Correspondence. 



166 



[AUGUST, 1910. 



Celtis and Croton as standards. Soil 

 bard and compact, derived from Schist ; 

 Rainfall 60-80 inches, elevation 3,500 ft, ; 

 Melsetter district, Southern Rhodesia. 



Of ten standards all have grown well, 

 but the Grevilleas are being killed out 

 one by one by white ants and, one kind 

 is attacked by locusts. 



Roughly 1,200 or a third of the Landol- 

 phia vines both germinated and survived; 

 three seeds had been sown to each sta- 

 tion. These vines have made an immense 

 growth in length but increase very slowly 

 ingitth, the larger stems averaging at 

 the present moment 3i inches in circum- 

 ference. They are full of latex, and one 

 that I tapped to a height of 6 ft. gave 

 quite an appreciable little ball of ex- 

 cellent rubber ; but I consider that they 

 will have to be several years older before 

 they can be tapped by ordinary methods. 



If, however, it should prove profitable 

 to extract the rubber from the cut stems 

 and foliage by mechanical means — and I 

 must perhaps differ from Mr. Bamber as 

 to the possibility of doing this — Landol- 

 phia would pay to grow to cut, and it 

 might then well be utilised to shade the 

 ground between rows of Hevea and 

 Manihot and other rubber yielding trees. 



It quickly makes a dense bush if not 

 supplied with supports, and as it roots 

 deep it would probably neither affect nor 

 be affected by the other trees. This last 

 point has been amply demonstrated in 

 my little plantation and, as for the first, 

 wherever my Grevilleas have destroyed, 

 the ground is covered by a dense 

 evergreen mass of Landolphia growing 

 in bush form, 



Landolphia Kirkii in the wild state 

 pays well to tap with labour at Gd. a day, 

 but not by native methods. 



Ceara rubber pays well to tap at 4^ 

 years old, as experimental tappings have 

 just proved in the Melsetter district of 

 Rhodesia. 



C. F. M. SWYNNERTON. 



PULP FOR PAPERMAKING. 



Yokohama, June 13th, 1910. 



Drar Sir, — I enclose an extract of 

 article on Bamboo Pulp, which might 

 be interesting to your readers, as Mr. 

 Wm. Rait has been propounding on the 

 subject in your Journal, 



Yours faithfully, 



IIDA SOHICHI. 



{Extract from the "Japan To-day" by 

 Kotaro Mochizuki.) 



Famous Pulp Wobks in Formosa. 



The Japanese who know well how to 

 make good use of waste products are also 

 losing no time in making a new article 

 from newly-discovered materials. The 

 latter kind of work is thus seen almost 

 everywhere in Japan, as it can be seen 

 from the statements in many places in 

 the present publication, but it is most 

 actively undertaken in Japan's new 

 territory, Formosa. The pulp work is 

 one instance of this. In Japan the 

 manufacturing of European papers has 

 greatly developed in these years as the 

 journalistic works have advanced in 

 the country. But the European paper 

 manufactured here is still much inferior 

 in quality to that made in Europe, 

 because of the lack of materials of good 

 quality and on account of the undeve- 

 loped condition of the art. The Mitsu 

 Biahi firm which is engaged iu many 

 lines of work in Formosa has started the 

 making of a kind of European paper 

 from the bamboo pulp, having its factory 

 for the purpose at Rinuai in Formosa. 

 All successful conditions of the work are 

 introduced together with other works 

 of the firm on page 455. In inserting 

 here the picture of a bamboo forest, 

 what our desire is that many other 

 unknown sources of wealth in Formosa 

 shall be discovered and worked out by 

 our prominent men of business similar to 

 this pulp work by the Mitsubishi firm. 



Pulp Works, Rinnai, Formosa. 

 With a limited supply of materials on 

 one hand, and a fast growing demand on 

 the other, paper manufacturers have for 

 years been looking out for some other 

 articles to be xrsed as substitutes for 

 or supplements to rags, straw, hemp 

 or wood pulp constituting hereto- 

 fore the whole of the materials. A few 

 years ago bamboo was brought into 

 notice as a likely substance ; several 

 technical experiments have been made, 

 demonstrating at last the possibility of 

 making pulp from this material. No 

 venture was, however, made in the 

 undertaking as an industry until the 

 Mitsu Bishi paper Mill at Takasago, 

 Hyogo Prefecture, the oldest establish- 

 ment of the kind in Japan, has set out in 

 a pioneer attempt in it. 



Now the Mill is causing branch works 

 to be constructed at Rinnai near a 

 bamboo growing centre iu Formosa. 

 The construction of the buildings and 

 the laying out of the plant is now well 

 nigh completed, and the manufacture of 

 paper from bamboo pulp is to be com- 



