302 



year, but the planter expects to get 6 lbs. by scraping the bark. 

 The Para tree varies a good deal in the amount of return it gives 

 according to its position, size, etc. Trees at Kamuning Estate 

 about the same age as the Culloden ones are giving, I understand, 

 some as much as 8 lbs. and the average 4 lbs. per tapping. 



As the rubber on the Culloden Estate is only rolled out by hand 

 rollers, it is not surprising to hear it takes a month to six weeks to 

 dry. Acetic acid is used, and the biscuits are first dried over a 

 charcoal fire for 3 or 4 hours, and then transferred to a drying 

 room and air dried. The use of heat in rubber drying is objec- 

 tionable as the fibre of the rubber deteriorates with it. 



M. OCTAVE COLLET who has recently in Singapore expressed 

 himself very pleased with the Malay Peninsula rubber, stating that 

 the texture was much superior to that of the rubber turned out in 

 Ceylon which was less elastic and more resembled recovered rub- 

 ber than new first class stuff. This is probably more due to bad 

 methods of preparation than to any inherent defect in the Ceylon 

 rubber. 



In Mr. HOLLOWAY'S account {India Rubber Journal) of his 

 methods of preparation of biscuits, he states that he does not use 

 acetic acid or any chemicals but dries only w ith hot air. The cakes 

 are rolled out with the clumsy rolling-pin, and take two months to 

 dry without hot air and three weeks with it. The average price of 

 his rubber sold in 1903 was 4/4^. — Editor. 



FIBRE PLANTS OP THE MALAY PENINSULA. 



It may seem somewhat remarkable that in a country so rich in 

 fibre plants and so suitable for their culture, so little has been done 

 or attempted even in the cultivation or preparation of these fibres 

 for trade purposes. Except in the case of ramie, little interest 

 seems to have ever been taken in the subject. 



To a large extent perhaps this apathy is due to the fact that for 

 some classes of fibres cheap labour is required, which has never 

 been procurable here, while the machinery which has occasionally 

 been imported for working the fibres has often proved unsuccessful, 

 which in some cases has been due to ignorance on the part of the 

 importer. 



The fibre trade is one of considerable fluctuation, and the profits 

 not as large as the prospective ones of rubber, and in the old days 

 of coffee, still many fibres might be grown and worked to pay as 

 catch-crops, while the rubber were growing and it would be quite 

 possible to induce the natives to collect and prepare many of the 

 native and half wild fibres if only some encouragement were given 

 to them in the way of fanning markets where they could sell then- 

 produce at a reasonable profit. 



The number of fibre producing plants which are wild or can be 

 successfully cultivated in the Malay Peninsula is large, and an ac- 

 count of them may be of interest to the readers of the Bulletin. 



