802 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[Seitember 1, 1920. 



,li £cfvally Spacni Serrah'oM 



Note.— 

 as appro\ 

 follows : 



■LT AND Nut. 



Information recently received indicates that this report 

 ed by the Standards Committee should be modified as 



Dimensions G in the table apply to felloe-bands for metal 

 wheels. The corresponding band dimensions for the 6, 7 and 8- 

 inch rims for wood wheels should be 0.688-inch. The felloe-band 

 bolt circle diameter /- for the 6 and 7-inch rims on wood wheels 

 should be 21 J4 and 21 -inch for the 8-inch size. 



In marking letter ballots members should indicate if they ap- 

 prove the report with these corrections included. 



CARRYING CAPACITIES AND INFLATION PRESSURES FOR 

 MOTORCYCLE TIRES. 



The revised S. A. E. Standard for motorcycle tire sizes includes 

 3 and 3^2 -inch sections only, and it is therefore recommended 

 by the Division that the carrying capacity and inflation pressure 

 for the 2J4-inch motorcycle tire be omitted. 



A Fund for Botanical Research in the Tropics. 



The continued success of tropical agriculture, notably plan- 

 tation rubber, tea, coffee, coconuts, fibers and timber, is 

 dependent very largely on maintaining an adequate force of 

 properly trained scientific men to supervise the work. A veritable 

 army of specialists is required to attend to the many diseases 

 now attacking cultivated plants, to the biochemical problems 

 associated with the manufacture of tropical produce, to questions 

 of plant breeding and selection, and also the bacteriology of 

 soils. 



It is from the Imperial College of Science and Technology 

 in London, England, that most of the trained men in this field 

 have come in the past and must come in the future. Tropical 

 agriculture has been to a great extent a British industry, and 

 the Botanical Section of the Department of Biology of the Im- 

 perial College has in consequence become the recognized fountain 

 head of information pertaining to it. 



The Botanical Section is staffed by ten eminent professors, lec- 

 turers and demonstrators and many graduate students are doing 

 excellent work in rubber growing and tropical agriculture gen- 

 erally. Among the latter may be mentioned H. G. Freeman, 

 director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Trinidad, and assistant 

 director of agriculture for the West Indies ; R. M. Richards, 

 mycologist to the Planters' Association of Malay; F. J. F. Shaw, 



D. Sc, mycologist to the Indian Agricultural Service at Pusa; 



E. Bateson, assistant mycologist to the Agricultural Department 

 of the Federated Malay States, now in Borneo ; W. Noel, assist- 

 ant superintendent in agriculture, Barbados, now mycologist to 

 the Imperial Department of Agriculture in the West Indies ; 

 C. O. Farquharson, Government mycologist in Nigeria, recently 

 deceased; A. Sharpies, chief mycologist, Federated Malay States; 

 H. C. Pinching and H. Sutcliffe, mycologists to the Rubber Grow- 

 ers' Association, Malay; H. W. Jack, assistant inspector in agri- 

 culture, Federated Malay States ; A. T. Reeve, plant physiologist 

 and mycologist to the Rubber Growers' Association, Ceylon ; 

 T. Thornton, cotton and fiber expert, Nigeria ; T. Laycock, Agri- 

 cultural Department, Kamerun and Nigeria ; F. D. Stock, botanist 

 to Burma, India Office; W. L. Hall and H. R. Jones, entomologist 

 and mycologist, respectively, to the Egyptian Government; Syd- 

 ney Morgan and G. S. Whitby, chemical researches on rubber for 

 the Rubber Growers' Association. 



An exhibition was recently held by the Imperial College to 

 illustrate the diseases affecting rubber trees and the laboratory 

 methods now adopted to determine the life histories of specific 

 fungi harmful to cultivated plants. Many prominent rubber 

 growers in attendance expressed a wish that the exhibit might 

 remain available for permanent study, so that their codirectors, 

 managers and assistants might, from time to time, interest them- 

 selves in the mycological research carried on by the Botany Sec- 

 tion. Unfortunately this is at present impossible, owing to the 

 limited space in the present buildings of the Imperial College 



and the overcrowded condition of its various departments. More- 

 over, for the same reason, the rector of the college has very 

 reluctantly had to refuse admittance to a large number of stu- 

 dents desiring to specialize in research of value to the plantation 

 world. 



Even in pre-war days the Department of Biology found it 

 almost impossible to satisfy the demand for men to engage in 

 research relating to plant diseases. There is ample evidence that 

 the future demand will be out of all proportion to the supply, 

 both private firms and the Government having evidently decided 

 to maintain and increase the number of scientific oificers to act as 

 advisers on problems of plant sanitation, breeding and soil con- 

 ditions. 



The Department must, even if it is to meet the demands made 

 in the interests of tropical plantations alone, be supplied with 

 additional laboratories and money for the extension of its work, 

 to say nothing of an endowment fund. A site has been selected 

 and plans prepared for extensions near the existing botany build- 

 ing, to cost, for erection alone, £70,000. The Imperial College 

 has received assistance on a large scale from the Government, 

 and from the London County Council towards its annual main- 

 tenance, but is now compelled to seek private aid, and a public 

 appeal has been issued by Lord Crewe, chairman of the govern- 

 ing body, Alfred Keogh, rector of the College, and J. B. Farmer, 

 professor of botany and director of the biological laboratories. 



ReaHzing the importance of the work to private enterprise in 

 tropical agriculture, appreciating its debt to the Imperial College 

 for bringing expert rubber staffs to their present state of effi- 

 ciency, and knowing thai helping this cause helps the plantation 

 rubber industry, the Coimcil rif the Rubber Growers' .\ssociation 

 has unanimously resolved to sive its support to the appeal. A 

 subscription of £1,050 has been pledged by the Association and 

 an appeal signed by Norman W. Grieve and Stanley Bois, chair- 

 man and vice-chairman, has been issued to members and other 

 interested parties. A permanent advisory committee of the Asso- 

 ciation will confer with the staff of the Botany Section of the 

 College from time to time on matters of importance to tropical 

 plantations. 



Up to June 25, 1920, subscriptions totaled £15,700, as follows: 

 Rubber Growers' Association, £1,050; Harrison & Crossfield, 

 Limited, £1,000; Herbert Wright, £1,000; company groups, £10,- 

 364; individvial companies, £1,992; non-producers, £294. Checks 

 for this fund should be made payable to the Rubber Growers' 

 Association and crossed "Botanical Research Account." 



The Miller Rubber Co., Akron, Ohio, is increasing the 

 space devoted to its tire-repair school, so that it will be able 

 to double the number of pupils accommodated. Four hundred 

 have already been graduated and there are now forty-five enrolled. 

 Sometimes classes are even larger than this number. 



