184 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



treois little over 2 years old." From this I gather 

 that the disease is very rapid in action. In a 

 later letter he says : "The fungus appears to be 

 ripe in the wet season, aiid seems to be either dy- 

 ing or stationary during the now dry season. The 

 trees are planted 15 feet by 15 in hilly land. The 



DISE4SE APPEARED' IN THE HEAVY RAINS 



of March, April and May. The particular tree 1 

 sent you was apparently wintering when I left for 

 Singapore on 11th of May and was dead to within 

 5 inches of the ground on my return on the '23rd. 

 It was 2-| years old." There can be no doubt that 

 this fungus might prove a very serious pest espec- 

 ially in the case of large trees where in an estate 

 it would be both difficult to detect at first and 

 troublesome to get at. Planters should there- 

 fore in going over their estates watch very care- 

 fully to see if there are any trees beginning to 

 go at the top, branches dying and blackening. 

 If so, they should be at once cut off and as 

 quickly as possible burnt. They must not be 

 left lying about, or the spores will be blown by 

 the wind en to other trees. The spores in the 

 specimens before me are extremely abundant, 

 and one fruit of the fungus contains enough 

 to infect half the trees in the estate. Should 

 this pest become aggressive iu an estate, it might 

 be advantageous to check it by 



SPKAYINC4 WITH BORDEAUX MIXTURE 



which would destroy the spores ; and this would 

 be especially valuable in the case of big trees 

 affected, as it is very difficult to cut back the end 

 twi<*sinan adult Para rubber as the branches 

 are!;oo thin an brittle to bear an operator. For 

 big trees a full sized spraying machine would be 

 required as they rise to 60 or 80 feet in height ; 

 such a machine as is used in spraying orchards 

 in America. In cutting back the infected boughs 

 the planter must be careful to cut far enough 

 back. The mycelium running in the cambium 

 layer as it appears to do is probably consider- 

 ably below the point at which the sooty fruit is 

 produced, and even below the point at which the 

 bark appears definitely dead. I would suggest too 

 ihatthe bark of the infected tree round the place 

 where thedead tree is cut, and the branches of 

 any neighbouring trees should be treated with 

 Bordeaux mixture to prevent any further infec- 

 tion by spores. — Straits Agricultural Bulletin 

 for July. 



ft!R. JAS. RYAN ON RUBBER 



PACKING EXPE RIENCE. 



A very interesting article from the pen Of Mr 

 James Ryan appears in "The India Rubber 

 Journal'' on the important subject of "How 

 should rubber be packed?" " Before me as I 

 write," he remarks, "are two samples of rubber 

 which, as our volatile friends across Channel 

 would say, give one furiously to think They 

 were both originally cut from the original block 

 of Lanadron rubber which attracted so much 

 attention at the first World's Rubber Exhibi- 

 tion at Peradeniya, Ceylon, and deservedly won 

 for Mr Pears the gold medal for the best rubber 

 in the show. Two and a half years have passed 

 since then, and, side by side these twin sam- 

 ples have journeyed far from the mother creeks 

 ofJohoreto Ceylon, to Burma, up the length 

 and across the breadth of India ; they have 

 seen the dam at Assouan and wandered from 



the too of the boot of Italy through Switzerland 

 and France till at last they have come to anchor 

 in the City of London. 



"They have known every gradation of tem- 

 perature, from 90 deg. F. at dusk in the damp 

 heat of Bombay to a bone dry 10 degrees below 

 freezing point in Rome, from 7,200 ft. on the Hor- 

 ton Plains of Ceylon to the subterraneous tombs 

 of the Pharaohs and the catacombs of the Apis 

 Bulls at Sakkava. But though treated identically 

 (with but one exception) . _>w differently have 

 they behaved ! The one lemains clear amber 

 brown, tough, elastic and resilient as the day it 

 was turned out of the screwpress; the other is 

 black, soft, and sticky— more like half-chewed 

 toffee than rubber, and obviously valueless from 

 a commercial point of view. What is the differ- 

 ence of treaament which has caused the one to 

 successfully resist so many changes of climate 

 of temperature, and of hygroscopic variation — 

 to improve it at least in so far as to prove its 

 permanency of good qualities, whilst the other 

 is valueless, except as a warning how very easily 

 good stuff can be spoiled by bad, though well 

 intentioned, treatment? As a matter of fact, 

 the good sample has merely been carried about 

 loose in a kit-bag or in a suit-case. Very rarely 

 has it been even wrapped in a bit of paper. On 

 the other hand, the piece which has gone so 

 hopelessly tacky has been carried in an air tight 

 metal case, and has been prevented from shaking 

 about by being fixed to the lid, The process of 

 degeneration set in within three weeks." 



From this it may be judged that much has 

 yet to be learned in the way of suitable packing 

 for shipment of raw rubber. 



PINE -APPLE FIBRE. 



It is strange, a correspondent writes, that in 

 a country where pine-apples grow as easily as 

 they do in Burma attempts do not seem to have 

 been made to utilise pine-apple fibre. In the 

 Philippines a very beautiful material is woven 

 from it. It surpasses flax-fibre in strength, fine- 

 ness, and glossy appearance. Trials made some 

 time ago at Singapore showed that whilst a cer- 

 tain quantity of flax fibre would support a 

 weight of 260 lb the quantity of pine-apple fibre 

 would support 350 lb. It also resists damp so 

 that ropes made from it can be immersed in 

 water forany length of time without suffering 

 damage. The process of bleaching destroys ad- 

 hesion between the bundles of fibre and spin- 

 ning can then be proceeded with as in the case 

 of flax. — Rangoon Advertiser, June 30. 



COTTO^^ULflVATION IN 

 BAT TSCAL OA. 



Mr O'Grady of Karative estate planted 3a 

 acres of cotton at Karative during the last year 

 and we are glad to know that he has had a 

 successful cop, fetching 10^d per lb. Mr Sir.na- 

 lebbe of Punnaikuda also tried the same species 

 (Egyptian) and though much attention was not 

 paid by him to the improved methods he 

 had a crop which fetched him 8d per lb. The 

 land where it was cultivated, was in both cases 

 close to the sea. We learn that there are 

 several who intend cultivating cotton on a 

 large scale during the coming wet season. — 

 "Lamp," July 17. 



