and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



183 



Thus we see the remarkable increase that 

 goes on year after year in the use of rubber. 

 In 183D the total imports to this country only 

 reached 464 cwts. ; this year London's imports 

 alone will probably exceed 5,000 tons. At the 

 end of last year there were more than a thous- 

 and tons of rubber stored in the warehouses 

 at the London docks and wharves. 



OOLTJMBUS. 



About rive hundred years ago, Herrera, 

 during the second voyage of Columbus, ob- 

 served the Haytians playing a game with balls 

 made from "the gum of a tree," and he notes 

 that they " bounced better than the wind-balls 

 of Castile " ! 



In the seventeenth century the Spaniards in 

 Mexico used the juice of the tree to waterproof 

 their cloaks, but Europe had no hint of the 

 discovery until many years attor, when an 

 English writer mentions as a novelty the sale 

 of some half-inch cubes for erasing at 3s each ! 

 It was not until the beginning of the eighteenth 

 century that the industry can be said to have 

 really commenced. 



Even after a rubber article has been discarded 

 the virtue of its fabric is not allowed to be 

 lost. Waste rubber is reclaimed and, com- 

 pounded with the crude article, comes to us 

 again in the soles of our tennis and seaside 

 shoes. 1 talked to a rubber broker the other 

 day on the future of the industry. 



" More rubber is being demanded for the 

 world's use every year," he said, " but the 

 supplies keep pace. The reason is that growers 

 who formerly went in for tea planting have 

 found rubber-production more profitable, and 

 this, of course, tends to keep the market well 

 supplied." 



Go to the Port of London ! Search and rind 

 the rubber waiting as it has come from the 

 ends of the earth to serve Otir convenience. 

 Look at it and you will thrill with the romance 

 of trade as exemplified in rubber and the vast 

 activity of the Port of London.— Evening Neics, 

 Jan. 20. 



HANDY METHOD OF MEASURING 



GIRTH OF TREES. 



Those who have to spend time in taking 

 measurements of the girth of rubber and other 

 trees will find the following method considerably 

 shorten their labours. Take a piece of strong, 

 tough paper or highly glazed calico 1 or li inches 

 wide, and measure it out into incheu and fuot, 



I have found the prepared tracing paper or cloth 

 used in plan making very good for this purpose. 

 Begin the measurement a little way from the end 

 of the tape and through the one inch line put a 

 strong large drawing pin folding the rest of the 

 tape over and if necessary stitching it to keep 

 the flat head of the drawing pin in place. The 

 measuring tape is now ready for use and if the 

 girth of trees are to be measured the procedure 

 is as follows: — Place the measuring tape round 

 the tree overlapping it and press the drawing pin 

 into the tape where it crosses again. This will 

 leave a clean round hole in the tape the length 

 of which can either be recorded at the time or 

 else if an average is required the tape can be 

 taken home and the number of holes at different 

 distances recorded. The smalluess of the diam« 

 eter of the pin, about l-40th of an inch, reduces 

 the possibility of two measurements falling into 

 one hole to a minimum. I have found that even 

 when many hundred readings are taken all the 

 holes can be deciphered. 



J. B. CAKRUTHEK8. 



— Straits' Agricultural Bulletin for Dec, 1907. 



PLANTING IN NYASALAND 



is a small affair so far as Sir Alfred Sharpe 

 reported to the R. C. Institute. The value of 

 exports from the Protectorate for the past year 

 was a little over £50,000. Imports amounted 

 to £222,000. Up to the year 1904 coffee was 

 the chief export ; low prices, however, which 

 have ruled for some years, operated against ex- 

 tensions in this direction ; and now cotton has 

 taken the place ot the former leading product. 

 Last year cotton to the value of £16,000 was 

 exported. The prices realised for Nyasaland 

 cotton have been good, as much as lid per lb. 

 having been obtained for Egyptian, whilst Ameri- 

 can has fetched up to 8Jd. The area at pre- 

 sent under cotton is about 7,000 acres. The 

 Manager reports : — My acreage under Ameri- 

 can cotton this year (1907) is 700 acres, which 

 was all planted with carefully selected seed 



frown here last year. Prospects are excellent, 

 estimate 70 tons of ginned cotton. To culti- 

 vate and harvest cotton, and do it well, costs 

 £2 per acre in native labour. Tobacco planting 

 has increased considerably of late, last year's 

 export being 414,000 lb. as compared with 

 199,000 during the previous year. The greater 

 part of this went to South Africa ; but there 

 appears to be a probability that in future it will 

 be the home market which will be looked to. 

 Coffee to the value of £10,01)0 (455,000 lb.) was 

 exported last year. The other chief exports 

 were ; — 



Strophantus (drug) ... £4,000 

 Ivory ... ... £1,60(1 



Rubber ... ... £3,500 



Maize ... ... £3,000 



Oil Seeds aud Ground JN r uU £3,20(j ' 



