and Magazine of the Ceylon I 



i 



known that there are large quantities of resinous 

 rubbers available. Take, for instance, 



, THE GUAYULE SHRUB 



(Parthenium argentatum) which is found gro- 

 wing in large quantities in Mexico and 

 the south of the United States. This shrub, the 

 wood of which yields about 18 per cent of rubber 

 and as much of resin, is said to have provided 

 American manufacturers with 17,000 tons of rub- 

 ber from 1906 to 1909. But the extraction of the 

 ,rub,ber involves the destruction of the shrub, 

 and it is estimated that the collection of this 

 quantity of rubber entailed the 



DESTRUCTION OF 328,000 TONS OF SHBUBSJ 



and at this rate, in a few more years, practically 

 all the standing shrubs will have been destroy- 

 ed. However, similar supplies may be found 

 elsewhere. In any case the above figures show, 

 clearly enough that the Americans know how 

 to purify resinous rubbers, aud Dr Schidrowitz 

 believes that there is a great future for the sub- 

 sidiary industries which are likely to arise in 

 this connection.— Georgos. — M. Mail, Oct. 29. 



THE SYNTHETIC RUBBER 

 PROCESSES. 



A writer in the September issue of the " Bulle- 

 tin de l'Association des Plantours du Caout- 

 chouc " discusses some of the synthetic rubber 

 processes, including that of Professor Harries. 

 It is admitted that his discovery is "inter- 

 esting," but it is considered it will have no 

 more influence on the price of rubber than the 

 artificial diamonds of Moissan have had on the 

 price of the natural diamonds. Mr Edward Mac- 

 bean, of Glasgow, is also quoted on the Bayer 

 process, which he says can be of no industrial 

 use. Such rubbers have a certain elasticity, but 

 lack cohesion. They can be detected at sight. 

 They give an idea of lack of life. They draw out, 

 but they can never return to their original posi- 

 tion like the botanical rubber. Regenerated rub- 

 ber is used in their composition as well as lin- 

 seed oil. But oil rubber will ever remain a pro- 

 duct without technical value. With reference 

 to a notice which appeared in a French paper to 

 the effect that the Bayer process had solved the 

 problem on a merchantable basis, the opinion of 

 the " Bulletin " is that not only has the Bayer 

 product no claim to equal rubber, but that the 

 firm itself makes no pretension that it should 

 do so.— H. and C. Mail, Oct. 14. 



" ESSENCE OF COCONUT OIL." 



Haller and Laasieur hava isolated a amall 

 amount of odorous volatile substances from or- 

 dinary coconut fat (' Comptes Rendus,' 1910, 

 1013). They find that this essence, which may 

 be called an essential oil, contains methyl- 

 heptyl-ketone, inethyl-uonyl ketone, and a small 

 quantity of an optically active aldehyde. They 

 find it to closely resemble ordinary oil of rue 

 (Ruta graveolcns) in its general characters,— - 

 Chemist and Druggist, Oct. 15. 



jricultural Society. —Nov., 1910. 461 



COCOA CULTIVATION IN JAMAICA. 



Decaying Cocoa Pods', ! 11 

 We know that there is every prospect of a 

 bumper cocoa crop in the autumn, and cocpa 

 growers would be well advised to make every 

 effort to remove all old cocoa pods, dead sticks, 

 etc., from their cocoa trees and their planta- 

 tions. The practice of taking off rat-eaten or 

 diseased cocoa pods and leaving them on the 

 ground, cannot be too strongly condemned, as 

 when lying on the ground, they are almost as 

 liable to spread disease through future crops 

 as when left on the trees. It is oidy when either 

 buried under the soil or burnt, that it can be 

 guaranteed that the seeds of disease will not 

 blow from them on to the live pods and destroy 

 them. There is no doubt the burning is the 

 safest method, but it is a pity to destroy so valu- 

 able a source of manure as the old dead cocoa 

 pods are when buried in the ground. At the 

 same time it is almost criminal to leave them 

 hanging or lying about where they will be sure 

 to infect the next crop with disease, especially 

 when we have a chance of getting such a 

 beautiful crop as we appear to have this year, 

 and further when that beautiful crop will bean 

 autumn crop, as the disease spreads much faster 

 during the damp, cool weather experienced with 

 an autumn crop, than it does with the warmer, 

 dryer, weather through which a spring crop has 

 to grow. 



If cocoa growers would only learn to keep 

 the walks thoroughly clean, eveti if they, did 

 not entirely get rid of the diseases, they would 

 soon reduce the loss under this head to a very 

 small proportion. Many a plantation today 

 which is taking no trouble to prevent pod-rot 

 is losing from a quarter to half of each crop and 

 yet is spending money on making new plan- 

 tations. — W. Cbadwick, Highgato. — Journal of 

 the Jamaica Agricultural Society, September. . 



TEA, RUBBER AND CACAO ON CEYLON. 



We find that exception has been taken in 

 London to our crediting to rubber (in our 

 Handbook and Directory Returns) only one- 

 third of the acreage in the mixed fields of tea 

 or cacao with rubber. Such authorities as Mr. 

 H. K. Rutherford and our " Senior " are of 

 opinion that the more correct view is to divide 

 the figures equally, and this being done, the 

 total area cultivated in Ceylon in August last 

 will be represented as follows: — 



Tea would be ... 385,675 acres. 

 Rubbek ,, ... 203,920 „ 

 Cacao ,, ... 30,000 „ 

 Of the rubber, it is important to note that more 

 than 25,000 acres have Para trees older than six 

 years, a much less extent than is the proportion 

 of old rubber in the Malay States. We find, £oq, 

 that there is an opinion prevalent among ex- 

 perienced planters that, practically, another fivp 

 years should witness the disappearance of the 

 toa bushes over the 75.351 acres of mixed fields 

 — a process which must, of course, leeseu the 

 annual output of leaf. No doubt some result 

 may explain of the decrease in the export of 

 tea this year— the quantity up to October 31st 

 being 151,179,358 lb. (both black and green), op 

 3,079,928 lb. less than at the same date of 1909. 



