389 



Botanic Gardens in Singapore but the greatest care should be 

 taken not to injure the roots by cutting or bruising them under any 

 circumstances. As the authors remark they do not advance any 

 opinion as to the effects of manuring old trees, as indeed no experi- 

 ments have yet been made as far as records go in Ceylon on this 

 subject. Experiments have been made however in Singapore and 

 we hope to publish the results shortly. As far as growth of trees is 

 concerned liberal_ manuring with cowdung has not shown any im- 

 provement. The increase, if any, in latex on the manured trees has 

 not yet been worked out. Perhaps the most instructive part of the 

 whole paper lies in the chemistry of the decaying leaves and twigs 

 where the authors show that in sweeping off the ground 10,000 lbs. 

 of fallen leaves and twigs (about 75 piculs) about 58 lbs. lime, 36 

 lbs. magnesia, 22 lbs. potash and 12 lbs. phosphoric acid are remov- 

 ed right away from the ground. Of course in a nice clean kept 

 estate with the ground absolutely bare more plant food will be 

 washed away by the rain from the surface, so that in time the 

 plants would be starved and the soil rendered absolutely sterile and 

 useless. — Editor. 



PLANTATION RUBBER ON THE EUROPEAN 

 CONTINENT. 



"Times of Ceylon," 



22nd September, 1905. 



September 19th, 1905, will be an historic day in the Antwerp 

 rubber trade, for on Tuesday last the first consignments of Malaya 

 and Ceylon rubber appeared in the regular catalogue, and were pub- 

 licly sold at prices which were doubtless the talk of the trade in this 

 important and growing continental centre. Considering the occa- 

 sion an interesting one, we cabled to the largest rubber brokers in 

 Antwerp for the results ; and, although one word is indecipherable 

 and is not altered on repetition, we believe we have put the right 

 interpretation on it. Knowing that we had the catalogue, the 

 Antwerp firm has told us that the sale was very good, and, as it is 

 very rare for rubber there to be sold at less than its valuation, we 

 take it that the prices average out at 33 centimes more, (which is 

 the indecipherable word) instead of less, for the new article. We 

 extract from the middle of page 7 of a closely-printed catalogue the 

 six entries, just as they appear in the original : — 



Par St. Fos. 



Nos. Taxes. Quantities. 



f- c. . 



2 745 1 7'40 env. 296 kil. Straits Biscuits, minces et en major, clairs, agglomeres 



par series, de belle qualite, en partie un pen moisis entre 

 les biscuits, (dont env. 12 k. marchandise ancienne, pressee 

 et un peu poiss.) 



2746 15-00 „ 12 ,, Rambong Biscuits, marchandise nerv., un peu charg. 



d'ecorces. 



274713-00 „ 13 „ Straits Scrap, dechets, pp. clairs, un peu charg. d'im- 

 puretes, mais de belle qualite. 



