528 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Feb. 1, 1902. 
PLANTING NOTES. 
Rubber Production of thij Con'ro Rivkr 
COCTNTRY.— The output of Indiafubbsr this 
year from the (-ongo Free State alone (says 
the India Rubber World) cui hardly f iil to 
reach :;12,0l)(»,0'j0 pounds, besides wliich 
portions of French Congo and other regions 
adjacent to the Congo river help to swell 
the rubber shipments by that great water- 
way. It is one of the wonders of the crude 
i^ubber trade, how rapidly it has been 
developed in this particular state, and how 
well the production has been maintained 
The explorer Stanley proved to be right 
when eleven years ago, on emerging from 
a journey across central ' Africa, he de- 
scribed the Congo forests as ;i. "reser- 
voir of rubber." Already some rubber had 
been marketed from the Congo Free State ; 
some of it, indeed, had appeared the year 
before— in 1889— at Antwerp, thus affording 
a beginning to what has become one of the 
world's great rubber markets. But the world 
had yet to learn how vast were the rubber 
resources of " the dark continent." While 
other sources of African rubber supplies -as 
Sierra Leone, Gold Coast Colony, Lagos, 
Angola, Mozambique, and Madagascar— have 
had their " boom " followed by a decline in 
production, rubber from the Congo continues 
to come, in an ever-swelling volume. The 
following table denotes the total quantity of 
the rubber arrivals at Antwerp, in each year, 
and also (in i)arenthesis) the amount of rubber 
other than Congo sorts during the past six 
years : — 
Years. Ponnds. Years, Pounds. 
1889 ... 10,340 1896 ... (20,990) 2,454,925 
1890 ... «6,OaO 1897 ... (260,814) 3,094,139 
1891 ... 46,200 1898 ... ((iI6,G29) 4,432,100 
1892 ... 138,523 1899 ... (903,025) 7,486,330 
1893 ... 367,831 1900 ...(1,751,270) 12,535,677 
1894 ... 600,076 1901 ... (Partly estini'ited) 
1895 ...1,168,363 (1,020,956) 13,096,409 
[Arrivals for 1901 reported only to October 31.] 
Waste Phoducts.— Perhaps among the 
most remarkable discoveries of the past 
half-century, has been the utilisation of 
substances which had been thrown .away 
as useless in times past. The uses of saw 
dust and waste wood have been wonderful. 
Here is something worth noting :— 
"Tlie Swedish journal 'JeruUorst' describe."! 
a process for converting waste wood at saw mills 
into dry saw dust, which is carboni.sed, the liquid 
by-pr'Hlact di.stilled, and the charcoal made into 
briquettes. « It is profitable, 9,000 tons of wjiste 
wood yielding 6,000 tons of briquettes at £3 6* a 
ton, beside fuel to drive tiie plant, aestate of lime, 
methyl rpirit, and acetone." 
Planting in Sumatra.— We commend the 
"Planting Notes from Sumatra" appearing 
in another column to the perusal of our 
readers. Coming from the pen of an old 
Ceylon Planter, and a true Highlander 
endowed with all the broad humoitr charac- 
teristic of his race the article makes 
diverting and lightsome reading. It is indeed 
cheering to see our old friend writing in 
such a buoyant spirit notwithstanding the in- 
conveu'cnces and discomforts of their rail- 
way system, fcc. in Sumatra. Although we 
in Ceylon are ahead of them in so far that 
we are unable to outstrip the Government 
trams cn bicycle and are independent of the 
gum bottle at the P.O., yet in the quality 
of their head gear they seem to be far in 
front of us. When " W.T.M'K." tells us of a 
tobacco planter indulging in that operation 
which has rendered the name of Oliver Twist 
immortal, " hollering for more," owing to his 
unability to afford a new hat as his com- 
mission for the year has fallen so low as 
£2.500, one wonders what kind of hats they 
wear in that country— probably ^old frames, 
studded with jewels. If pei-chance anv 
billetless Ceylon P.D. should wander towards 
tliis Eldorado it might inter.ist our readers 
were he to let them know this through our 
columns. 
'■ On SoMa Nbw Species op Eucalyptus." 
by R. T. Baker, f.l s.. Curator, Technological 
M useum, Sydney. — ^There seems no end to 
the species of Eucalyptus. Mr. B.iker de- 
scribes some ten new species and gives a 
number of plates- Perhaps the most use- 
ful is : — 
Eucalyptus Woollsiana, sp.now., Mallee B tx." 
— A. large tree up to 80 feet high, and more than li 
in diameter. Bark persistent half way or more 
than lialf way up thj trunk ; smooth, chiefly of a 
rich brownjcolour. Timber.— Hard, clo.se-grained, 
interlockel, heavy, durable timber, of a brownish 
colour. Useful for bridge-decking, posts, railway 
slee|>er3, and general building purposes. lb is in 
gre lb req lest at the Cobar mines for shoring the 
roofs. 
" Annals of the Royal Botanic Gardens 
Peradeniya."— We have to acknowledge re- 
ceipt of .No. 2 of this publicaton, edited by 
Mr. J C Willis, M.A., F.L.S., containing infer 
alia papers on "Fungus Cultures in the 
Tropics " by Mr. C Holtermann ; " Flora of 
Minikoi " by Mr. J C Willis ; " The Botany 
of the Maldive Islands " by Messrs. J C 
Willis and J G Gardiner ; " Observations on 
Draccna reflexa " by Mr. Her))ert Wright • 
reviews, notes and supplement. In Cari 
Holtermann's paper on fungus cultures it 
is pointed out how it is possible with 
two solutions to imdertake in the tro- 
pics many interesting developmental Investi- 
gations ; and Mr. Willis in his note on the 
"Flora of Minikoi" referring to Dr. Prain's 
statement that the plants hitherto known to 
grow wild or to be cultivated on the island 
number 118. says :— " During the south west 
monsoon of 1899 the island was visited by 
J Stanley Gardiner, in the course of his 
work on coral islands. A collection of flf ty- 
three plants was made by him, and has 
since been worked out in the herbarium it 
Peradeniya by Mr. W de Alwis and myself • 
for determination of two or three doiibtf ui 
specimens lam indebted to Dr. Prain. Six*-een 
new plants are thus added to the list, raising 
the total to 129 and there are also five others 
with doubtful names, but certainly other- 
species. The total is therefore 134." Mention 
is also made of the visit to Male in October 
1901 of Mr. F Lewis of the Forest Depart- 
ment who " made a large collection there 
and on two neighbouring islands, for which 
five further species, including the Baob-jb 
have been added to the list. It is improb-ible 
that further survey of the islands would add 
many more species." The volume altogether 
is a rqost interesting one. 
