and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



617 



has of late years been an increasing deticiency of 

 jungle wood fuel for the poor, and the plant- 

 ing up of waste spaces, with such quick-growing 

 trees as cashew, may be one means of averting 

 the fuel famine which will be inevitable if tree- 

 planting does not keep pace with the necessary 

 evil of tree-felling. The cost of raising cashew 

 is almost nil, and the planting of the trees on 

 a large scale appears to be deserving of en- 

 couragement.— K. — M. Mail, June 3. 



"AlfAPAWA." A FAMOUS MEDICINE. 



Gammaduwa, 30th May. 

 Deak Sir, — In answer to your request for 

 information re Ayapana Eupatorium, about 

 two-and-a-half years ago I had some correspond- 

 ence with Mr. John Hughes, Agricultural 

 Analyst, London, on this subject, and the infor- 

 mation he kindly gave led me to increase the 

 area under this cultivation as I had not a suffi- 

 cient quantity growing to induce tho trade to 

 take it up. Mr. Hughes informed me the extract 

 of the leaves contained chlorophyll, resin, and 

 an oil of a pungent odour : and the query is, 

 whether, if the extract were incorporated with 

 hard fat, it might bo used as an oinment for 

 burns and sores, as the green leaves, when 

 crushed and applied to a sore, act like a charm 

 in cleaning it. The liquid from dried leaves, 

 brewed a^ tea, is said to cure indigestion.— 

 Yours faithfully, 



JAMES WESTLAD. 



MB. BARBER'S LATEST RUBBER 

 DISCOVERIES, AC. 



PREPARATION AND PACKING— THE ENZYME FOUND 

 ITS VITAL IMPORTANCE— MANUFACTURERS' 

 VULCANISING EXPERIMENTS —HOW TO 

 GROW CROTALARIA FOR RUBBER — A 

 NEW SPRAYER AND PLOUGH. 



[We make the following extracts, giving the 

 important information Mr. Kelway Bamber has 

 afforded to Ceylon planters, from an interview 

 printed in the "Times of Ceylon. ' Mr. Bamber 

 says:—] 



"The Exhibition of September next will bring 

 manufacturers and producers together with tho 

 view of a clearer understanding of the con- 

 ditions prevailing on rubber estates on the one 

 hand and the requirements of manufacturers on 

 the other. It is expected that some new machi- 

 nery for use on estates will be shown at the 

 Exhibition. 



It is impossible to say at the present moment 

 which form of rubber is liked be.«t. Biscuits 

 must go— as an out of-date method they cost too 

 much ; some manufacturers will only take sheet, 

 and others prefer crepe. It is of the greatest 

 importance to send home our rubber with a 

 more uniform appearance, and more carefully 

 sorted for manufacturers to count upon regularly 

 getting rubber of the same appearanco. Want 

 of uniformity, both in consignments and in 

 individual cases of rubber, frequently results in 

 a lower price being obtained. If re-sorting at 



the dock's wore not done, the best rubber would 

 sell at the valuation of the dirtiest sheets in the 

 chest. This can easily be remedied by closer 

 supervision. 



"Another point with regard to the chests is 

 tho advisability of having the interior perfectly 

 smooth and not roughsawn. as in the latter case 

 the chips frequently become embedded in the 

 rubber, necessitating prolonged washing and 

 treatment tc clean it. Very careful drying, 

 and packing in a dry part of the factory 

 would help to minimise this. Experiments are 

 going on to decide whether a perfectly air-tight 

 chest is detrimental, as the rubber in such chests 

 seems to be more liable to become consolid ated." 



"Another method it is advisable to try on all 



estates is the . 



DESTRUCTION OF THE ENZYME 



which occurs in the latex, together with certain 

 organic products which darken on exposure to 

 air. The enzyme has a very similar effect to the 

 enzyme in tea. Unless this is destroyed early 

 in the manufacture cr thoroughly removed by 

 washing, variations in colour are bound to result 

 in every day's out-turn, as it is impossible, 

 under present estate factory conditions, to dry 

 all the rubber under identical conditions of light, 

 air currents and probably temperature. The 

 sunlight through a window or crevice falling ou 

 parts of the rubber and not on other parts, or a 

 draft of air, would tend to darken the colour; 

 but the change would also be affected by the 

 varying amount of enzyme present. The strength 

 of the rubber is probably not affected, or only to 

 a very slight extent, by this variation in colour; 

 but a pale rubber is preferred for many superior 

 articles, especially articles for medical use. 



"Early last year 1 filtered latexthrough porce- 

 lain in a vacuum, and obtained the perfectly 

 colourless watery part of the latex containing all 

 the soluble matter naturally present. On ex- 

 posing this liquid to air I noticed that within a 

 few minutes a rapid darkening took place, which 

 pointed to tho presence of an active oxidising 

 enzyme, and this I confirmed by other tests. 

 It was evident that, if this enzyme could be 

 destroyed, or removod together with most of 

 the soluble matter, paler rubber should result. 

 Experiments showed the temperature at which 

 the enzyme could be destroyed, and it only re- 

 mained to get experiments done on a large scale 

 on some estates, for which arrangements were 

 made before I left for England in December. 

 Rubber treated in this way has fetched the top 

 price at several recent sales, and the fact has 

 attracted considerable attention. The heat 

 must be applied long enough to thoroughly 

 penetrate a non-conducting material, for the 

 destruction of the enzyme only on the surface of 

 the sheet is useless. 



"Two or three firms of manufacturers have pro- 

 mised to vulcanise rubber drawn under different 

 experimental conditions, such as varieties of 

 tapping, different intervals between tapping, 

 lat9x preserved for different periods : latex from 

 different ages of trees, &c, and furnish de- 

 tailed results regarding the strength and 



