and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultwml fSocieby.— December, 191S. 90S 



ARTIFICIAL RUBBER BRIERS 

 ON ESTATES. 



The managers of estates producing; large crops 

 are now muoh concerned in the drying problem. 

 The difficulties on many properties are en- 

 hanced on account of the fact that most factory 

 buildings are on too small a scale, and there is 

 very little apparatus available to expedite the 

 drving process. There are many well-known 

 objections to the use of high temperatures in 

 rubber drying, but it must not be forgotten that 

 there are also very serious objections from the 

 planter's point of view against too slow drying. 

 Recently we have been told that the disadvan- 

 tages of high temperatures have been somewhat 

 over-rated ; certainly we can agree that much 

 rubber prepared under comparatively high tem- 

 peratures has realised top prices, especially 

 when presented in the form of thick, even- 

 coloured, blanked crepe. There is undoubtedly 

 conspicuous activity on the part of engineering 

 firms in Colombo and elsewhere in the manu- 

 facture of artificial driers to deal with annual 

 crops of 150,000 lb and upwards ; we anticipate 

 that engineering firms in this country will soon 

 enter the field, and take a hand in the inevi- 

 table competition. Many driers are already in 

 use, and have been proved satisfactory ; others 

 have been reported as too expensive to work 

 with liquid fuel. All driers of the type indi- 

 cated should be constructed to consume fire- 

 wood, coal or liquid fuel, at the lowest possible 

 cost. — India- Rubber Journal, Nov. 9. 



OXALIS VIQLAGEA. 



Wellawatta, December 16th. 



Dear Sir, — While at an upcountry station 

 the plants of the " OxaliB Violacea " used to 

 grow rather luxuriantly in my flower garden. 

 I found them really doing no harm to the har- 

 dier flower plants, but they choked up those 

 of a smaller growth. They were eventually got 

 rid of by forking them up, tubers and all, col- 

 lecting them into some receptacle, drying and 

 burning them. They should not be left lying 

 about on the ground after being dug up. 



On estates they are generally heaped up on 

 different spots before being finally disposed of 

 with the result that poultry or birds in search 

 of insect food scatter them about, and the first 

 shower of rain washes them far and wide. On 

 a wet day, and on clayey soil, the feet of the 

 coolies, to some extent, act as carriers— parti- 

 cularly of the seeds. Last, but not least, when 

 being transported in baskets to be buried or 

 burned, the earth containing seeds and tubers 



drop all along the way from overfilled baskets, 

 or escape through the opening in the baskets. 



The plants do seed, and I daresay rather 

 freely in some elevations. But comparatively 

 speaking — that is, in comparison with the seed- 

 ing propensities of planting pests — I should say 

 not prolifically. 



I should also hardly call the " Oxalis Vio- 

 lacea " a pest, as with a little ordinary care, and 

 if dug up before it flowers, it could be easily 

 eradicated, and the plant itself is rather a deli- 

 cate than a hardy one. — Yours faithfully, 



G. EUS P. 



THE MOST SOUTHERN INOUSTRY. 



Human endeavour (says a writer in " Cham- 

 bers Journal") carries industry and commerce 

 to strange corners of the world, and has been 

 responsible for the establishment of industries 

 in the extreme habitable limits of the globe. In 

 the northern hemisphere a small community 

 ekes out an existence on Greenland's icy, in- 

 hospitable shores mining a special earth which 

 is shipped exclusively to the United States. 

 The ships making for this inaccessible port 

 experience adventures innumerable, as they 

 start northwards in the early spring, and have 

 to battle with fogs and icebergs every mile of the 

 way. In the southern hemisphere, some 700 miles 

 distant from Tasmania's coast, is the small islet 

 known as Macquarie Island, which has received 

 much attention because Antarctic expeditions, 

 as a rule, make a point of calling at this lonely 

 spot. The island is 22 miles in length by 5 

 miles in width, and is extremely rugged, yet it 

 has become the centre of a growing trade. For 

 centuries it has been the home of immense 

 numbers of penguins ; in fact, it is computed 

 that there are some 80,000,000 of this genus on 

 the island. An enterprising individual saw a 

 chance to make money, and he leased the island 

 from the Tasmanian Government and estab- 

 lished a factory there for the extraction of 

 penguin oil. The birds are killed and boiled 

 down in huge tanks in batches of 800, and the 

 oil barrelled and shipped to the Australian 

 mainland, to be used in the manufacture of 

 binder-twine. There is only one serious diffi- 

 culty in the development of this industry. 

 Macquarie Island does not possess a sheltered 

 cove or bay where a depth of water will per- 

 mit even the smallest ship to approach very 

 close to the shore. As a result the vessels moor 

 about half-a-mile off, and the produce has to be 

 transported to them on rafts. Evidently the 

 traffic is remunerative, as several ships in their 

 efforts to secure a full cargo have come to grief 

 in trying t° r eaoh the island. 



