576 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



this period the cable under the river from 

 Pendamaran had been laid, so that the 

 somewhat peculiar position of the island having 

 its own internal 



TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION, 



though debarred from that with the world out- 

 side, was established by means of a storage 

 battery at the estate headquarters. This was 

 a great boon, but the position was improved 

 considerably yesterday when through communi- 

 cation was established with Kuala Lumpur, 



The installation of this telephone system has 

 been no light task, as any one who has been over 

 the track could testify, and the achievement is 

 one upon which the authorities concerned may 

 well be congratulated. 



TheJugra Land and Rubber Estates, Limited, 

 has parted with 5,000 acres oE its property on the 

 island to the recently floated 



Carey United Rubbek Estates, 

 which absorbs Paradise Estate, near Kajang. 

 With the sale of this largo acreage and the old 

 quit rent of only 50 cents per acre, the original 

 Company should have no difficulty in reaching 

 the tapping stage with comfort. 



Mr. E. V. Carey 

 the Managing Director of the Company, is ex- 

 pocted here at the end of this month, and he 

 will then relieve Mr Callaway of the manage- 

 ment for the time being. The latter is pro- 

 ceeding home for a long holiday after a lengthy 

 period of more arduous work than usually falls 

 to the lot of the planter, even in the tropics.— 

 Malay Mail, Nov. 18. 



GOCONUT MILK. 



(To the Editor, "Madras Mail.") 

 Sir — In one of the recent issue of the Madras 

 Mail^C.K. "speaks of tapioca as a cheap digestible 

 food and mentions a vareity which is poisonous. 

 The poison is due to the presence ofprussic acid. 

 Togetridofprussic acid, all that is necessary 

 is to peel and boil the tuber properly. An- 

 other precaution which the people on this coast 

 take is to eat the boiled tuber with coconut. 

 Coconut, it is well known here, takes away the 

 deleterious effect of prussic acid. Whether coco- 

 nut milk is an antidote to poison or not, it is any 

 rate certain that it neutralises the harmful effect 

 of opium and nicotine. Some three years ago a 

 man who had taken a majami pill (a mixture of 

 opium and ganja) was found to be rolling on the 

 floor of his house and appeared to suffering 

 much from the effect of the drug. Coconut milk 

 was given to him with the result that he re- 

 covered within two hours. If cocoatine can be a 

 substitute for butter, 1 see no reason why coco- 

 nut milk cannot be a substitute for cow's milk. 

 As cow's milk is considered by medical autho- 

 rities to be a means of conveyance of enteric 

 fever, the substitute will go far in preventing 

 such fever. Coconut milk can be used in flavou- 

 ring coffee. And when enteric prevail it would 

 be advisable to use coconut milk instead of cow's 

 milk, especially in barracks. 



Calicut. F.R. 

 —M. Mail, Dec. 6th. 



THE BLACK HEVEA FUNGUS 

 IN THE F. M. S. 



Another sample of the black fungus described 

 in the July number of the Bulletin, page 310, 

 has been received at the Botanic Gardens, Singa- 

 pore, from Selangor. In this case the fungus had 

 attacked stumps about 3 inches in girth. No 

 less than 80 per cent of the stumps were found 

 to be killed by this pest. In this case the 

 fructification of the fungus had appeared in 

 abundance at a height of 2 feet and all down 

 the tap root. This shows that the fungus does 

 not confine itself to the upper branches of trees, 

 but, apparently, it can attack almost any young 

 part of the plant. Dangerous and troublesome 

 as thi-i pest is likely to prove to young plants 

 in nurseries, it would be more so if it attacked 

 adult trees or trees in bearing, not only on ac- 

 count of the greater loss, but also because it 

 would be much more difficult to deal with. 



In any case this seems likely to prove as dan- 

 gerous a plant as the Fomes, if not worse and its 

 history and the best means of combating, it 

 should at once be carefully investigated. — Ed, 

 —Straits Agricultural Bulletin, for November. 



SOYA (OR SOY) BEAN. 



The Soya beans about which we have been 

 receiving enquiries, is an annual plant, growing 

 to a height of 15 to 18 inches, of an erect habit, 

 with large hairy trifoliate leaves and stout hairy 

 3 to 5 seeded pods. There are black and white- 

 seeded varieties, the latter apparently being the 

 more generally cultivated. In general appear- 

 ance the plant is not unlike the common dwarf 

 Kidney or French bean. The Soyo Bean thrives 

 at Peradeniya and appears to be well suited to 

 the climate and soil. Here the seeds germinate 

 in 3 to 5 days, the plants flower when a month 

 old : a fortnight later the pods are fit for pick- 

 ing, and the harvesting is complete in abouc two 

 months from the time of sowing. A full account 

 of the Soya Bean by Mr. H. F. Macmillan had 

 appeared in the "Tropical Agriculturist and 

 Magazine of the Ceylon Agriculture" . four 

 years ago. In the London Times of November 

 13th we read the following : — 



The annual report of the Hull Chamber of 

 Commerce and Shipping just issued states that 

 the Seed Crushers' Committee report that " the 

 mills have been fairly well employed, and for 

 the first time in the history of the trade soya 

 beans have been crushed in quantity." The 

 Hull Seed, Oil, and Cake Association report that 

 L, the outstanding feature of the year has been 

 the advent of the soya bean from Manchuria, 

 which marks an epoch in the crushing trade of 

 the United Kingdom. About 400,000 tons have 

 been shipped to the United Kingdom in 1909, of 

 which 153,000 tons have arrived in Hull since 

 March last. Without this large addition to the 

 available raw material for the mills, crushing 

 must have been a lean business during the 12 

 months, whereas this addition, combined with 

 rising markets helping manufacturers, wh j anti- 

 cipated their requirements, has on the whole 

 proved to be fairly remunerative in 1909. There 

 is reason to hope that the soya bean will be a 

 regular article of import," 



