110 



The seed should be planted about the end of March 

 and not later than the 15th April, which is usually a 

 showery season in Krian. As soon as the Padi has been 

 reaped the straw should be burned, and the soil lightly 

 changkolled or ploughed, and weeded, and it is then ready 

 to receive the Sesamum seed. In favourable weather the 

 seed sprouts in 3 or 4 days, and should be ready for reaping 

 in 3 months' time. The seed should be sown, and timed to 

 ripen during duly which is ordinarily a dry month, and 

 favourable for harvesting operations, and the fields can 

 immediately thereafter be prepared for Padi with very 

 little trouble, and at a small cost. The plant requires a fair 

 amount of moisture to enable it to get a good start, but 

 after the first month, it can do with a very small amount 

 of rain; at the same time even heavy rainfall will not injure 

 the plant during the 3 months of its growth, provided the 

 land is well drained. Stagnant water will kill it off im- 

 mediately. Except in the event of the period between the 

 15th March — 15th April being very dry, the plant will not 

 require to be irrigated. 



The cost of changkolling or ploughing, one weeding 

 and thinning out, — and reaping, if done by hired labour, 

 should not cost more than $12 an acre. I have reason to 

 believe that an average crop will not yield less than 150 

 gantangs of clean seed valued locally at about $40. One 

 gantang of seed is sufficient for sowing one acre of land. 



In India this seed is sown as a rotation crop to Padi 

 as well as wheat and other "Rabi" crops. 



There might be one obstacle in developing the export 

 trade in this article, and that is the probability of a high 

 rate of freight being charged by the Conference for its 

 transport to Europe, and it must be remembered that we 

 shall be competing against very cheap freights from Bom- 

 bay to Europe. At the same time a reasonable view might 

 be taken by the Conference, with a view to developing a new 

 industry. Krian is well situated as regards cheap trans- 

 port to Penang, whereas a large proportion of the seed 

 shipped from Bombay comes from a great distance in the 

 interior. 



A NEW METHOD OF COAGULATING 

 RUBBER LATEX. 



[n the November number of the " Tropenpfkinzer'' D. 

 Sandmann describes a new preparation, which he has in- 

 vented and patented, for coagulating rubber latex. The 



