140 



[August, 1912. 



cordial, coffee, sugar, vinegar, flour 

 and figs. 



Costa Rica alone produces over 

 9,COO,000 pestos, which is about half of 

 the total value of the exports of that 

 country. 



Jamaica produces 15,000,000 bunches 

 valued at 8,000,000 pestos, the bulk of 

 which goes to the States and the rest 

 to Europe. Brazil ships over 500,000 

 bunches to Argentina : Paraguya sends 

 to Buenos Ayres, Honduras exports near- 

 ly 4,000,000 pestos worth to the States, 

 while Panama sends nearly 3,000,000 

 pestos worth. 



About 180 "banana boats" ply be- 

 tween tropical America and the United 

 States. Each can carry from 20,000 to 

 60,000 bunches. The fact is mentioned, 

 which is little if at all known locally, 

 that the banana produces at least three 



DISTINCT KINDS OF SUCKERS, 



and that much depends upon the proper 

 selection and treatment of these. 



By special treatment it has been 

 found that the banana can be made to 

 produce seed. 



THE PROPERTIES AND MANUFAC- 

 TURE OP RUBBER. 



Dr. Philip Schidrowitz deals with this 

 subject in his able lectures on rubber at 

 the Royal College of Science. It had not 

 been ascertained whether the nitro- 

 genous insoluble matter present in con- 

 siderable quantities in some rubber does 

 not play an important part in regard to 

 quality. The common idea that rubber 

 contracted under heat is not correct ; it 

 only applies to rubber in a state of ten- 

 sion. There is no connection between 

 viscosity of »a rubber solution and the 

 strength of the material. 



The materials employed in 



RUBBER MANUFACTURE, 



that is the manufacture of rubber arti- 

 cles, comprises, beside rubber, such sub- 

 stances as mineral and organic fillers, 

 pigments, sulphur and vulcanising ad- 



juncts. Rubber and sulphur alone are 

 not enough. A tyre cover so made would 

 soon be cut to pieces. 



As regards rubber substitutes the only 

 question is whether at the price they 

 could be sold it would be as good or 

 better than rubber. 



Rubber is used extensively for lighting 

 and power work, but not so much as 

 before for telegraph and telephone cables. 

 Rubber is not an ideal insulator, but 

 properly made, rubber mixture is of the 

 greatest value, and a superior grade 

 rubber could not be improved upon 



AS A MECHANICAL PROTECTION. 



Owing to high prices, however, rubber 

 has had to make way for lead and bitu- 

 men compositions. For deep submarine 

 cables gutta-percha is almost exclusively 

 employed. The advantage it has over 

 rubber is that it is plastic and readily 

 jointed, and good gutta-percha mixings 

 do uot harden at ordinary low temper- 

 ature. The falling off in the high grade 

 gutta-percha would necessitate the use 

 of rubber for submarine cables, and the 

 difficulty at present attending its use 

 could be got over. One great advantage 

 with regard to rubber is that manufac- 

 turers could always rely on a large, con- 

 stant and homogeneous supply of the 

 pure material.— (Summarised from the 

 Indian Rubber Journal.) 



THE RICE INDUSTRY OF BURMA. 



Forms 70 % of the Export Trade. 



Mr. F. .T. Warth, Agricultural Chemist, 

 Burma, writes an interesting account of 

 this industry in the Agricultural Jour- 

 nal of India (April 11, 1912). 



The total cultivated area in Burma is 

 about 135 million acres, of which 10 mil- 

 lions are under paddy, and the produce 

 of nearly 6 million acres is consumed 

 locally. 



The value of paddy and its products at 

 present amounts to 70 per cent, of the 

 entire export trade, 



