THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [Dec 1, 1900. 
EXTRACT FROM RULES. 
"Rule 14.— No subscriber sliall be entitled to 
warehouse or deposit tea with, or employ m con- 
nection with tea, any dock company or tea ware- 
house-keeper who is not a .-.lember of the t 'learing 
House, or to purciiase or sample any tea from the 
warehouse of any noi\-niQmher.''—Produec Markets 
Review, Oct. 6. 
MANURING TKA IN THE AGRAS, CEYLON. 
This is going to be a bumper year for 
Mr. Strachao's fine group of estates on the 
Agras-St. George, Hauteville &c. Under 
the very able management of Mr. W. a. 
Jackson, this group has now reached an aver- 
age of 800 lb. made tea per acre all over which, 
ronsiderincr the elevation, is as good as 
TmI^ 'I^ the island. Mr. Jackson was 
one of the first to commence burying his 
prunings, adding some lime, and latterly 
basic slak. He is a believer also m bones, 
castor-cake and some sulphate of ammonia 
' In fact, he has proved the advantage of the 
mixtures recommended by Mr. Joseph Fraser, 
for iudicious cultivation, and his tea is 
throughout in vc^ry vigorous condition. 
ABUNDANCE OF TEAK FROM SIAM, 
The teak rafting season this year, at Bangkok, 
is expected to be one of the biggest on record. 
The rains have been very heavy in north biam, 
and with the great volume of water in all tlie 
rivers, teak that it has been impossible to get 
out for several years back is now being raf ed 
down It is conhdently expected that long be- 
fore the end of the rafting season the present 
l.igh prices for teak at Bangkok will begin to 
iaW.— Straits Times, October -iSrd. 
STUDIES OF NATURE OF THE RUBREK. 
It must have occurred to every practical nian 
eoncerned with the compounding and vulcaniza- 
tfon of India-rubber, and thus confronted often 
with vexatious problems, that the source of much 
his trouble might perhaps lie m the history of 
the material in his hands prior to the date of its 
arrival at the factory. The removal from apiece 
of rubber of moisture and foreign substances is 
rnmnarativelv easy ; the real difficulty is m the 
S^er SpreJiation of the mass when nothing but 
?ubber remains. Not even the work of the most 
expert chemist is a sure guide to whether a cer- 
tain lot of rubber to day will yield exactly the 
same results in manipulation as a lot previously 
handled, of the same commercial grade and ap- 
parently identical in quality. 
Undoubtedly the methods or processes of coagu- 
latins rubber wiU yet occupy a niore important 
nlace in connection with the valuation of this 
material than has been true hitherto. It appears 
^tirely reasonable that, all things else beingequal, 
a difference in the treatment of two lots of rubber 
durinG; the process of coagulation migh. lead to 
a difference in quality of the product when sub- 
terted to treatment in the factory, and particu- 
& in the fabrication of the finer grades of goods. 
Who can sav in howmany cases the early detcrior- 
Mti on of ail article of rubber maiiufac ture has 
t,.V.n due not to a lack of skill or care in 
compounding or vulcanization but to the iHcthods 
pr agenta employed in coi.gulaLwu ? 
It is practically admitted by scientific experi- 
menters with the latex of the rubber tree, that 
the nature of the process which we term coa^^ula- 
tion is far from being clearly understood. At 
least there is a want of agreement as to how this 
phenomenon occurs, and this amounts to the same 
thing. If, therefore, it remains to be pointed out 
how coagulation takesplace, the best coagulating 
agent for the latex of each particular rubber 
yielding species can hardly be named with 
certainty. 
On another page appears a contribution fi'om a 
careful student of the problem here referred to- 
Super intendent Hart, of the Trinidad botanical 
department — whose conclusions appear to us to 
merit attention. Naturally, this is a branch of 
study which cannot be followed in a practical 
way by the great majority of our readers, but it 
may serve to interest the factory superintendent, 
the manufacturer, and even the dealer in rubber 
goods and the consumer, to know that scientific 
investigation is attempting to prepare the way for 
a more intelligent supervision of the preparation 
of rubber from the initial stage. 
A single sentence from Superintendent Hart's 
paper will indicate that the nature of his studies 
has a more practical aspect than might at first 
be apparent to the casual reader. He says : 
A sample of latex treated with nitric acid in 
excess, shows that the acid absolutel}' destroys 
the rubber contained in it for general use, and 
deprives it of elasticity and its power of coas;ula- 
tion. 
It may be inferred that specimens of crude 
rubber affected injuriouslj' by the coagulating 
agent, but not enough to produce the full effect 
here mentioned, may find their way into the 
market, and finally to the factory, resulting in 
the production of decidedly unsatisfactory goods. 
Another assertion in the same paper will be 
received with interest by those planters in America 
and elsewhere, who have been looking forward 
to the production of rubber from young cultivated 
seedling.-. It is this : 
The difference between Castilloa rubber taken 
from young branches and that from matured 
stems has been well observed at the Trinidad 
experiment station. 
The latter quotation recalls an article published 
in The India, Rubber World of April 15, 1894, 
by Mr. Francis Harvey, an associate member of 
the Institution of Civil Engineers, of England, 
recording his observations in the rubber districts 
drained by the Orinoco river. He suggested that 
the quality of rubber produced in some sections 
had deteriorated as compared with a period several 
years back, owing to the admixture of the sap of 
mature trees with that of immature saplings, 
and also the mixing of the gums from trees of 
different species, all of which he believed would 
be found an obstacle to the manufacture of high 
class rubber goods. — India Rubber World, Oct. 1. 
SOME TEA PROBLEMS. 
An intelligent anticipation of future develop 
ments as indicated by the direction of present 
demands must be a profitable recreation and 
therefore requires no apology for bringing into 
print. The planter has today thrust upon him 
some urgent demands which he mast meet if 
he would survive. There is the demand for 
economy in expenditure on the production of 
tea, there is the demand for better quality and 
a greater proportion of it ; and besides these 
the industry requires some measures to be taken 
for its future security from wasting blights and 
diseases. On the proper solution of these pro- 
blems depends the prosperity of Indian tea- 
planting, and certain modifications in procedurij, 
are indicated as at once called for, 
