and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



COTTON OIL IN LONDON. 



The market for cotton oil has shown some 

 weakness in London, where the prices were 

 rather higher than in Hull, and about 15s. has 

 been lost. In Hull the value has remained 

 steadier, the fluctuations moving within a limit 

 of 5s. per ton, and closing as we write at the 

 price of June 30. The demand has remained 

 steady, but there has been no very active trade, 

 and little of interest to the speculator. It is 

 rather difficult to see what there is to " go for " 

 in cotton oil just now, consequently specula- 

 tors are few and tfce trade is largely in the hands 

 of producers and consumers. Had the imports 

 of seed kept up, it is possible that we might 

 have been seen cheao cotton oil during the pre- 

 sent year; but the failure of India to maintain 

 the promise of large supplies and some falling 

 oft' in the quantity received from Egypt have 

 naturally steadied the market and presented 

 any fall. That the consumption is mtioh less 

 than it was is apparent when the following 

 statistics are studied : — 



1904. 1,905. 1900. 1907. 19.18. 



Imports to 



June 30. 24,949 309,216 355,708 425,144 310,507 tons. 

 Price of oil, 



July 1. £17 103. £16 20s. £19 7s. 6(1. £29 10s. £,;>•• 10s. 



It will be noticed that comparing midsummer 

 prices of 1907 with those of 1908 there is a fall 

 of about 25 per cent., while, at the saino time, 

 the supplies are shorter by just 20 per cent. We 

 may probably reckon that the actual demand 

 for cotton oil is not more than two-thirds of 

 what it was at this time last year. So far as 

 imports of cotton oil are concerned the figures 

 for the six months are practically the same as 

 they were last year, so this factor need not be 

 taken into account. — Ironmonger. 



SIZE OF RUBBER-SEED. 



The Ceylon circular on the effect of tapping 

 on seeds by Messrs. Macmillan and Fetch is 

 very interesting, especially as it does not seem 

 to be borne out at all by the phenomena here. 

 It is stated that it is obvious that the seeds of 

 the tapped trees were smaller than those of un- 

 tapped trees. Now the seeds from the trees in 

 the Singapore Botanic Gardens vary consider- 

 ably. We have trees that before they were 

 tapped produced ridiculously small but quite 

 good seed, and trees that were younger and 

 had never been tapped produced very largis seed. 

 The size of the seed of the oldest trees, which 

 certainly have not been heavily tapped, though 

 for some years they were occasionally tapped 

 are decidedly small. But the amount of tapping 

 they had about once in five or six years could 

 hardly so affect them. Further small-seeded trees 

 88 far as has been seen keep true whatever tho 

 ieason may be and regardless of whether they 

 aave been tapped or not. The earlier years of 

 huiting trees seem always to produce large seed 

 wth the exceptions of the specially small seeded 

 trees, all of which however that 1 know of are 

 over 20 years old. 



I am more inclined to think that with trees of 

 normal size average seed the early fruiting gives 

 largo seed, getting a little smaller in later years, 

 while some trees give small seed from the start. 

 — H.N.R. — Straits Agricultural Bulletin for Aug, 



BUKIT RAJAH ESTATE AND ITS 

 TAPPING METHODS. 



I shall never forget my visit to Bukit Rajah, 

 the tapping is the best I have seen in so far that 

 the cambium has only rarely been cut. I have, 

 when visiting estates, usually challenged the 

 superintendent to find me a tree, tapped for at 

 least a year, which has not been injured. I have 

 been over a large number of estates, but it was 

 on Bukit Rajah that I saw the first perfectly 

 tappod tree, free from even a trace of a wound. 

 An ordinary tree has the knife along some part 

 of it about 400 to 500 times per year, assuming 

 thero are ten tapping lines ; no wonder the 

 cambium is touched once or twice during these 

 operations. An ordinary gouge is used for tap- 

 ping —an implement surpassing all others for 

 simplicity and cheapness, and yet one with which 

 an unlimited amount of damage can be done. 

 Vet it was on a property where the gouge was 

 used that I saw tapping second to none ; which 

 proves our oft-repeated contention that success 

 depends on the man using the knife, and not on 

 the implement itself. 1 kept my eyes open when 

 going over the clearings and the sections planted 

 with coconuts, Rambong rubber and coffee, and 

 concluded that the rubber crop alone for the 

 current year should not fall far short of 200,000 

 lb. It is obvious that this property will soon 

 outrun many others in yield of rubber. 



Tapping is usually done on the half-her- 

 ring-bone system, only the leading trees being 

 tapped on the full-herring-bone system. The 

 bark below 5 feet has lasted four years, and 

 the renewed tissue is often quite as thick as 

 the original or primary bark. It is antici- 

 pated, however, that the trees will be tap- 

 ped from 6 to 9 feet before the renewed bark on 

 the basal soction is touched. Each tree is tapped 

 every alternate day for three months and then 

 rested two months. The trees are not tapped 

 until they girth 20 inches a yard from the ground. 



Some parts of Bukit Rajah have been planted 

 20 by 20, 30 by 15 and 15 by 15 feet. I saw some 

 trees planted in March, 1904, which were 20, 25 

 and even 29 inches in girth. Many of the five- 

 year-old trees planted 15 by 15 feet, had a girth of 

 26 inches. This property, in virtue of the widely- 

 planted trees now two, three, four, five, six and 

 ten years' old, must rise in value in a very short 

 time. Tiieview from the bungalow of the manager, 

 Mr (J T Hamerton, is very impressive, between 

 2,000 to 3,000 acres of planted rubber trees be- 

 longing to Bukit Rajah alone being visible. 



The factory is well equipped with up-to-date 

 washing rollers, a Fassburg vacuum drier, and an 

 oil engine. Mr. Hamerton is curing rubber 

 for several small estates in the district, a fact 

 from which one may glean the capacity of the 

 machinery already in the factory. H. W. 



— India- Rubber Journal, June 29. 



Big Rubber Trees: Correction.— By an ac- 

 cidental misprint the height of the big tree No. 2 

 in the last Bulletin is given as 54 feet, this 

 should be 84. The picture in that Bulletin of the 

 rubber tree is that of this tree No. 2.— Ed.— 

 Straits Agricultural Bulletin for August. 



[See page 199 last month— A. M. & J. F.J 



