533 



The growth and returns of rubber from the few trees, which are 

 big enough to judge from, seem up to standard. The oldest trees, ten 

 years old ( 300 in number ), gave three pounds of rubber per tree. 



There are about a dozen plantations, the biggest of which 

 possesses 14,000 trees from 1 to 1% years old. 



The rainfall in Surinam is given as averaging 90 inches 

 distributed over the year. This corresponds very well to our rainfall 

 here and we should say was suitable. — Ed. 



RUBBER IN AFRICA 



There is still a steady demand for seeds of Para rubber for 

 Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, and by all accounts the plants are 

 thriving in those regions. There is indeed no reason at present 

 apparent as to why they should not, the climate being suitable. Even 

 native chiefs are taking up the cultivation. 



The native rubber, Funtumia elastica, we hear, is not coming out 

 strongly as a plant of cultivation. Its returns are poor, as has been 

 pointed out some time ago, and its growth by no means compares 

 with that of Hevea. 



Under the title 'The Dark African Rubber Prospect," 'The India 

 Rubber World" gives an account from the Directors' reports of some 

 of the African Rubber Companies on the Congo which show a great 

 falling off, both in supply and quality. One Company, which had 

 a profit of nearly 5 million francs, has a loss on the year's work 

 in 1908 of over fourteen thousand francs. The results of this great 

 falling off in the Congo rubber trade are that the Belgian capitalists 

 are transferring their investments to the East Indies. — Ed. 



RUBBER TESTING MACHINES. 



We have received a pamphlet by M. Pierre Breuil of Paris 

 entitled " Les Essais mechaniques du caoutchouc et des Tissus". 

 This is a reprint from the reports of the International Congress for 

 testing materials, at Copenhagen. 



The author describes and illustrates by necessary figures two 

 machines intended for testing crude or prepared rubbers in various 

 ways. 



One of the machines is a dynamometer, by which the 

 tensility of a sample may be tested and by a slight alteration the 

 same instrument may be used to determine the plasticity, com- 

 pressibility, and the effects produced by repeated flexions. 



. The instrument is self-recording when used for tensility. Full 

 descriptions of the machine and its use and a good series of figures 

 are given, which unfortunately we are unable to reproduce, and the 

 apparatus would appear to be a very useful one in the laboratory or 

 on the estate. 



