to 



Pineapple* — A price of £60 as mentioned by you is a fancy price 

 and is in mv opinion impossible to realize in the open market for 

 regularly shipments, the price for this fibre will always be about the 

 same as for Sanseveria which according to quality, colour and length 

 will fetch between £27/37 per ton as a normal average price, except 

 if of very short length, i. e., under 25 Ctm. 



Ramie, — -(China Grass) I sent you by to-day's Mail a sample taken 

 out <>! lots sold without difficulty in big qualities at £28/30 per ton 



The general Hamburg market is as follows: — 



Sisal. October. November 1904. 



Mexico £35 £35 



E. G. Africa 36 36.105. 



Aloes,— Mauritius 28/33 29/34 



D.O.Africa 28/31 30/32 



Manila fair current 38.105. 40. 



New Zealand good fair 32. 32.105. 



A fair business has been done here and in the neighbour markets 

 with an always strong upwards tendency for all fibre and hemp 

 sorts, especially for Manila. The arrivals are not in proportion 

 with the consumption especially not in the better qualities which 

 are always in strong demand at daily higher prices asked and paid 

 for, however in Sisal the market at actual high prices is dull and no 

 contracts for shipments to arrive and term are reported. 



L. RIEBOW, 



Hamburg, wth November, 1904. 



RUBBER VINES IN SOUTH ANNAM. 



The Bulletin Economique de Hanoi contains in No. 35, Novem- 

 ber, 1904, an important article on the Rubber vines of Southern 

 Annam by M. VERNET. There are several species of climbing 

 Apocynacese in this country which produce a fairly good rubber, and 

 the French Direction de 1' Agriculture has for some time been 

 employed in studying these plants and experimenting in processes 

 for the extraction of the latex. Of these plants the two most suit- 

 able for cultivation are Parameria glandulifera and Xylinbaria 

 Raynaudi. The former occurs to a small extent in the Malay 

 Peninsula. Besides these however, there are species of Chone- 

 morpha, Ecdysanthera aud Pezizicarpus in the forests, which also 

 supply rubber. The rubber from these wild plants is collected by 

 natives but as they grow only here and there in the jungle they 

 bring in a mixture of gums and rubbers from all kinds of plants 

 wherever they can find them and the result is consequently a very 

 poor and valueless product. P'or this reason the Annam rubbers 

 have obtained a bad reputation. It is also difficult owing to the 

 wild way in which the bancs climb in the forests to satisfactorily 

 tap them. After cutting into them also the latex coagulates soon 



