140 
Supplement to tho. ^'■Tropkni Agriculturist.'^ 
[AuouM 1, 11^98. 
percba from the leaver of Lhe tree by the Rig>'le6 
method, ami only lately this invention -.vas repre- 
aeuted in a very bad light by many publications, 
whilst previously optimistic opiiiionK prevailed -n 
the other sid:-- Wiio is right, time must pIiow. 
But meanwhile the fact rt-niiiins that the product 
by this method is placed on the market in quan- 
tity and offered to the nidnufucturerK. In the 
United States shipments miule some uioiUlis ago 
were favourably received. 
In Europe, the well-known lirm of 11. P. Moor- 
house, Paris, undertook the sale of green gutta- 
percha. This firm reports : — Green guttapercha 
is the extract of the leaves of the Limai/dra, a tree 
which hitherto has yielded the rul)berof commerce 
l>y tapping or by felling. The product has the 
advantage: — 1. Of guaranteeing a constant equal 
quality to thepurchnsi r. 2. The work of cleaning, 
which incronsee the price from 15 to 20 per cent, 
is entirely done away with- In addition, tlie 
inaterial combines the .'■anie jHOperlies of ordinary 
rubber with an c.xceediiigly great solidity and 
elasticity, which must necessarily tend to 
strengthen and extend the use of the material- 
The green colour, which results from the chlo- 
rophyl contained in the leaves, can easily be 
altered or done away with by ordinary chemical 
process. As it is very ida.stic and yet very solid, 
the green rubber can be bent and twisted at will, 
without breaking. It can be rolled into very thin 
plate? ; it gives the nio.-t exact and delicate im- 
pressions, and withstands the action of water 
as well as that of the sharpest acids. Kvon after 
it has been used and liroken up, it still represents 
a value of about 2o per cent, of the cost price. 
The French Telegraph Directory, in order to 
obtain an authoritative opinion on the product, 
has employed the new rubber for the repair ot 
deep-sea cables, and experiments made with tlie 
most sensitiTe apparatus have established the fact 
that, as far as capacity and insulation are con- 
cerned, the rubber extracted from the leaves gave 
better results than were obtained with other first- 
class rubber. The green rubber works up either 
when pnre or mixed, as in th.o rase of the ordinary 
crude material, witii ti-.(> only difference that, on 
account of its purity and homogeneity, exceeding 
care has to be taken in working ir, and this has to 
be done at a somewluit higher tein])erature — 100 
degrees to 120 degrees Re:iLimur (2.j7 F-) 
WHITE-ANTS AS AGRICULTURAL PESTS. 
The extermination of white-ants as plant pests 
is still an unsolved problem, the statement fre- 
quently made that the ants only attack plan's 
after they have been killed by or are very nearly 
dead from otlier causes is as proved by the expi-ri- 
ments referred to below, unwarranted, we c,nd 
have always taken the opportunity, from our own 
experience, of contradicting the statement. "We 
have heard of bi-chloiide of mercury (corrosive sub- 
limaiej being used with success agninst the pest, 
while we have ourselves employed Paris Green 
with satisfactory results, Bolh these remedies are 
of course used in the form of solutions and employed 
against the pest when not closely associated with 
plar.ts. It is a clues', ion whether the insecticides re- 
ferred to can be made of sufficientstrength todestroy 
the pe«!t when found ouyouug pluiiti;, and altlie some 
time not to injure the plants them^elvetl. In 
the Indian A'jricuUural LeJyer,Sit. lb, of Entomo- 
logic.i! S'-ri'-s Xo. 7 appears tlie following n ile 
from the Settlement Officer, Balaghut, to the 
Commissiouef of Agriculture, (Jentrai I'roxiuces : — 
White-ants are specially fond of young maugo 
trees. In some villages repeated etfort^ to make 
a mango grove have failed on account of th<i 
roots of the young trees being attacked by wliite- 
ants. 1 once doiibtfd this fact and was disposed 
to believe that in tliose villages the people were 
unusually negligent in watering the saplings, 
nud tii'it first the trees died of thirst and then 
r.lif white-ants devoured the dt-ad wood, m i« 
tlieir ordinary pr.icfice. .\ scieiitilic forester had 
toM me that whit*'-ant9 attacked only dead woo<l, 
and hence my scepticism as to the stuteraeuts 
of the villagers; but I am now convinced that 
the sajjlings in many cases die of white-anis 
and not of other causes, that the attacks of 
the white-ants on the roots are the cause and 
not the effect of the trees drying up. 
The cause that led me to this perception of 
the truth is that I have attempted to raise a 
row of half a dozen mango trees close behind 
my bungalow, and I lune ha<l a nuinlter of the 
saplings die, they being in most oases attacked by 
whit<'-anl.s. I have dug up three of the trees 
in different .stages of the white unt disease. One 
of the plants wa«. almost dead, and it would liuve 
been dillicull to ])rove that the white-ants were 
not scavengers, removing useless dry wood. Ano» 
ther tree was half-<lead, and the t lieory that exone- 
ratei the white-ant from the charge of devouring 
living timber could only be maintained by crediting 
the termite witli o marvellously accurate proplietic 
instinct that told the .scavenger which of the trees 
were already doomed to die and miglit be removed 
as useless, for the tree was not yet dead but only 
likely to die shortly. In the third ca.^e the tree 
still looked quite green, save for a suspicion of un- 
henlthiiiess altout some of it= leave*, ond on digging 
it lip I found that its roots'liod been eaten through in 
pbicesby white-ants, and that a d<'tachment of '.he 
voracious termites was actually pushing its way 
xqi the heart ofthe sapling, eating its patlithrougli 
perfectly good, juicy wood. The sight of a channel 
about ^th of an inch wide thuseateu out up the very- 
centre of a siipling appeared to me to be conclusive 
proof that the mango tree was dying from the 
attacks of white-ants pure and simple, and that 
the theory I had heard put forth in the name of 
science by a Forest Officer was untenable. Tliat 
theoiy appears to me to confuse two cases: (1) that 
in ■vAhicli white-ants attack young trees a few feet 
high, eating out the heart of the tree, full of sop 
though it is, and doing their work of destruction 
unseen below the surface, ond (2), that in which 
while-ants ascend the outside of a tree in search 
pvesumably, of de;:d branches on top. The attacks 
of the first of the above kinds are not confined to 
young trtes. I have found fields of fur in which 
a number of the plants have withered owiiig to the 
roots being eaten by white-ants, and in grain-fields 
also 1 have had similar damage pointed out to me. 
If, then, it be considered as proved tiiat while- 
ants do considerable damage to horticultuie by 
attncking the roots of living trees, the qutttiou of 
finding some preventative against their ravages 
