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how one; is to avoid the use of a very large number of collecting- 

 tins, but there is no difficulty about the coagulating plates. 

 Writers do not seem to have understood that these plates and the 

 resultant form of biscuits have only been used because they could 

 be easily got at the nearest shop, and it would be just as easy to 

 use plates of any size or shape. It is a mere matter of getting 

 the enamel plates made to suit requirements. 



Pozelina and Seringuina are two inventions of rubber 

 explorers in South America. They are chemical preparations 

 for retarding the coagulation of latex so that it may be brought 

 in a liquid state to the factor)-. Formaline, as all planters know, 

 does this work well enough, and is about as cheap as Pozelina. 

 Neither of the two new preparations have, as far as I know, been 

 introduced to this country yet. 



CORRESPONDENCE, 



COAGULATING RAMBONG. 



To The Editor, 



The "Agricultural Bulletin of the Straits Settlements and 

 Federated Malay States." 



Coagulation of the Latex of Ficus Elastica. 



Sir, 



I noticed in an article on the above subject in your 

 estimable Journal of January last, that Mr. P. J. Hurgess makes 

 a statement that Ficus Elastica latex refuses to coagulate, and 

 that he has devised a method of churning it up with a 2 p.c. 

 solution of tannic acid in the proportion 5 parts of solution to 95 

 latex. He also states that the Ficus Elastica yields an abundant 

 latex which can be easily collected and which is quite liquid and 

 remains so an indefinite time. 



It may, perhaps, interest your readers to know the experience 

 of one who has tapped and watched the tapping of Ficus Elastica 

 trees for the last three years in the Government Plantations of 

 Charduar and Kulsi in Assam, where the latex of Ficus Elastica 

 by no means remains liquid for long. The cuts are made by a 

 V-shaped chisel or gouge devised by Mr. D. P. Copeland, 

 Deputy Conservator of Forests, they "are made at right angles 

 more or less to the line of growth of the stem, aerial root, or 

 branch, at one and a half feet apart, half round the trunk, 

 aerial root, or branch, that may be tapped. Cuts made vertically 

 to the line of growth do not yield so much rubber for a similar 

 length of cut as those made horizontally. Endeavours are made 



