364 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



says that he has personally analysed seven- 

 teen latex samples from different parts of the 

 tree, and from trees growing in different 

 soils. The latex from the lower parts of the 

 trunk contains the higher percentage of rubber, 

 as is the case with all rubber-producing 

 trees. The branches carry a latex containing 

 mainly resins, the rubber being about 3 to 6 

 per cent, and occurring in a form which makes 

 it very difficult to be separated from impu- 

 rities. The coagulation of the latex is not 

 easy, although it can be accomplished. The 

 resulting rubber is of inferior quality and 

 would commercially be classed with Guayulo 

 rubber, which, it is stated, has commended 

 a price of about one shilling and three-pence, 

 where the price of first-class wild para rubber 

 was three shillings and ninepence per pound 

 during the last year when rubber prices were 

 low. It may be noted that rubber made accor- 

 ding to modern methods from the ordinary Mex- 

 ican rubber tree— Castillo, clastica — has reached 

 the highest standard of Para rubber and has 

 realised the same price. The product of the 

 palo amarillo tree being new, 



THE TEST OF TIME, 



which after all is the most important one, has 

 not yet been applied; but taking into considera- 

 tion the low tensile strength, the large per- 

 centage of resins, and the rapid deterioration of 

 the latex through enzymes, it is not very likely 

 that palo amarillo rubber will show a better 

 resultthan the rubber obtained from the guayule 

 shrub. The rubber is easy to vulcanise by the 

 ordinary methods. The exploitation of the latex 

 of palo amarillo is beset with considerable diffi- 

 culties. The Consul states that he has tapped 

 these trees in all the different manners generally 

 employed in tapping Hevea, Manihot, Castilla, 

 Funtumia, Ficus, or Sapium trees, and he has 

 used over twenty of the different tools and im- 

 plements, patented and employed in the rubber 

 fields in Brazil, Central America and Africa, 

 and he says that 



THE PROPER METHOD OF TAPPING, 



palo amarillo is not easy to determine. It is 

 claimed that the palo amarillo tree is very easily 

 propagated. A young branch cut from a grow- 

 ing tree and planted in the ground will grow. 

 Commercially this does not mean much as the 

 exploitable age of a palo amarillo tree must be 

 at least ten or eleven years. A tree of this age 

 does not give a very large amount of latex. The 

 ordinary Mexican rubber tree, Castilla elastica, 

 can be exploited when eight years old, and it 

 then gives a larger yield of latex per annum than 

 a ten-year old palo amarillo tree. Considering 

 that the latex of the former contains from 25 to 

 47 per cent of pure rubber, against about eight 

 per cent in the palo amarillo latex, it is difficult 

 to see the advantages of the latter under culti- 

 vation. — Society of Arts Journal, August 27. 



RUBBER ACREAGE FOR GERMAN 

 C OLONIE S. 



And Cacao Consumption in Germany. 

 We are much indebted to Herr Lud wig W. Wed- 

 dige, of Wattegodde, Matale, for the official data 

 he gives us regarding the acreage of cultivated rub- 

 ber in the German Colonies for 1909, The total in 



rubber in German Colonies, 18,525 acres, is cer- 

 tainly rather higher than we estimated — as also 

 is the consumption of Cacao in Germany (nearly 

 double— if our correspondent be correct.) We 

 would like to know how much of the rubber is 

 in bearing. 



Watagodde, Matale, Aug. 31st. 

 Dear Sir, — I take the liberty to give you 

 below some data regarding the acreage of 

 cultivated rubber in the German Colonies for 

 1909, which may be of use for you for your 

 next year's Directory, 



I find in this year's edition p. xxxix, foot" 

 note 2, the acreage under rubber in German 

 East Africa given as 1,500 acres and the total 

 New Guinea, New Caledonia, etc., as 3,000 acres. 



The German Colonial Committee, the best 

 authority on this subject, states the acreage 

 under rubber for 1909 as follows : — 



German East Africa (1) ... 7,410 acres. 

 Togo and Cameroons (2) ... 4,940 „ 

 New Guinea (3) ... 3,705 ,, 



Samoa (3) ... 2,470 ,, 



Total German Colonies... 18,525 ,, 



(1) Mostly Coara, lately Manigoba and in 

 some places Hevea. 



(2) Togo : Ceara and Manieoba. Cameroons : 

 Ficus, Gastilloa, but lately Hevea has been 

 planted on a big scale, 



(3) Mostly Hevea. 



I find further you state the consumption 

 of cacao (p. xl.) for Germany and North 

 Europe together as 340,0U0 cwt. 



According to official statistics the consump- 

 tion of cacao in Germany was over 35,000,000 kg. 

 = 77,161,000 lb. = 676,800 cwt. in 1906, and 

 is without doubt greater today, the annual 

 average insrease being 2,400,000 lb. — I am, 

 yours faithfully, 



LUDWIG W. WEDDIGE. 



ON THE AROMA OF BLACK TEA. 



By T. Katayama, 

 It is of great importance for the manufacture 

 of black tea, to know by what agencies its agree- 

 able aroma is produced. The so-called fermenta- 

 tion of tea is attributed by some authors to 

 microbes; by others, however, to the enzymes of 

 the leaves. Bamber(a) denies the existence of a 

 genuine fermentation, having been unable to 

 observe any microbe. Newton(fr) supposes that 

 the flavour of black tea is dependent upon 

 the action of an oxidizing enzyme in the tea 

 leaf but Crole(c) and other authors ascribe the 

 fermentation at least partly to the action of 

 certain micro-organisms (d.) 



(a.) Agricultural and chemistry of tea. (b.) 

 On tea, a publication from India, (c.) Tea, 

 its cultivation and manufacture, {d.) Aso has 

 observed that the black colour of tea is caused 

 by the action of the oxidase of the leaves upon 

 the tannin present (Bui, College of Agriculture, 

 Tokyo Imp, Univ., Vol. IV., No. 4.) 



