338 



should be bright green, unbroken, and of good aroma, and these char- 

 acters can only be obtained by collecting the leaves carefully and 

 drying them fairly rapidly. 



It is stated that in Java and Ceylon the best qualities of coca 

 leaves are dried quickly by means of a current of warm air produced 

 by a fan. 



The price obtainable at the present time for coca leaves is fairly 

 remunerative, because the trade, outside South America, is in a few 

 hands and there is no over-production of the leaves. The total 

 demand for coca leaves is however, small and there would be great 

 risk of overstocking the market and so reducing prices if further ex- 

 pensive planting is undertaken. In these circumstances if it is pro- 

 posed to plant Erijthroxylon Coca in the Federated Malay States the 

 enterprise should be started on a small scale and afterwards extended, 

 should circumstances point to the desirability of this being done. 



15th July, 1907. 



(Sgd.) Wyndham R. Dunstan. 



RUBBER IMPORTS INTO THE UNITED STATES 



IN 1907. 



Brazil supplied more than one-half of the manufactured India 

 rubber imported and Mexico nearly four million dollars worth. African 

 rubber comes mainly via. Europe although some Brazilian and East 

 Indian is included in the 15 million dollars worth imported via Europe 

 of the 154 million pounds produced in 190G, 77 millions or more than 

 one-half were consumed in the United States. 31 millions in Great 

 Britain and 20 millions in Germanv. (J. J. Macfarlane in Foreign 

 Trade of the United States for 1907.) 



FERTILIZING PLANTS. 



We have received a printed circular from Mr. Harrison of New 

 South Wales entitled " Two great fertilizing plants for rubber and 

 other estates." The plants recommended by the correspondent are a 

 species of Melilot, (no botanical name given) and Lespedeza striata. 

 There are several species of Melilotus known, natives of Europe where 

 one of them, M. officinalis, probably the one referred to, is very exten- 

 sively cultivated for fodder. Seeds of several species of Melilot, includ- 

 ing this one, and Lespedeza striata have been often received at the 

 Botanic Gardens in Singapore and tried as have most of the fodder 

 plants of Europe, and with the same result, a dead failure. This is 

 of course the result that one would expect. A plant accustomed to 

 the temperate climate of England or Tasmania has no chance in the hot 

 wet climate of the equator. The first heavy rainstorm or really hot 

 day would finish it off quickly if it ever germinated at all. It is 

 curious that people who would ridicule the idea of replacing turnips in 

 the fields of Kent, by pineapples as a crop seem to think it quite reasona- 

 ble that clovers and such plants from Kent should do well on the 



