Gums, Resins, 



102 



Should anyone wish a rich amber colour biscuit, all that is necessary is 

 to add a few drops of pure lime juice when mixing the latex with water in 

 the tin plate prior to coagulation. Not only does it force on the coagu- 

 lation process, but is supposed to keep the biscuits from collecting mould to a 

 certain extent when in the drying preparation. Some brokers and buyers do 

 not like any admixture whatever and prefer the palish biscuit. This can be 

 left to anyone's discretion. I need not send you valuations as only recently 

 a report was inserted by you, under heading "Ceara Rubber in South India," 

 in which Messrs. Sanderson & Co., of Mincing Lane, valued some of "Beech- 

 lands" Estate Ceara. Rubber at (is. to (5s. Id., which is the present market value 

 of well-cured clean Ceara Rubber. Howeyer, 1 am forwarding to you under 

 separate cover biscuits for you to get the local value to compare Avith 

 London valuations. 



[The biscuits which were of good colour and texture were valued in Colombo 

 at top local prices. Rs. L20 per lb. equivalent to 6s. Id. per lb. in London.— Ed. CO.] 



■—Ceylon Observer. 



CULTIVATED CASTILLO A IN NICARAGUA. 



During the year 1904 the first attempts at harvesting latex from cultivated 

 rubber trees were made in Nicaragua. The plantation on which these experi- 

 mental tappings were made belongs to an American, Mr. J. C. Horter, and is 

 situated in the Perllagnne district about 30 miles north of Blueflelds. It is the oldest 

 of the plantations of Castilloa. The trees tapped were raised in a nursery in 

 1897. transplanted in 1898, and in 1904, when 7 years old they had attained a 

 height of 40 to 45 ft., and measured 17 to 30 inches in circumference. (i,000 trees 

 were tapped, the smaller receiving only one cut, the medium two cuts, and the 

 largest three each. A total weight of 534 lb. caoutchouc was obtained, being an 

 average of 1-i oz. rubber per tree : a poor average. A tree after a certain time can 

 be tapped a second and even a third-time without appearing to suffer, and giving 

 the same quantity of latex. By careful attention in collecting the latex the rubber 

 obtained was of a greater value than the ordinary rubber of the district, commer- 

 cially called " Nicaragua syrup " (sirop). 



The natives are accustomed to tap the superficial roots of the trees, and the 

 latex which runs out becomes mixed in coagulating with particles of soil, &c; 

 this product is called "syrup": what is obtained by coagulating the latex from 

 the branches and trunk is called " burracKa." But as the collectors of the latex 

 in the wild state are at great distances, these two sorts of rubber are mixed 

 together generally, the better class rubber surrounding the bad kind.— (Translated 

 jrom the French).-— Ceylon Observer. 



CULTIVATION EXPERIMENTS IN MADRAS. 



The following is from Mr. C. E. Brasier's Report on Forest Administration 

 in Madras for the year ending 30th June, 1905: — 



Rubber Trees— (a) Landolphiaflorida.— The twenty-two trees in South Malabar 

 mentioned in last Report are in good condition though somewhat damaged by 

 monkeys. 



(b) Ceara {Manihot glaziorii).—The plants in Chatrapur, Ganjam, exist 

 without thriving. A single tree, apparently remnant of an abandoned rubber 

 plantation on Ivondapalli hill, Ristna, has reproduced about fifty plants, all of which 

 are doing well, the climate and other local circumstances of Koudapalli evidently 

 suiting the species. Those put down in SomeshWar, South Canala, did not 

 germinate, but four out of 300 seedlings planted near Alur resthouse were nine inches 



