expedition has gone out for two years' work in 

 prospecting. King Leopold, who takes a special interest in the 

 expedition, received Messrs. Mohun and Ball at Laecken before 

 their departure, and, a Belgian newspaper reports, "conversed 

 with them for more than an hour in the most cordial manner." 



Motor Cars and Rubber. — It is to be presumed that in the 

 course of a few years the many rubber plantations now being 

 laid out will greatly enhance the world's total yield, and that 

 then the price of rubber may fall. From present appearances the 

 automobile cannot flourish without the rubber tire, and any de- 

 velopment tending to reduce the cost of rubber and rubber tires 

 means increased practicability for the motor car. — The Horseless 

 Age. 



