413 



in three classes of ground, one damp but drained, and giving 

 traces of moisture in the dry season at a depth of 60 centimeters. 

 A similar soil but a little higher ground and a less sandy place 

 where in the dry season moisture is only met with at from 6 to 

 10 meters deep. From the figures and photograph it appears tl at 

 the trees make a very fair growth, in all these soils and those in 

 the very dry soil are not apparently appreciably behind the 

 others. 



Manikot Glaziovii has failed and its cultivation given up. Fie us 

 clastica grows well but the plants are young as yet. Experiments 

 in the use of the Gutta percha of Dickdpsis Krantziana. a plant 

 allied to our D. obovata for cable purposes, are being made by 

 the Minister of Post and Telegraphs, who seems to think it m iv 

 do well. This gutta, however, as imported into Singapore has a 

 very poor reputation I am informed. 



Rubber in Sierra Leone. — The annual colonial report while re- 

 cording a small increase in the export of rubber from Sierra Leone 

 last year gives a table of exports of previous years showing a steady 

 fall from 13,316 cwts. in 1S96 to 952 cwts. in 1903. This rubber is 

 chiefly obtained from Landolphia owariensis , a rubber vine which 

 has long been cultivated in the Singapore Botanic Gardens, but 

 makes a somewhat slow growth. Its rubber last year fetched 

 3/8-3/8^ per pound, a rise of a shilling a pound on that of the 

 previous year. 



On the Gold Coast Para rubber and Funtumia cultivated in the 

 Government Gardens at Aburi gave good results, the Para rubber 

 being reported on by English brokers as good as that of Ceylon. 

 It is thought that the soil on the North West frontier is suitable for 

 cultivation, and the natives are being stimulated to plant it. Cas- 

 tilloa does not seem to be satisfactory. 



Artificial Rubbers. — Those planters and rubber dealers who arc 

 apt to get scared over rumours of the discovery of cheap artificial 

 rubbers would do well to read an article on the subject in the 

 India-Rubber Journal for October of this year where a number of 

 these hoaxes are described. Among them is a story of an inventor 

 who made it from ''some grass in the East Indies where it could 

 be procured in vast quantities for the price of cutting it" (doubtless 

 Lalang). His samples were excellent, but unfortunately they proved 

 to be genuine imported Para rubber, and the mess he made with 

 the grass was a different thing altogether. Other "rubbers" con- 

 sisted of tar and boracic acid, and such like things, yet it appears 

 that there are manufacturers who pay large sums to inventors for 

 these kinds of inventions and would-be planters who are scared at 

 them. 



Rubber at the St. Louis Exhibition.-*— The Ceylon rubber exhibit 

 at this show is noted in the India Rubber World as not large, but 

 particularly fine, consisting of 200 discs which were easily the best 

 crude rubber ever seen in the United States. Mr. H. C. Pearson 

 interviewed the high officials of the Exhibition and got a letter sent 



