and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society.— December, 1912. 487 



Kulu, certain tributaries of the Beas in Karjgra, 

 into the Giri and various other hill streams. It 

 is probable that for the next few years the re- 

 sults will be considered disappointing, as 



TROUT NEVER MULTIPLY AT THE MIRACULOUS RATE 



which enthusiastic anglers expect However, 

 the species thrives well, in Kulu and Kangta, 

 and makes very rapid growth, as yearlings of 

 fib. weight, and four-year old fish ot" four pounds 

 and over have been caught. The Kulu stock 

 ponds have been enlarged and improved. The 

 stock fish are in splendid condition and average 

 about four pound in weight. They were hatched 

 out in April, 1909. They spawned last winter, 

 but mistakes were evidently made in handling 

 the spawners, and only a couple of hundred eggs 

 proved fertile. With the properly constructed 

 hatching troughs which are being made, and 

 with the aid of a trained hand from Kashmir, it 

 is hoped to do better next winter. The 120 fry 

 which represent the meagre, but not discour- 

 aging results of 1911-12. are doing well. — Civil 

 and Military Gazette. 



SMOKED RUBBER SCORING- 



We are glad to be able to record a few trans- 

 actions for forward sales of smoked sbeet planta- 

 tion rubber at 4s 4£d, for the first half of 1913 

 by the Federated (Selangor) Rubber Company 

 and the North Hummock (Selangor) Rubber 

 Company. For many years past it has been 

 fully recognised that properly prepared planta- 

 tion rubber in the smoked condition lasts longer, 

 has superior physical qualities, and is in every 

 way to be preferred as against unsmoked mate- 

 rial. It is argued by some planters that the 

 preparation of rubber in the smoked form is ex- 

 pensive. This may or may not be the case, but 

 even if it were so, it would not alter our opinion. 

 The planter should always aim at producing the 

 best article, and should whenever possible take 

 advantage of any views publicly expressed by 

 manufacturers, who are notably reticent. Recent 

 experiments have shown that high temperatures 

 such as may be incurred in smoking ate net al- 

 ways harmful to rubber when properly handled, 

 and it may be easily possible to expedite the 

 preparation of smoked rubber by adopting com- 

 paratively higher temperatures. The market is 

 particularly short of smoked rubber from plan- 

 tations, and we intend to encourage its pre- 

 paration whenever possible, even though it may 

 incur a little extra expense. — India Rubber 

 Journal, Nov. 2- 



RUBBER EXPERIMENTS IN BURMA. 



The following are extracts from the report of 

 the Director (Mr. J Mackenna) on the opera- 

 tions of the Burma Agricultural Department 

 for the year ending the 30th June, 1912 : — 



While the Forest Department is still supposed 

 to be the Department of Government most in- 

 terested in rubber cultivation, the general pub- 

 lic seem to consider that the Agricultural De- 

 partment should deal with it and, consequently, 

 we have very numerous enquiries about this: 

 so much so that we have this year issued a 

 Bulletin and a leaflet on Jfara rubber. So far 

 as Burma is concerned, the planting of new 

 estates goes on with vigour in districts as 

 remote from each other as Mergui and Myit- 

 kyina. Some, I am afraid, are doomed to failure; 

 but it is impossible to check the optimism of 

 the experimenters. There have been some dis- 

 appointments with the germination of seed 

 obtained from Ceylon and I would recommend 

 the use of seed or, preferably, "stumps" ob- 

 tained from the older Burma estates. — Indian 

 Trade Journal, Nov. 28. 



B. GUIANA SCIENTIST FOR 

 MAURITIUS. 



Mr. F. A. Stockdale, late Assistant Director 

 of Science and Agriculture and Government 

 Botanist of British Guiana, has arrived in 

 England on leave prior to proceeding to Mauri- 

 tius to assume the office of Director of Science 

 and Agriculture, to which he was recently ap- 

 pointed. Mr. Stockdale was educated at Wis- 

 bech and Magdalen College, Cambridge, and 

 entered the Colonial Service in 1905 as Myco- 

 logist and Lecturer in Agricultural Science in 

 the Imperial Department of Agriculture for the 

 West Indies in Barbados. Three years later he 

 was transferred to British Guiana, where he has 

 carried out important scientific work. He is 

 the author of several works relating to fungus 

 diseases of West Indian crops and the breeding 

 and selection of sugar-cane seedlings. — M. Post, 

 Nov. 15. 



A NEW FRUIT FROM INDIA. 



A consignment of a new fruit has been re- 

 ceived at Covent-garden. It is called Jamra, 

 and both in shape and size is like an ordi- 

 nary pear, but is blood red in colour. Speci- 

 mens were sold yesterday at one guinea each. 

 — London Times, Nov. 12. 



