774 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [May 2, 1904. 
THE "T. a:'- TRIZE ESSAYS. 
We again draw the attention of our readers to 
the valuable prizes which we are giving at the 
end of June for the three best essays summarising 
and embodying the information given in oar pages 
in the volume for the current year, July 1933 to 
June 1904, rCf^arding 
NEW PRODUCTS. 
The Products excluded from these essays are 
the staple ones : Tea, Coffee, Cacao, Cardamoms, 
Cinnamon, the Palms, Sugar, and Rice. Writers 
may add in their essays any additional and illus- 
trative information they may consider wise, and 
so make the essays as comprehensive and up- 
to-date as possible. 
Competitors are warned against putting useless 
' ' padding " in their essays,— practical, useful infor- 
mation is what is wanted ; and the E litor's 
decision must be accepted as final. The prizes 
.are in value as follows : — 
Pirst Prize ... Rs, 300 or £20, 
Second,, .. Rs. 200 or £13 6s. 8^. 
Tiiird „ ... R«. 100 or £ 6 13s. id. 
When first announcing the above priz3=>, we 
made the rule that the essays must be sent in 
within four weeks after the issue of the June 
number of T.A. for 1904. Not wishing, however, 
to handicap competitors in distant parts of the 
world, some of whom the T.A. does noO reach 
until nearly three weeks after publication, we 
have pleasure in excendinfz the time limit for 
such. To competitors in countries other than 
Ceylon and ladia there will be given an extra 
three weeks ; thus their essays must reach us 
within seven weeks after the issue of the June 
number of the T.A. for 1901. 
» • 
RUBBER EXPERIMENTS IN SINGAPORE 
BOTANIC GARDENS. 
We have received the Annual Report of the 
Botanic Gardens, Singapore. The difficulty of 
obtaining and maintaining sufficient labour was 
severely felt and considerable loss was sustained 
by cooly crimping. The Library has been much 
enlarged and is of great service. In the Econo- 
mic Gardens experiments have been made with 
rubber trees : — 
The experiments in manuring Para Rubber were 
contiuaedl, the plants being planted out in beds 
manured with different kinds of manure. The experi- 
ments confirmed those made on pot plants in the 
previous year — those manured with cow-dung making 
the greatest growth and those with burnt eanth and 
leaves came next, while lime appeared to injure the 
plant. A number o£ plants of Para Rubber were 
manured also with different kinds of phosphate 
manures, but no very apparent result has yet appeared. 
The most important experiments were those made by 
tapping the adult Para rubber trees. Experiments 
were made as to the best method of cutting the tree 
with the least injury, in the flow of latex as taken from 
different heights on the tree, at different times and 
under different weathers, also as to preparing the 
rubber from the latex. A quantity of rubber prepared 
in the Gardens, 143 lb was sold to various buyers at 
home who spoke highly of it, and gave an average 
price of 4 shillings a pound for biscuit and 3 shillings 
for scrap. Snmples of well prepared rubber were given 
to various planters and others interested in tlie 
business and some specimens were sent to the Imperial 
Institute and to Kew. Latex was supplied to the 
Government Analyst for eximination and analysis. 
Experiments were also made in the acidity or alkalinity 
of all laticiferons trees in the Gardens, by which it wae 
shown that Para rubber latex was unique in possessing 
a distinctly alkaline latex. 
Experiments made with Ocimum. viride proved its 
complete uselessness in driving away Mosquitoes, 
COFFEE AND TEA IN JAVA. 
CHEAP COST OF TEA PRODUCTION, 
Mr. Starey who has been visiting his Ehst 
Java Coffee estates passad through Colombo 
receotly on his way to England. Mr. Starey 
found coffee prospects were rather better in 
Java. Crops however are going to be 
short this year owing to a bad season 
foj' blossom, and owing to the collapse 
of speculation in New York the prices 
were going to be lower. Large areas 
are being opened in tea in Java and it looked 
as if they would be able to produce tea at 
a cheap rate — say, cost of production about 
as low as Kalutara or Kelani Valley districts 
in Ceylon. Mr Starey confirms most of what 
has already been written regarding the pros- 
pects of rubber in the Straits, In Oeyloa Mr. 
Starey has 6,500 rubber trees in bearing in 
Kalutara which last year gave him 165 lb. 
per tree of cured rubber. 
. « 
RUBBER IN THE SOUDAN. 
THE LANDOLPHIA CREKPER. 
Formerly one of the chief sources of revenue 
in certain districts of the Soudan was rubber, 
especially in the Bahr-el-Ghaza), and a revival of 
the trade was anticipated as soon as the internal 
condition of the country permitted, (Jolonel 
Sparkes, Commander of the Bahr-el-Ghazal occu- 
pation expedition of 1900-1901, reported that 
rubber plants were abundant in many districtts 
visited by him. He collected samples during the 
expedition and these were forwarded to the 
Imperial Institute for a report. The tree from 
which the latex was obtained is 
A RUBBER-PRODUCING CREEPER 
growing nearly all over the Bahr-el-Ghazal, and 
known to the natives as 'Idala,' ' Odiloh,' 
■Ngeleh' and 'Atilob.' Mr Broun, formerly 
Conservator of Forests in Ceylon, and now 
Director of Woods and Forests in the Soudan, was 
despatched to the Bahr-el-Ghazal later to report on 
the possibilities of opening up the rubber-trade. 
His investigations show that the creeper is Land- 
olphia owariensis, var. tomentella, a Avell-known 
rubber-producer of tropical Africa. 
The samples forwarded by Col Sparkes M'«re 
examined by the Scientific and Technicaf Depart- 
ment of the Imperial Institute, and were reported 
to be of good quality, and a firm of brokers 
predicted a good price for such rubber in the 
London maiket. A firm of rubber manufacturers 
requested a quantity for practical trials, and 
a eonsignment) of 100 lb was forwarded by the 
Soudan Government. 
THIS RUBBER WAS OF GOOD QUALITY, 
not sticky, rather hard in the mass, and small 
l)ieces exliihited very good elasticity and tenacity. 
The composition of tlie rubber is more fully 
detailed in the ' Imperial Institute Bulletin,' and 
the consignment was sold by a firm of brokers. 
The price obtained was Ss 5jd per lb when Para 
rubber was at 4s 4d per lb ; that is equal to the 
quotations for best samples of second-grade ruibber. 
