219 



appears in which it is said that the " India Rubber World " stated 

 that Funtumia Rubber from the Mabira Forest fetched the price of 

 6s. 4Hd. I would like to point out that this is an error as the price 

 the Rubber was sold at was gs. ^Hd. per lb. this being the third 

 highest price realised at the date on which this consignment was sold. 



Yours faithfully, 

 For The Mabira Forest (Uganda) Rubber Co., Ltd. 



G. W. Gamh, 

 Secretary. 



This is an obvious misprint which was over-looked. Funtumia 

 rubber has been fetching, we are told, nearly or quite as high a price 

 as Para rubber. It is when well prepared an excellent rubber. — Ed. 



MANIHOT RUBBER TREES. 



The effect of nitrate of soda upon the flow of 

 Ceara Latex. 



From the time that plantation rubber first came to the front we 

 have been steadily advocating the necessity of adequately feeding the 

 trees by means of fertilizers, first of all to replace that which you take 

 away in the milk, and secondly to try and increase not only the yield 

 of the milk, but the percentage of the rubber contained therein. To 

 show how correct we were in our ideas, we reproduce the following 

 from Bulletin No. 19 of the Hawaii Experimental Station. The 

 author of this brochure, which is entitled " Experiments in Tapping 

 Ceara Rubber Trees," is Mr. E. W. Wilcox, Special Agent in charge 

 of the Experiment Station. The experiments were arranged by Mr. 

 Wilcox in consultation with Mr. Hosmer, then Territorial Forester, 

 and the actual tapping was done by Mr. Q. Q. Bradford, Assistant in 

 Rubber Investigations, and the labourers under his direction. In his 

 report Mr. Wilcox acknowledges the active co-operation of the direc- 

 tors of the four rubber plantations on Maui in allowing their trees to 

 be experimented on, and in furnishing the labourers and accommoda- 

 tions for Mr. Bradford when carrying out the experiments :- 



"While fertilizers have been used in rubber plantations for 

 increasing the growth and vigour of rubber trees, we have found no 

 record of experiments to determine the possibility of increasing the 

 flow of latex temporarily during the tapping period. It is apparent 

 that if the flov/ can be considerably increased by the application of a 

 quick-acting fertilizer, economy will be secured in the operations of 

 tapping and collecting latex. The first experiment with nitrate of 

 soda was carried out at Keanae, Maui, on Ceara rubber trees averag- 

 ing 14 in. in circumference. A uniform series of trees was found and 

 divided into three groups which received ^ lb., J4 lb., and no nitrate 

 of soda respectively. Before applying the nitrate of soda, the yield 

 of the whole group of trees was tested by means of uniform tapping. 



