88 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



UTILISATION OF PARA RUBBER SEED. 



Experiment with Seed sent from Ceylon. 



Attention has been directed already in this 

 Bulletin (1903,1. 156, and 1904, 2. 22) to Para 

 rubber seed as a source of 



A DKY1NO OIL. 



The seed has a thin shell which forms about 

 58 per cent, of the whole. This contains a small 

 amount of oil which for practical purposes may 

 be neglected. The kernels contain about 42 per- 

 cent, of oil, which when exposed to the air 

 " dries" in the course of a few days, yielding a 

 clear transparent film. It generally resembles 

 linseed oil in properties, and like the latter 

 could probably be used in the manufacture of 

 paints and varnishes, rubber substitutes, oil 

 cloth, soft soaps, and similar products. A small 

 consignment of the kernels (decorticated seed) 

 was received recently in this country from 

 Ceylon, and the oil expressed therefrom has 

 been sold at the rate of - 2l shillings percwt. to 

 a manufacturing firm in this country for trial 

 on a small commercial scale. Analyses of the 

 "cake'' left after the extraction of the oi), were 

 made at the Imperial Institute in 1903, and 

 these showed that it had about the same 

 " nutrient value" as linseed cake. Up to the 

 present practically all the supplies of para 

 rubber seed available have been used for plan- 

 ting purposes, and consequently feeding trials 

 with press cake prepared from the kernels have 

 not been carried out, but such experiments will 

 need to be undertaken before the cake can be 

 marketed as a feeding-stuff. Owing to the great 

 extension of para rubber planting in Ceylon, 

 Malaya, and elsewhere in recent years, large 

 supplies of this seed will be obtainable as a by- 

 product in the near future, and these can pro- 

 bably be put to remunerative use as a source 

 of drying oil and feeding cake. It is probable 

 that it will prove more remunerative to export 

 the seeds or the kernels (i.e. the shelled seeds) 

 to this country than to express the oil locally, 

 since it will probably be easier to find a market 

 for the press-cake in Europe than in the coun- 

 tries in which the seed is produced. Further, 

 the cost of packages for the transport of the oil 

 would doubtless prove to be high in the tropics. 

 Before exporting kernels great care should be 

 taken to see that they are thoroughly dry, so 

 as to avoid deterioration during transit. The 

 Imperial Institute will be glad to receive any 

 further information or inquiries relating to the 

 utilisation of these seeds. — Bulletin o} the Im- 

 perial Institute. 



PAPER FROM COCONUT HUSKS. 



" Chambers's Journal " for April gives a brief 

 account of the interesting experiments being 

 conducted by Messrs. J Brown & Co., Penicuik, 

 paper manufacturers, with coconut husks for 

 the manufacture of paper. The outer rind of 

 this husk is of a very liquified character. In- 

 side this rind is a pithy structure about two 

 inches in thickness, interlaced throughout with 

 very strong, long fibres of a jute-like, inquified 

 appearance. In the boiling treatment of the 

 husks, two large samples of the selected mate- 

 rial were dried at a temperature of one hun- 



dred degrees centigrade, and then accurately 

 weighed. The outer rind of the one was then 

 pulverised and the other left in its original con- 

 dition. Each sample was then placed in a 

 separate bag made of Hessian cloth, and boiled 

 for four hours at a pressure of thirty pounds 

 per square inch, with 18 lb. of sodium oxide per 

 cwt. in esparto boilers alone with the esparto 

 grass. The boiling operation completed, the 

 husks were examined, and it was then ascer- 

 tained that this treatment was not sufficiently 

 drastic to destroy the pithy constituent in the 

 rind, while the latter was scarcely affected or 

 softened by the boiling. These results proved 

 that to separate tshjB cellulose from the non-cellu- 

 lose portions of coconut husks much higher 

 temperatures and pressures would be required. 

 The sample of coconut husk in which the rind 

 was broken up was resolved to a greater extent 

 than that left untouched. Further experiments 

 were, therefore, carried out with the former 

 bulk. It was treated with thirty-six pounds of 

 bleaching powder per hundredweight ; but even 

 with this excessive proportion of bleaching 

 agent (which is about four times that required 

 to impart a pure white colour to esparto) the 

 husk was but slightly whitened, another proof 

 that the boiling process was not sufficiently pro- 

 longed or severe. To prepare a suitable paper- 

 making material from such a wasto as coconut 

 husk is obviously very difficult, if not impos- 

 sible, but laboratory experiments are to be con- 

 tinued with a view to give the material a further 

 chance. 



THE CULTIVATION OF PASSIFLORA 

 FQETIDA AND RQIKANIA SCANDENS. 



To Keep Down Other Weeds. 



The Agricultural Bulletin of the Straits and 

 F.M.S. for Juno, 1909, reproduces from the 

 Supplement to the '•' Tropical Agriculturist, 1 ' 

 the article on the above written by Mr. M. Kel- 

 way Bamber. The Editor adds the following: — 



Note. — We reprint this excellent article from 

 the Supplement to the "Tropical Agriculturist," 

 April, 1909, p. 393, as it will be of interest to 

 planters. I fear the F.M.S. planters cannot 

 claim as original the employment of the Passi- 

 flora as a Lalang strangler. It was utilised very 

 many years ago by the Dutch and seeds were 

 sent to Germau New Guinea for this purpose 

 about 1898, from the Botanic Gardens, Singapore. 

 Its adoption as a weed killer here came much 

 later. The plant is a native of Brazil, but seems 

 to have been introduced probably as an orna- 

 mental plant to England in 1731, thence to the 

 East Indies. It is now common all over the East. 



One of its advantages as a weed killer is that 

 it does not climb up the trees as so many other 

 climbing plants such as the Kibu-Ribu fern 

 Lygodium does. Mikania scandens, not an un- 

 common plant here, is not, (here at least) so 

 strong a grower. It is a stouter plant, and 1 

 should say does not possess so many advantages 

 as the Passion flower. 



Some of the common Convolvuluses might be 

 used. 1 have seen one in particular growing 

 over Lalang and scrub along the line between 

 Slang and Kwala Lumpur, which seems to do 

 its work of strangling the grass and weeds well. 

 It is Ipomea s&pearia. 



