'22 
THE TEOPICAL AGEICULTURIST. 
[.July 1, 1899. 
PANAMA RUBBEK. 
In a report just issued by Mr. Willis, Direc- 
tor of the lioyal Botanic Gardens, on i-*anaina 
rubber (Castiiloa) it i,s stated tliat tlie quesLion 
of which rubber tree to plant v/ith the most 
f-avourable prospects of a profitable return has been 
■ •onsiderably altered by the discovery of a 
■lacliine on tiie principle of the centrifu^^'al cream 
• separator, by which Mr. Bill'en has succeeded 
in preparinf); almost pure caoutcliouc from any 
■which {('dex) which contains it. The question 
■ailk tree gives the greatest yield of caoutchouc 
has still to be answered ; but, Mr. Willis S'lys, 
there is great probability if not almost cer- 
tainty that it must ultimately be answered in 
favour of Castiiloa. Private i)lanters, he thinks, 
will hardly find it worth while to establish 
plantations of Para rubber only. Probably the 
best thing to do would be to plant out the tree 
among the tea or other products at considerable 
distances apart. The trees would then grow 
to a large size in less time than if 
kept in plantations of rubber only, and 
their rubber would form a useful minor pro- 
duct. Those who intended to make plantations 
©f rubber only would do better to use castiiloa 
wliich yields much more fluid and easily collected 
nilk, but even here no return can be got in 
much less than eight years. This tree may also 
be planted out as a bye-product on estates and 
will probably be found in the end the more 
favourable of the two. Ceylon seems an un- 
favourable country for yield though highly favour- 
able for growth of rubber trees. 
CEYLON TEA IN AMERICA. 
Ml'. MacComhie Mitrray sends ns a chatty 
letter from Philadelphia about his early ex- 
periences in "tea"; and he adds correspond- 
ence which has appeared in the New York 
press and which reached its before : but 
which, now given consecutively, has a special 
interest, more especially with the addition of 
our correspondent's notes. 
But the curious fact to trs is that neither 
Mr. Marfcindale, Mr. Murray nor any of the 
other writers in this Tea discussion stumbled 
on the proper answer to the objectioir raised, 
that while Ceylon and Indian teas might do 
very well for the rainy, damp climate of 
England, they were unsuitable for tlie dry, 
electrical climate of the American States. 
The objection is that our teas have too 
much tannin for the latter condition. Now, 
apart from the fact that the proportion of 
tannin drawn off into cups of tea can be 
regulated by the time given to the infusion 
—-what do Messrs. Martindale, Robertspn, 
and others of our American cotrsins say to the 
case of Australia, with its far drier and more 
electrical climate than any to be found in 
the States? Here are the Australians — a 
nation of athletes, beating the English at 
their favoiu'ite game of cricket — drinking tea 
(mainly Ceylon and Indian) at the rate of 
7 lb. per head per annum ! Where a.re- the 
bad effects ? Does their experience not prove 
that tea is just the beverage for the people 
of the United States from New York to San 
Francisco, New Orleans to Chicago and 
Philadelphia to Denver? If our American 
cousins only took to tea, up to 2 lb. per head 
per annum, they woitld benefit themselves 
jvncl tea groW^vs everywhere I 
PANAMA RUBBER (CASTILLOA). 
C Royal Botanic Gardens CU-cular : issued by 
3Ii: Willis, Db-edcr, 
In Circular No. 4 of this Series the cnUivatioii of 
Para rubber was dealt v/ith somewhat fully. It was 
pointed out that there is not very much suit- 
able laud in the Golouy on which this cultiva- 
tion was likely to prove really sncccssful. The 
growth, cultivatiou, and yield of trees we-e con- 
sidered, aud a prospect of a moderately remunera- 
tive return iu favourable places for the cultivatiou 
was shown to exist. Since the time of publieatiou 
of these statements, however, the questiou of which 
rubber tree to plant with the most favourable pros- 
pects of profitable return has beeu considerably al- 
tered by the publieatiou of the discovery of a machine 
for the preparation of rubber from the raw miik 
of the tree. By the aid of a macbiiie on ihe prin- 
ciple of the centrifugal cream separator, Mr. Biffen 
has succeeded in preparing almost pure caoutchouc 
from any milk which contains it. This is done 
m a few minutes at a very small cost, aud the re- 
sulting product is almost free from impurity, and 
does not decay or smell like the ordinarily-prepared 
raw rubber. The best rubber hitherto sent into 
the rnarkifc ^ contains at least 10 per cent, of 
impurity, and many kinds contain as much as 
30 to 40 ;per cent. The imijortance of this 
discovery is nnnifest. I'he chief advantage of 
Para and Panama rubbers, as at present prepared, is 
their great freedom from impurity, due largely to the 
composition of the milks, aud partly to the~methods-of 
prep iration. Under the new conditions, however, this 
advantage is lost, for the machine v/iU prepare from 
the poorest aud most impure milk a rubber superior to 
the best Para now on the market- The first question 
therefore before the would-be grower of rubber trees is 
now no longer. ''Which tree gives tlio best result as 
to insntity and q lality combined ?" but rather, "Which 
tree gives the greatest yield of caoutchouc?" The 
former question had been practically answered for 
Ceylon iu favour of the Para rubber (rieveahrasiliemk). 
The latter has still to be answeved, but there is great 
probability, if not almost certainlv, that it must ulti- 
mately be answered in favour of CastiUoa, and hence 
the publication of thia (Circular in which it is proposed 
to deal with the whole q iestiou so far as present ex- 
isting data allow of conclusions. The tree has been 
so little cultivated in the East that reliable data in 
sufficient numbe- s are not to bs had, and it is hoped 
that thepubliontiou of this paper will induce those who 
may have experimented with this tree to communicate 
the results of their work. 
Another important bearing of the discovery above- 
mentioned must also be pointed out. At present the 
best natural rubbers obtain about -Is per lb. in the 
London market. Vv^hen the machine-prepared article 
first comes upon the market it will doubtless obtain 
a higher price than this, but this will not long be 
the case. Inevitably the price of the best machine 
rubber will fall to about that of the best natural 
of today, while the l.tter will only fetch perhaps 
33 per lb., and the poorer grades will also fall in 
price correspondingly. Forprofitable cultivation, that 
IS, the machine methods must be used. Now for 
this purpose it is necessary that the milk be ' col- 
lected in vessels aud not allov.'cd to dry on the 
tree. We have seen la de.xling with Para rub- 
ber that in Ceylon, at any rate, the milk 
is very thick, almost like syrup. It quickly coagulates 
and in all cases a lot of it dries on the tree. Before 
the recent discovery this mattered less, for this scrap 
rubber would sell for Is 6d to 2s 6d per lb. Now, 
however, as we have just seen, this price is likely to 
fall by Is or more. This will materially alter the 
figures of return given in the last paragraph of-the 
circular referred to. Instead of the average price 
being 23 per lb it is more likely to be Is 6d, and thia 
will reduce the yield per acre to Ell 2 say. Thia 
reduces the margin of IHOO there given to E62, leaving 
considerable uncertainty as to whether the cultiva- 
tion IS hkely to pay at all well enough to be worth 
ftUeatisn from iStiropean plitnters, ^yho wijuicl grgjj 
