Gums, Resins, 



8 



all the difference. At 3,500 feet the trees on a plantation would be at just the same 

 distance apart as at 1,000 feet or 2,000 feet. They would perhaps require another 

 year to make equal growth, but this would not prevent their paying handsomely 

 Too much attention cannot be drawnto the concluding remark in the Curator's 

 last report on the Government Botanical Gardens. "Experimental work has, however, 

 to be conducted on a comparatively small scale, owing to the undermanned staff, but, 

 if a few much needed additional competent men were employed, the experi- 

 mental work now carried on in this department could be placed on a better 

 basis and steadily developed." This is quite true. An institution which might 

 be of most valuable assistance to planters and agriculturists is practically of 

 little use because of the ill-judged economy shown by Government. The Gardens 

 at Ootacamund are of little practical use, perhaps I should say commercial 

 use, but the fragments of tropical gardens at Burliar, Kullar, and elsewhere 

 might, if enlarged and under "competent men," be, in a small way, a source 

 from which a large supply of information, seeds, plants, etc., might be drawn. 



CEYLON RUBBER AND THE MANUFACTURERS. 

 Some interesting views of British manufacturers on Eastern plantation 

 rubber are given in the " India Rubber World" (December 1st). In an introductory 

 note the Editor says : " The Plantation product is so much cleaner as to justify 

 Mr. Burgess, perhaps, in asserting that the prices are really in favour of the 

 Brazilian rubber, pound per pound of real rubber. That the new rubber possesses 

 intrinsic value is nowhere doubted ; just how it will compare ultimately with other 

 rubbers that have longer been in use, however, and for what purposes manu 

 facturers will prefer the new rubber, remain to be more fully tested in practice.' 



THE SOLUTION MANUFACTURERS. 



The Managing Director of one of the first rubber factories in Great Britain 

 to experiment with Ceylon rubber, says, 



" We have only as yet used plantation rubber experimentally and sparingly. 

 Until it arrives in greater quantities it is too dear for the general trade since the 

 solution makers cannot afford to pay two pence a pound more for it than ordinary 

 mechanical manufacturers. When it arrives in excess of the solution requirements' 

 the prices will rectify themselves. 



" We don't make solution for the trade, but merely for our own require- 

 ments. The quantity from any one estate is yet too trivial to be worth much 

 attention, and as yet the London aixction sales offer the best choice for the buyer 

 and best price for the seller. 



" The qualities vary even from the same estate, according to the age of the 

 trees, whilst yet so young. We judge that the rubber has not attained its full 

 strength till the tree is at least 8 or 9 years old ; younger than that, though good 

 gum, it has not the strength of hard cure Madeira fine Para, and is uneven in 

 strength. There is no difference noticeable in the rubber from 8-year-old trees 

 from different plantations. We have used about 4 to 5 tons in testing it, from 

 about 20 plantations. As yet it is not safe to use for the finest work, such as 

 India-rubber thread and the best bladders, but where a 'weak Para' will do, 

 it is all right." 



CEYLON Versus BRAZILIAN. 



A member of the British rubber trade, though not at present a manufacturer, 

 o whom the preceding lines were shown, offers this suggestion :— 



" It is true that an absolutely fair test of plantation rubber in comparison 

 with Brazilian Para rubber has not yet been possible, owing to the fact that the 



