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of great service to all interested in tropical agriculture and 
especially to agriculturists and planters in the West Indies, 
for whose benefit it was chiefly intended. Many will entertain 
the hope expressed in an editorial article which appears in the 
final issue of the paper that after a while the new West Indian 
Agricultural College will undertake the publication of a journal 
which will efficiently continue the work of that now suspended. 
Referring to the West Indian Agricultural College a pre- 
liminary announcement is made in the Agricultural News to 
the effect that the College is expected to be open for the reception 
of a limited number of students in October next. More definite 
information will be given to West Indian Governments and 
educational institutions in due course, and in the meantime 
inquiries may be addressed to the Chief Clerk and Registrar, 
Imperial Department of Agriculture, Barbados. 
Guayule Rubber in Mexico.—-Partheniwm argentatum, known as 
the Guayule Rubber Plant, a native of Mexico is of bushy habit 
and slow growth and unlike other rubber producers the rubber 
is extracted by mechanical methods. Much has been done during 
recent years by American scientists in the way of seed selection 
and hybridisation to select the best producers for cultivation and 
immense sums of money have been expended in perfecting 
machinery for handling the plants and extracting the rubber. 
The industry has been seriously handicapped from its infancy 
owing to revolutions in Mexico and now that the price of rubber 
has dropped to such a low figure the prospects of the industry 
are not encouraging. The American Consul at Torreon, Coahuila, 
writing under date March 10th last (Commerce Report No. 15, 
p. 105), gives the following particulars— Owing to the drop in 
the price of rubber, the Guayule rubber industry, formerly of 
considerable importance in the Torreon District, was of little 
consequence during the year 1921, all four rubber factories being 
closed and apparently abandoned, except the Continental-Mexican 
Rubber Co., the largest and most important, which owns 4 
million-dollar plant and spent the year 1921 remodelling it and 
introducing a cheaper system of extracting rubber from the 
Guayule plant, which grows abundantly in the mountains of this 
district. On January Ist, this company again began operations 
and is still working full force, although, owing to the recent drop 
in the price of rubber, manufacturing is being carried on at & 
loss and will continue to operate about two months more, until 
the stock of Guayule plants on hand is used up. If, at the expira- 
tion of this period, the price fails to go up to 20 cents. or more, 
this plant will be forced to close down indefinitely. The three 
other plants, in Gomez Palacio, across the river from Torreon, 
are now closed and with present prices of rubber have no prospects 
of opening again unless the market for rubber soon changes for 
the better.” Previous notes on Guayule have appeared in K. B. 
1907, p. 285, 1908, p. 255, and 1910, p. 211. 
J. M. H. 
Printed under the authority of His MAsEsTy’s STATIONERY OFFICE 
By Eyre and Spottiswoode, Ltd., East H: Street, E.C. 4 
Printers to the King’s most Excellent Majesty. : 
