June, 1912.3 



485 



Saps and Exdation. 



been ransacked in its preparation. We 

 may note in passing that we have failed 

 to recognise in what order the biblio- 

 graphies which follow most of the 

 chapters are arranged. The order is 

 certainly neither alphabetical nor chron- 

 ological. 



Although the work will doubtless be 

 of use to planters and others interested 

 in the products described, we are scarce- 

 ly convinced that a book of 160,000 words 

 confined to the subject of spices can 

 fully justify its existence, unless it con- 

 tains the result of real research upon 

 the subject. By judicious compression 

 a readable book of half the size and far 

 greater attractions might have been 

 produced which would still have con- 

 tained practically all the information 

 here given, Little attention appears to 

 have been paid to spices in recent years 

 by Tropical Departments of Agriculture, 

 and the fact that some parts of the text 

 of this book are almost as old-fashioned 

 as its illustrations is not entirely the 

 fault of the writer who had to make use 



of such material as was available. The 

 fact that tables of exports and the like 

 have a distressing habit of terminating 

 in the early eighties, might, however, 

 have been avoided by further research. 



Among minor points we would suggest 

 that the word bean is scarcely applicable 

 to a pod of vanilla (p. 56). 



This brief notice has been made up of 

 somewhat free criticism. We may add 

 that the volume before us is the work 

 of a competent authority, and is dis- 

 tinctly better in quality than many 

 similar books on tropical products which 

 appear to have found a ready sale. Our 

 chief quarrel with it is that our know- 

 ledge of the author's qualifications, cap- 

 abilities and experience convinces us 

 that he might have made it so much 

 better if he had spent more time upon it. 



The printing and paper are excellent 

 but the illustrations vary much in qual- 

 ity and are very antiquated in type. 



m.m R. H. L. 



GUMS, RESINS, SAPS AND EXUDATIONS. 



RECORD YIELD OP DRY RUBBER 

 PROM HEVEA BRASILIENSIS. 



Readers of the Tropical Agriculturist 

 may be interested to know that the 

 single old Hevea tree at Heneratgoda 

 which has already yielded 240 lbs. of dry 

 rubber in three years (1909-1911), has again 

 surpassed all previous records with a 

 yield of 17 lbs. for the month of February, 

 1912. 



An account of the yields from this tree 

 during 1911 will be found in the Circulars 

 and Agricultural Journal of the Royal 

 Botanic Gardens, Ceylon, Vol. VI., No. 8. 

 published in April last. The tree was 

 not tapped in January but was tapped 

 every day in February, which is gener- 

 ally a poor yielding month (the system 

 of tapping now under trial is to tap daily 

 during alternate months). The highest 

 yield was obtained on the 18th of the 

 mouth, namely 665 cc of latex and 299 



grammes of dry rubber. The percentage 

 or dry rubber in the latex obtained 

 during the month was 44, and the pro- 

 portion of scrap was 13 per cent, of the 

 total dry rubber obtained. It is ex- 

 pected that the yield for April will con- 

 siderably exceed that for February and 

 thus create a fresh record, 



R. H. L. 



LAW FOR ENCOURAGEMENT OF 

 RUBBER CULTIVATION IN PARA. 



(By G, A. Pogson, Brit, Consul at Para.) 



(From the Board of Trade Journal, 

 No. 787, pp. 661-662. London, December 

 28, 1911. 



(Bulletin of the Bureau of Agricultural 

 Intelligence and of Plant-Diseases 



3rd Year—Number February 1911.) 



In the State of Para a law provides for 

 the grant of concessiona to national and 



