Mat, 1909.] 



115 



Saps and Exudations. 



1907 had nothing to show, and December, 

 1907, was no nearer than December, 1906, 

 to the practical solution of the problem 

 which would produce a great rival to 

 plantation rubber. Chemists and those 

 best able to judge of the possibilities of 

 the discovery of a substance having all 

 the physical properties of India rubber 

 made from crude materials of so cheap 

 a nature as to be able to undersell the 

 natural article, cannot foresee success, 

 and all so-called perfect substitutes for 

 rubber brought before the public have 

 failed to survive investigation. 



Improvement in Planting Methods. 



One satisfactory effect of the drop in 

 prices has been a serious tendency to 

 consider whether the present methods 

 of opening and keeping up an estate 

 could not be modified so as to save 

 expense. 



In every industry profits very large 

 in relation to the cost of production 

 have a tendency to produce a perhaps 

 too liberal treatment of expenditure, 

 and in rubber this is the case, compared 

 with the practice in the tea and coffee 

 industries in Ceylon and Southern India. 



Rapid planting of healthy vigorous 

 trees was the object aimed at, even if 

 this was achieved at a larger cost per 

 acre than slow and less expensive 

 methods might have incurred. 



Health of Rubber Trees. 



The health of rubber trees has re- 

 mained good during the year. No new 

 disease has to be chronicled, and the 

 diseases which were already known 

 have shown no special activity. Both 

 the root fungus (Fames semitostus) and 

 the rubber termite (Termite gestroi) have 

 done a large amount of damage. 

 The Government Entomologist carried 

 on a most successful investigation into 

 the life-history of the rubber termite, 

 discovering many details of its methods 

 of attack, a knowledge of which will 

 enable the planter to carry on a much 

 more successful campaign in the future. 

 It is much to be hoped, considering the 

 immense monetary loss caused by this 

 ubiquitous pest, that these investiga- 

 tions will soon be continued and com- 



Eloted. The interim report which he 

 as published shows among other in- 

 teresting facts that, the planters' 

 methods of only dealing with the white 

 ants when he finds them on a rubber 

 tree are not the most strategical mea- 

 sures of attack. The rubber termite is 

 found in large quantities in decaying 

 stumps, and it is in these places that 

 they can be destroyed in large numbers, 

 whereas there are ants differing very 

 slightly in appearance which are found 



on rubber trees which do no damage to 

 the living rubber tree. 



The nests and their characteristic con- 

 necting tunnels are clearly described by 

 Mr. Pratt, and the planter is thus 

 enabled with more definite knowledge 

 to carry on the Avar against this most 

 insidious and ever-present menace to 

 healthy rubber. 



In addition to this valuable piece of 

 work, the Government Entomologist 

 investigated and reported on an attack 

 by a longicorn beetle on rubber, a sting- 

 ing caterpillar (Thosea sp.) on coconuts, 

 and made an examination of some paddy 

 insects which he was unable to follow 

 up so as to gain definite knowledge 

 as to the life histories and methods of 

 attack of these pests. 



The Government Mycologist has visited 

 various estates and given advice as to 

 the prevention and cure of various 

 diseases of cultivated plants. 



Rubber Machinery. 



The number of estates which have 

 trees of sufficient growth for tapping is 

 as yet not very many, but each year 

 more become productive, and the 

 question of the best and most economical 

 machinery for preparing rubber for the 

 market and for cleaning "scrap," 

 "bark" and "earth" rubber is one of 

 the most important in the profitable 

 working of an estate. 



Dr. Kuhleman, Chemical Adviser to 

 one of the largest rubber manufactories 

 in Germany, paid a visit recently to this 

 country to acquaint himself with the 

 methods of the planter in his prepar- 

 ation of rubber. He was impressed by 

 the care which is universally taken to 

 ensure the purity and cleanliness of the 

 rubber sent home. 



In asking his advice upon the plant 

 used by the planter, Dr. Kuhleman 

 informed me that one point which he 

 noted was that the washers and rollers 

 in use on estates were so short in length. 

 This was the case in the beginning of 

 the manufactories in Germany. 

 Machines with narrow rollers were at 

 first put up, and then when these could 

 not deal with the amount of rubber 

 required more were added, but it was 

 soon found more economical to have 

 one roller of 10 feet length than five of 

 2 feet. It will be well that planters 

 should, in makiug arrangements for 

 their rollers and washers, look ahead to 

 the time when they are producing much 

 larger quantities of rubber than at 

 present. The machines at present in 

 use are, for dealing with a large 

 quantity of rubber, mere toys, and will 

 either have to be multiplied or larger 

 machines put in. 



