590 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



sequently ants have got established on patches 

 of estates and they take some time to eradicate. 

 The new pump, by means of which a hole is 

 bored in the tree and gas forced in, is likely to 

 do a great deal of good. In one case I heard 

 of, fumes were forced into a tree and came out 

 of another 30 or 40 feet away. All the ants 

 in that area were destroyed. The nests must 

 be got at and destroyed. There 13 a system 

 now of putting on a gang of men to examine the 

 old logs right through the estate, even when 

 there are no particular outbreaks of auts 

 to warrant it, in the hope that the nests will be 

 discovered and destroyed before the ants 

 actually begin to attack the rubber. It is a 

 remedial measure, a very sensible one, and the 

 expenso is not at all heavy. 



Fungus. 



There are all sorts of different stories about 

 the fungus ; but the general idea seems to be 

 that if you have an alert Superintendent, he 

 can isolate attacks by means of drainage. A 

 trench is cut right rouod the spot where the 

 fungus is, the ground is then thoroughly dug up, 

 all wood carrying any trace of fungus on it is 

 destroyed and the ground is very freely limed 

 with the result that they seem to be able to 

 handle it quite easily. It does not seem to 

 attack trees of over three years of age. 



Progress on Jugra Island. 



Finally, Mr. Carey, can you tell me what 

 progress has been made lately on Jugra Island ? 



We started work in August, 1906, and by 

 the end of this year we shall have 4,000 acres 

 planted, mostly in rubber, although a few 

 hundred acres will be in coconuts. We have 

 not got anything more than 20 months old. 

 We extended our programme from 2,000 to 

 4..000 acres and issued £42,000 of convertible 

 debenture stock to enable us to do so. Over 

 £100,000 was subscribed about 6 weeks ago and 

 the prospects are very fine indeed. 



VULCANIZAY30N TESTS IN PLANTA- 

 TION RUBBERS. 



At the Society of Chemical Industry. 

 Methods of Preparation more important than 

 ages of trees. 



At the meeting of the London section of the 

 Society of Chemical Industry, held on May 3, 

 Dr J Lewkowitsch being in the chair, Messrs 

 Clayton Beadle and H P Stevens described 

 certain chemical and physical tests made on 

 samples of rubber from plantation block, crepe 

 and biscuit from young and old trees, and also 

 a specimen of fine hard Para rubber. These 

 experiments were made on the raw rubber, and 

 on this material vulcanised either with sulphur 

 only or with sulphur and mineral mattor. Theso 

 experiments, together with viscosity tests on 

 raw and manufactured rubber, lead to the con- 

 clusion that the method employed in coagulat- 

 ing and treating the latex has a greater influence 

 on variations in the quality of plantation rubber 

 than any difference in the ages of the trees, 

 —London Times, May 5. 



THE WATTLE BARK INDUSTRY 

 FOR CEYLON. 



We direct attention to the letter of Mr A J 

 Mellow which is prompted by a recent paragraph 

 on the subject of the wattle-bark industry of 

 Victoria in a commercial papor. We direct local 

 Government attention to the need for some real 

 enterprise in leasing, say, 1, 000 acre blocksof land 

 on the LTva patanas for an industry like this. If 

 such facilities were made known, thero would pro- 

 bably be enterprising growers ready to take it 

 up. 100 per cent, at the 8th year — even com- 

 pared with rubber— is attractive enough ; and 

 this on a basis which is little above 50 per 

 cent, of the current range of prices in London 

 and Australia, a level that keeps fairly steady. 



Albion, Nuwara Eliya, May 20th. 

 Dear Sir,— The accompanying cutting, re 

 "Wattle Bark," contains much interesting in- 

 formation :— 



The Wattle Bark Industry of Victoria : 



A Market in London. 



Tha Master Tanners and Leather Munufacturess of 

 Victoria have nut been able to comply with the condition 

 laid down by the Government that they should guarantee 

 a fixed price per ton for all wattle bark grown by the 

 Government during a term of years, in connection with the 

 Association's request that the Government should provide 

 an adequate supply of home grown bark. The Association 

 has forwarded a letter to the Minister of Forests, stating 

 that while the members of the Association will always be 

 willing to pay the highest price of the day for all bark for 

 sale by the Government, they cannot guarantee any fixed 

 price. At present tanners are paying fancy prices for bark, 

 and many members of the Association have been compellel 

 to reduce their output of leather for export solely oi! 

 account of their inability to secure sufficient supplies of 

 wattle bark. The Association considers that its request 

 can be justified on sound business lines, as at £•> per tjn it 

 piys the 1 md owner handsomely to grow wattle bark, and 

 "there is practically, if mil absolutely, no possibility of the 

 price ever again going below £6." It is further urged that 

 if in years to come, as a consequence of the planting of large 

 areas with wattle bark by the Victorian Government, the 

 supply should exceed the local demand, there will always 

 be a sure and profitable outlet for any surplus in London, 

 where the present quotation for good Australian bark is 

 £10 10s. The Association therefore reiterates its request 

 that the Government should largely increase the area of 

 its wattle plantations. 



Considering the proved suitability of the upland 

 patanas for the growth of Acacia decurrens — 

 the variety producing the "Wattle Bark" of 

 commerce— there is a wide field open for the 

 enterprise, if the Government could be brought 

 to see the desirability of encouraging the move- 

 ment, by either selling, or leasing, a few blocks 

 of 1,000 acres each, for the solo purpose of Wattle 

 cultivation, and thus bring more traffic to 

 that portion of the Railway referred to by Mr. 

 Ferguson at the last meeting of the Highland 

 Tea Company, as follows : — 



Mr Ferguson— said he would remember it when he went 

 back to Ceylon. With others he had been pointing 

 out to tha Government the expense of the Haputale 

 extension of the Railway, which was bringing iu little or 

 no traffic to the Government which had spent hundreds of 

 thousands on about 15 miles of Railway. They had said: 

 "If you canuct sell land, cannot you lease it on condition 

 that the buyers should plant a certain area with trees for 

 wind belts ; and in that way you would get traffic foi 

 the railway and not at all affect the rainfall or anything 

 of the kind." (Uear, hear.) A few trees would even improve 

 the rainfall. It would keep the rain on the ground better 

 than patana. 



