4 6 7 



FICUS ELASTICA FROM SEED. 



Ficus elastica, like all other rigs possesses, very small dustlike 

 seed, and some planters have found it difficult to raise. It should 

 be sown in boxes of fine earth, and the boxes should be isolated 

 over water, to keep off ants. The ants are very troublesome in 

 many places in destroying small seeds when sown, carrying them 

 off to their nests and nibbling them to pieces. A good plan 

 adopted at the Ayer Keroh Gardens, is to put the boxes on wooden 

 stands in a pond and as the plants grow sufficiently tall to be 

 transfered to the ground, fresh seed is sprinkled in the box. A 

 number of plants were raised very successfully by sprinkling the 

 seed in the moss in orchid pots, in the Botanic Gardens in Singa- 

 pore. Here the ants did not find them, and indeed had no soil to 

 make their nests in. 



Raising turf from grass seed here is almost always a failure on 

 account of these ants, which very soon find out the seed sprinkled 

 on the ground. 1 have quite large piles of the nibbled up remains 

 of paddy and other seed thrown out of the nests of these insects, 

 which must destroy a considerable quantity of seed. — Ed. 



THE DEMAND FOR INDIA RUBBER. 



There is no question that the world's demand for India rubber is 

 rapidly equalling its available supply. Hence higher prices for the 

 raw material are progressively demanded, greater profit is there- 

 fore assured to the grower, and greater incentives are thus given 

 to develop existing suppliesand to create new ones, and further to 

 ensure the most careful collection and most thorough curing. Some 

 eight years ago the price of Para rubber was about 2s. 6d. per lb. 

 This has steadily advanced until the price to-day reaches 45-. 3^. 

 per lb., whereas the cost of collection remains practically the same. 

 The use of India rubber tyres for carriages, cabs, motor-cars and 

 bicycles has generally increased the demand, and this promises 

 not only to continue but to become greater year by year. It would 

 be impossible to estimate the number of vehicles thus fitted, but 

 there must be many hundreds of thousands. At the same time 

 every development of electricity for either lighting, power or tele- 

 graphy, every ocean cable, requires an increased supply of rubber 

 for insulation and other purposes. 



The finest quality of raw rubber is Para, so called because it is 

 shipped from a port of that name at the mouth of the Amazon, 

 being sent down from the upper reaches of that river, where for 

 the past fifty years the natives have been in the habit of collecting 

 and preparing it — thus attaining considerable efficiency for long 

 experience. There is no reason why the same quality of gum 

 should not be secured from other sources if only t!ie same skill and 

 care are employed. This cannot be urged 100 stronglv upon the 

 planter, for a badly collected gum is comparatively worthless, 

 fetching only 1 w or is. 2d. per lb., whereas with necessary atten- 



