Nov. 1^ 1901.] tHE TROPICAL AGEICULTUEIST. 
329 
recently visited this part of the State and was struck 
by the ri<hnefs of the soil ss e-inced by the extia- 
ordiiKiry giowth and sueugth cf the coconuts, many 
of whii h wei e in bearing at four yeais old. 
Coffee. — The piospecls of ccffee have shewn bnt 
liotie siyns of improvement during the year. On ihe 
tst^tes that have bscti maint;>ined in good oider the 
cicps have been gocd, but the present price of 
ccffee, It is feared, pi'events its being cull irated with 
Buccets except in connection with other products 
such i s rubber or coconuts. 
KUBBER. — Para rubber is now extensively planted 
on many estf.tes. Where well tended it grows well 
and the young trees are strong and healthy. In 
many places, however, white ants, which attack the 
roots of the trees, are a dangerous enemy, and one 
agninst which the planter will have to guard. On 
uo estate have the trees arrived at sufficient maturity 
to enable them to be tapped. 
T.iPioCA.— Go Hooi Chew's tapiocs. estate at 
Temtrloh is weU reported on. It is kept in excellent 
order and coconuts, durians and other valuable trees 
are plHUted throughout it at regular inter\ als . a tram 
line runs through the estate connecting the outlying 
fields with the mill. — Mr H C Hill, the Conservator 
of Forests, i.f.s. is of opinion that the State has an 
ample area of 
GuTTA Pehcha-producing Fobest — and that no 
re' ourse is necessary to the establishment of special 
planiations oulside tlae limits of its nalurKl growth. A 
working plan is advocated whereby the palarjuiuiiv 
foiests be divided into a number of areas, which should 
come under operation at I'egular intervals of five 
to ten years ; the operation would consist in giving 
more light and space to each palaquium tree, and 
in transplanting seedlings to blaL;k spaces. 
Kuala Kakgsar Gardens. — The result of a sale in 
Loudon maiket of a piircel of Para Eubber ( Hevea 
irozilicnsis), was leceived early in the year. 327 
pouiius of the best quality rubber fetched 3s lOd 
per pound, and twenty three pounds of scraps, i.e , 
the. f 1 agments of rubber picked off the stems of ihe 
trees after tapping, were sold at the rate of 2s 6d 
pel- pound. Eigh y two trees, of an average age of 
fomleen years, were tapped to give this result ■; the 
yield is thus a little over tour pounds to the tree, but 
the Superintendent, Mr Deiry, leports that excep- 
tionally heavy rains frequently interrupted the work 
and threatened in conjuclion with the lapping, lo 
damatje the seed cri^p, and that therefor ihe tap- 
ping was stopped in many cases long before the 
supply of latex was exhausted. From the eleven 
best trees over ninety seven pouiiiis of diy riibberwere 
obtained, one tree fielding twelve pounds and one and 
halt ounces. A small sumple ol' Gutta Ranibong 
{Ficus elastica] was reporud on in England as "good 
clean Juva charastcr," and sold at the rate of 3.-; lOd 
per pound. A tree in the Kuala Kangi ar garden 
yielded twenty five pounds at a single tapping; this 
nineteen years old, and about ninety fset high, 
measnied round the aerial roots at three feet from 
the ground, it has a girth of eighty eight feet. 
Mr Deriy's report on the preparation of the rubber 
for the niaket is moat inter sung, and a copy of 
it will be supplied to the M na ers of the Plantations 
in the State. — Perak Administration Report. 
KING LEOPOLD, RUBBEF. MERCHANT. 
The interest of the king of ihe Belgians in Congo 
rubber is m utioned so often, in his own country as well 
as elsewhere, that it must amount to something. In 
fact so far as the Coi go Free state is Belgian at all, it 
may be consideied as King Leopold's private property. 
The value of the rubber resources in the Congo was 
no sooner appreciated than a "private domain" was 
estab;ibbeo, within which rubber gathering without 
official permission was prohibited. It happened tliat 
the richest rubber forests were included in the 
reserved district. Every steamer from the Congo which 
arrives at Anlweip with rubber includes on its 
manifest a liberal shipment on account of the " Dom- 
aine prive — in other words state rubber. But this 
is not all. Some time ago. The Speal-er, an English 
journal, published an article pointing out that 
several of the supposedly private comi auies in the 
Congo rubber trade wtre in reaaty permitted to 
operate there only on condition that the state — 
practically the king — should be admitted as a share- 
holder, in most cases to the extent of 50 per cent, 
of the capital. The amount of rubber coming from 
that country from really private companies, there- 
fore, is comparatively small. Taking the reports of 
Congo rubber arrived at Antwerp during the first half 
of 190], as published in detail each mouth in the 
India Ifubher World, the figures permit of the following 
analysis, in the light of the article published in the 
English paper : — 
Kilograms. 
Domaine prive Etat du .Congo .. 1,592,101 
Companies in which the state is inter- 
ested . . 614,087 
All oth«r companies . . 761,831 
Total ... 3,961,019 
While these figures may be subject to revision, the 
salient fact remains that the rubber output is largely 
in the hands of the government. And if half the re- 
ports be true, the rubber collectors who work for the 
government agents do not receive such high wages, 
but that a very comfortable profit exists, st the prices 
commanded by Congo lubber at Antwerp for several 
years past. King Leopold may fairly be recognized, 
therefore, aa one of the greatest of rubl er merchants. 
And he can afford to laugh at competition. — India 
Rubber World. 
MATE LEAVES. 
Cador, in an intere.^ting paper on this subject! 
(Jour, de Pliann. et de t-him. 1901, ii. 162) 
poiui.^ out tliat various observers have estab- 
lished I lie fact that not only the leaves of Ilex 
parao^iaiensis, but al.'-o leaves of other .'species 
piid even plant!* not belonging to tliis genus, 
go to make up to what is known as mate. 
Cador has exmiiined twenty-five species liislo- 
logically m order to deleiniine difference* 
in the structure of the leaves, and also the 
lelative .uuounts of caffeine in the various 
portions ot the leaf. Ninelferi of llie species 
belonged to the genus Ilex, two were of 
Vtllarexia, and four were of Symplvcos. All these 
plants jfrow in Soutli Araeiica, in the basin of 
the Rio de la Plata and its tributaries, in ilie 
basin of the Kio Uruguay, and in those of the 
Rio Paiaguay, and the Rio Parana. All the ilex 
le.ives have a bifacial structure. The upper epi- 
dermis is usua ly a single layei, is doutded in 
Ilex a£inis. and partially doubled in certain 
varieties ol /. Theezans. The cells of the tuesso- 
phyll enclose coipu.-cles of a fatty nature 
and crystals of oxalate of calcium. Numerous 
peculiarities are noted in certain spi cies, 
which enable one to differentiate between many 
of tliein. Such, for example, are cuticular 
stnations on the lower epidermis, and spherocrystals 
of hesperidine found in certain parts of tiie leaves. 
In the two species Ft^Zai'csia which are utilised, the 
cells of the lower epidermis are characterised by 
very thick walls, and in V. Conghonga very 
large isolated crystals are observed, tiijecies of 
Symplocos are distinguished by the brownish, 
