676 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[September 1. 1914. 



ADDITIONAL AWARDS OF PRIZES AT THE LON- 

 DON INTERNATIONAL RUBBER EXHIBITION. 



IN the August issue of The India Ribber Wuki.u (page 587) 

 a list was published of the principal prizes awarded in the 

 different competitions at the London Rubber Hxhil)ition. Some 

 additional names having since l)een received, a supplementary 

 list is annexed. 



Owing to the extensive scope of the exhibition awards, those 

 quoted only include first prizes, identified with rubber 



SILVER Cl'P. 

 Presented by The India Rubber World. New York, b'or liest 

 method of coagulating plantation Hcvca. Dr. Carlos de Cer- 

 queira Pinto, Para. 



•SII.VICU CUPS. 

 Presented by Mr. Arthur Lampard. For rubber trade tennis 

 tournament. Mr, A. A. Craigen and Mr. H. E. Mason. 



SI[,\EK CUP. 



West India Committee Competition. For best sample from an 



individual West Indian exhibitor. Hill's plantation, British 



Guiana. 



( F,.\K.\ C(ll.I) MED.M.. 



"Tropical Life" Competition. W. Egerton, of Coorg Coffee 



Co.'s estates. Coorg. Southern India. 



MR. JOHN McEW.\NS CUP. 

 For best exhiljit wherever produced. R. D. Greenhill, manager 

 of Highlands & Lowlands estate in Federated Malay States. 



MR. THOMAS NORTH CHRISTIE'S CUP. 

 For best exhibit produced in Ceylon. J. Farley Elford, Kintyrc 

 Tea Estate Co., Limited, Ceylon. 



.MR. E. L. H.\MII.TON'S CUP. 

 For best exhibit produced in Federated Malay States or Straits 

 Settlements. P. I". Wise, manager of Balgownie estate in the 

 Federated Malay states. 



INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF TROPICAL 

 AGRICULTURE. 



CON'ERlXCi in part the same period as the recent International 

 Rubber Exhibition, the International Association of Tropical 

 Agriculture lately held its third congress at the Imperial In- 

 stitute. London. The meeting was under the chairmanship of 

 the president. Professor Wyndham R. Dunstan, who was as- 

 sisted by a number of important Colonial officials. Previous 

 <:ongrcsses had taken place at Paris in 1905, and at Brussels in 



1910. , 



King George V sent a message of welcome and expressed 

 the hope that the discussions would contribute to the advance- 

 ment of agriculture in the tropics. 



In his address the chairman, reviewing the development of 

 tropical agriculture during the last four years, urged the im- 

 portance of technical education for those called upon to tdl 

 responsible agricultural positions in the tropics. Well-trained 

 men holding the diploma of a tropical college would easily find 

 remunerative employment. Ceylon he considered best suited 

 for the location of such a college. The question likewise arose 

 <5f forming a British Institute of Tropical Agriculture, on the 

 lines of other representative professional bodies. 



Among other features of the congress was a discussion of 

 "The Factors Which Determine Variation in Plantation Rubber, 

 with Special Reference to Its Uses for Manufacturing Purposes." 

 Mr. W. A. Williams, of the North British Rubber Co., stated that 

 rubber was given such a working at the plantation mills, that 



manufacturers could not vulcanize it afterwards. He also com- 

 plained of planters using chemicals for lightening the color of 

 rubbers. 



With regard to standardization, Mr. Spencer Brett (of Messrs. 

 Gow, Wilson and Stanton) said he was convinced the producer 

 of cultivated rubber in the East enjoyed all the conditions neces- 

 sary for producing qualities more stable in character than any 

 others, provided there was due supervision in every department 

 of collection and preparation. Dr. Schidrowitz recommended 

 manufacturers working towards using plantation rubber without 

 washing. He added that the greatest care was taken in packing 

 tea, which was sold for about 10 cents per pound, while rubber, 

 selling for 50 cents per pound, was simply thrown into a box ana 

 had to take care of itself. Sir Edward Rosling suggested blend- 

 ing rubber from different large plantations, in the same way tea 

 was blended, thus arriving at a common standard. 



In summing up tlie president said more facts were required ; 

 only to be obtained by laborious research. He considered the 

 time was premature for fixing a standard, it being necessary be- 

 fore doing so to decide what the standard was going to be. 



Mr. T. Fetch, Government Botanist of Ceylon, read a paper 

 on "The Principles of Hevea Tapping as Determined by Experi- 

 ment." in which he urged tapping experiments being conducted 

 on virgin trees, with a view to obtaining further data. He con- 

 sidered that at present the greatest scope for tapping experiments 

 lay in the direction of "change over" systems, in which difl^erent 

 sides of the tree were tapped alternately for periods of two or 

 three months. 



Dealing with "The Cultivation of Hevea brasiliensis in Ugan- 

 da," Mr. Samuel Simpson, Director of Agriculture, Uganda, 

 reported that this rubber tree is the one being now most largely 

 planted there, coffee being generally planted as a "catch- 

 crop." He added that the area in Uganda under Hcvca brasi- 

 liensis is increasing more rapidly than that planted in all the 

 other kinds of rubber taken together. 



In another paper, on "Diseases of Hevea in Ceylon," Mr. Fetch 

 stated that though Hcvca brasiliensis has been cultivated in the 

 East for more tlian thirty years, it has acquired few diseases; 

 the majority not serious. Other diseases were treated by Mr. 

 E. Ernest Green, late Government Entomologist. Ceylon, and 

 Mr. A. Sharpies, Assistant Mycologist, Federated Malay States. 

 "Increasing the Yield of Funtuinia by the Sparano Method of 

 Tapping" was discussed by M. Gisseleire, of the Colonial Office, 

 Brussels, who said that Funtumia plantations had, as a rule, given 

 unsatisfactory results ; the yields being much smaller than those 

 obtained from Hevea. Still, as the Congo State has planted a 

 large number of l-untumia trees, experiments are being con- 

 tinued, with a view to improving the system of tapping through 

 the method devised by Mr. Sparano, one of the Congo govern- 

 ment agriculturists. 



Lender the head of "Ceara Rubber Cultivation and Manufac- 

 ture in Southern India," Mr, Rudolph D. Anstead reported that 

 with improved methods of tapping, Ceara has since 1904 been 

 extensively planted in Southern India, where it has been found 

 to respond to good soil and cultivation. Some 17,0(X) acres are 

 now planted with it. It is believed that in the hill districts with 

 a rainfall of 70 to 80 inches, where Hevea will not flourish, Ceara 

 will prove a valual)le crop, especially in conjunction with coffee. 

 Mr. Ashmore Russan, Director of the Soconusco Rubber 

 Plantations, Limited, and London director of La Zacualpa Plan- 

 tation Co., dealt with present methods of Castillna cultivation in 

 Mexico. He considered their comparative yield shows that 

 CasliUoa may be more suitable for cultivation in Mexico than 

 Hcvca brasiliensis, owing to the deficiency of labor. 



A resolution proposed by Sir Henry Blake supported the pro- 

 posed foundation of an Imperial College of Agriculture in the 

 British Tropics and appointed a general committee to co-operate 

 with the London committee wliich is promoting the establishment 

 of the institution. 



