Oct. 1, 1902.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
.257 
moreover, the knife used tarna black, which ia an 
evident proof of the presence of a good deal of tannin, 
not only in the skin, bat also in the body of the 
tuber. This, when stripped of the skin and thoroughly 
dried, has the appearance of a chocolate-coloured and 
very hard substance, which can be reduced to a fine 
powder by a pestle. This powder is submitted to the 
action of either, of petrole, chloroform, alcohol and 
water, then the residue ia calcined to ascertain the 
weight of the ashes, and the percentage of cellulose 
and ligneous matter can then be calculated. 
Successive analyses gave the following results as to 
the composition of these tubers:— 
Per Cent. 
Fatty matter ... .. 2 -50 
Glucose . . . . 0 63 
Saccharine ... • . 4 67 
Not defined .. .. "SS 
Gnm and pectio matter ... ... 65 05 
Albuminous aubstanees .. 78 
Starch .. .. 4 00 
Ashea ... .. 426 
Cellulose, ligneous matter and loss 40'71 
100 00 
The ashea consist of sulphates, phosphates and 
carbonates. 
The weight of the potash is 2-49 per cent, and of 
the Eoda 1'34 per cent. 
These tubers, as ia well;known, replace in French 
tropical coloniea the potato, which does not produce 
any tubers, but grows all into leaf. In the Soudan 
they are very much appreciated even by Europeans. 
When the tubers are scraped in the fresh state their 
odour is very mnch like that of potatoes, A very 
limple way of cooking them is to immerse them in 
nearly boiling water for 20 minutes, when the black 
Bkin can be easily removed, and the fleshy part which 
remains is white. Add a little chopped parsley, butter 
and seasoning and serve hot. Prepared thus, they 
have a most agreeable taste, resembling that of 
Croane of Japan, or salsify. 
Note. — This appears to be a plant worthy of trial 
in Australia. As M. Meckel points out it is probable 
that with cultivation the tubers may be greatly in- 
creased in size. In some of the arLd western districts 
potatoea oan only be grown with difSculty, and this 
tuber may in time prove a good substitute for them. 
As a crop for piga also there should be a future 
for it. 
THE KLANG COFFEE CULTIVATION 
COMPANY. 
PARA RUBBER GROWING SUCCESSFULLY. 
The yearly meeting of the Klang Coffee Cultiva- 
tion Company was held yesterday afternoon at 
the office of the Conapany, Weld Quay. The 
' Directors consider the past year's working satis- 
factory, and the future prospects certainly favour- 
able. It has been decided to plant up the whole 
Estate with Pan rubber, but this will not interfere 
with the coffee tor at least four years, when it can 
be decided which product it will pay best to con- 
tinue cultivating. The Para and Kambong trees 
previously planted are growing strongly, and an 
experiment was made about four months ago in 
tapping three Para trees three years old, which 
yielded some f lbs. good rubber valued in England 
ati 39 2d per lb. — Fcnang Gazette, Aug, 19, 
which were received from the Singapore Botanlo 
Gardens towards the end of 1695 and planted out in 
the early part of 1896. It so happened that the tree in 
question was planted in poor gravelly soil on sloping 
ground, which, by the subsequent cutting of a road, 
converted the site into a dry bank. Hence the tree 
cannot be said to have grown up under the most favour- 
able conditions. Wheu the tree was some ten years 
old, the question of the best method of extracting 
coagulating rubber, and the probable yield, commenced 
to interest the planting community, and this tree, as 
being the largest in thePenaug Gardens, was selected 
for experiments which have been carried on from time 
to time. In June 1897, when the tree was approxi- 
inately twelve years old, it was thirty-six inches in 
circumference at three feet from the ground, and 
yielded one pound of dry rubber. In November- 
December of the next year the yield was three pounds ; 
April-May, 1899, two pounds, eight ounces ; Novem- 
ber-December, 1899, three pounds, four ounces ; 
October-November, 1900, three pounds, twelve ounces ; 
and in August-September, 1901, when the cir- 
cumference of the tree was sixty-six inches and its 
height about fifty-five feet, the yield was two pounds, 
two ounces. Mr Curtis points out that the interest in 
this particular tree lies in the fact that it has been 
tapped successively six times, from the eleventh to the 
fifteenth year of its age, that it shows no signs of dete- 
rioration and that the incisions made are all healed 
up. Since December, 1900, its growth has been slow, 
the present circumference of the main stem being 
only sixty eight inches ; that is an increase of only 
two iuches ia a year and a half. Mr Curtis is of 
opinion that probably, under existing circumstances, 
this tree has almost attained its maximum size. He 
also states that one hundred such trees could be grown 
to the acre without being too crowded. It will thus 
be seen that the average yield per tapping amounted 
to two pounds eight ounces, so that at this estimate, 
and taking the price of rubber at three shilling per 
pound, an acre should produce a crop valued at thirty- 
seven pounds ten shillings at each tapping,— Pmanj; 
Gazette, August iiO. 
THE OLDEST PARA RUBBER TREE IN 
PENAN G. 
Mr C Curtis, F Li S, has been writing on " The 
Penang Gardens Rubber Tree." The tree in question 
U one o{ aboat two dozen young Para rubber plaata 
COCONUT PLANTING IN THE STRAITS. 
Spero," writing in the Straits Times of 
August 21st, says :— May I ask if any of your 
readers can inform me whether or not coconut 
cultivation is considered to be on the increase in 
the Native States ? One seems to hear more about 
it than one did, but perhaps it is not so much of 
the coconut tree itielf, as of its enemies. My at- 
tention was drawn to this subject by an old friend 
of mine at home, who read in a recent issue of 
your paper the following statement — (copied, he 
said, from a Report of the Federated States United 
Planters' Association) :— " Coconut planting does 
not increase in favour owing to the ravages of the 
beetle and the cost of keeping the trees clean". 
The above statement, as quoted, implies that the 
expenses entailed have been found to hardly war- 
rant much attention being given to the cultivation, 
and, if this be the case, it mast be very disappoint- 
ing to those of the planters who, under the inpres- 
sion that coconuts had stood the test of hundreds 
of years, and had always been considered a sound 
investment, chose this form of agriculture in 
preference to those more speculative. My corres- 
pondent goes onto say, "surely trees wliich are 
scrupulously kept clean, and under constant super- 
vision are in less danger than others;" there would 
seem to be a good deal in this argument. I am 
told that the Government is trying hard to enforce 
the Coconut Enactment as regards the holders of 
native plantations where a great part of the 
trouble must surely lie. But it is not on the 
